Vancouver certainly doesn’t lack creativity in its scene, but you do have to search it out sometimes. 

There seems to be a group that backs every successful bar in Vancouver.  Donnelly is the biggest, followed by Adelphia with the Mark James Group bringing up the rear.  Glowbal Group also seems to have their hands in half the restaurants in town.

The upside to this trend is that the bars/pubs/restaurants/whatevers managed by these groups are generally well maintained and consistent.  The bad side is that they sometimes lack originality and come across as formulaic.

Take Pivo Pub as an example.  A nice little pub nestled beside the Crosstown Liquor Store (which they also own), Pivo is one of my neighbourhood haunts.  They have rotating craft beer on special every day for $3.50, and a selection of other interesting and reasonably priced choices.

Their menu features a specialty fry bar, with selections like Mojito fries and Pulled Pork Poutine.  Both, by the way, are amazing.  Plus you can upgrade the standard fries to fry bar ones for only $2 (read: poutine your lunch for cheap).

All good stuff, right? Except that the menu at the nearby Charles Bar is almost identical.  Subtle, guys.  Sure there are differences, but you can tell it’s owned by the same people.  Glowbal is also guilty of doing this with a few of their menu items (they call them signature dishes), and you can tell a Donnelly pub just by looking at it.

There’s nothing wrong with this per se, but it’s a little disappointing to discover that every venue you’ve been to within a one week span is owned by one of four companies.

If it’s reliability you crave, definitely hit up a pub group establishment.  But if you’re searching for something a little edgier, you may have to look deeper than the recommendations in the Georgia Straight.  

~Meghan Roberts