The Thermal Journey at Scandinave Spa Whistler

A tiny Commercial Drive room built on Italian aperitivo culture, amaro walls, and booths sized for exactly two.

A 1930s Shanghai parlour hidden behind a Chinatown dumpling shop's fridge door, accessed by code, reserved in advance.

Dim light, a sake flight, and small plates you have to negotiate over, which is how a low-key izakaya date runs three hours.

A shag-carpeted 1970s speakeasy hidden behind a fake accounting office, where the cocktails are far better than the decor suggests.

A Mount Pleasant urban winery fermenting natural BC wine in buried Georgian clay jars, with Saturday jazz and grocery-style cheese plates.

The old Old Crow room on Front Street, now pouring cocktails named after star signs until eleven.

Follow the single red light behind a Main Street furniture shop down a graffiti stairwell into Vancouver's most satisfying open secret.

Dundarave's small Italian bar with the raised, flower-hedged patio, where one glass has a well-documented habit of turning into three hours.

North Van's original nano-brewery, still pouring one of the best IPA lineups in the region out of a tasting room that has never once tried to be fancy.

Arguably Steveston's best patio, with a rotating tap list and a flight-friendly board for finding out whose beer takes are a dealbreaker.

Off the Moda Hotel lobby on Seymour: low-lit, Italian small plates, marble bar, and a daily 2-to-5 happy hour worth knowing about.

The one properly grown-up cocktail room in Surrey City Centre, tucked into the lobby of the Civic Hotel a block from the SkyTrain.

A Cacao Barry ambassador's tiny Swiss patisserie where the pistachio-versus-blueberry macaron debate has caused real diplomatic incidents.

A gloriously retro sunken circular bar a block off English Bay, where happy hour, low light, and the best free sunset in the city do all the work.