Vancouver Nightlife: Please, take a seat

A deep dive into how government regulations are stifling the late night economy and preventing new social connections across the city

When it comes to nightlife, Vancouver has long held a reputation for being a ‘No Fun City’. Just take a walk down Main Street in Mount Pleasant, Commercial Drive in East Vancouver or Water Street in tourist-centric Gastown and you’ll struggle to spot a single venue that allows standing or mingling.

Bars are so hard to find in Vancouver that the idea of having a fun night out starts to feel like a privilege, not a right. They play a vital role in any nightlife and yet they’re sorely missing from a city that even locals describe as cliquey and lonely.

Instead, the most popular hospitality districts are dominated by restaurants, where guests are legally required to be seated and siloed in their own groups. Vancouver has certainly earned its no fun tag, but it’s because of government design, not consumer choice.

In BC, there is a distinction between food primary licences (restaurants) and liquor primary licences (bars, nightclubs). Food primary establishments must provide a table and seat for all guests and ensure they stay seated during service. The kitchen must also be open until close of business, which leaves little incentive to stay open late due to staffing and operational costs.

Liquor primary establishments, on the other hand, have the broadest class of licence, which unshackles the business from table seating and kitchen rules and allows venues to stay open later, which in turn, boosts revenue capacity. It seems like the obvious choice if you just want to open a bar, but the road to securing a liquor primary licence is complex, costly and time consuming.

As a result, many hospitality entrepreneurs with new bar concepts have little option but to start bringing revenue in as a ‘food primary’ restaurant while they undertake the long application process for a liquor licence. Even if all requirements are met, the decision still comes down to a council vote, so submitting an application in the first place requires a huge leap of faith and a large wallet.

Cameron Bogue is one of those entrepreneurs who took a leap of faith and won. The 25-year industry veteran was ready to pursue his passion project after opening nightclubs, bars and restaurants for the likes of Steve Davidovici in Las Vegas, Daniel Boulud in New York and for Earls Restaurants when he returned to Canada in 2010 to become their director of beverage operations.

In August of 2022, Bogue opened Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions on 6th Avenue as a food primary restaurant, having submitted applications for both a food primary and liquor primary licence in November, 2021. He wasted no time in applying for the liquor licence because his dream was to eventually operate as a fully fledged bar.

After 19 arduous months and $40,000 spent on fees, consultants and third party tests, Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions was finally approved for a Dual Licence Liquor Primary in June of this year. The licence allows Bogue’s establishment to operate as a bar from 10pm and extend opening hours, which reaps both financial and social benefits.

“The monetary win for us is late nights, so there is a huge cash incentive for us because I want to be a late night dining destination,” said Bogue. “I want a place for people to meet and go after work. So, the 1 o’clock extension on weekdays and 2 on weekends seems like only an hour but it’s essentially an entire day part of our business. We have lunch, dinner and then if you really want to attract people that are getting off work at 10, 10:30, 11, 12, you have to be open til 1am to have a competitive equality to everybody.

“When we get busy in the evenings we remove all the seats on [the rear] side and you can walk up and grab your drinks and then the back patio is a place to just mingle and walk around and there’s no reservations. We built the bleacher seating, got rid of all the picnic tables, we’re having high tops that we’re having modified to go against the wall back there, just imploring people to stand and set your drinks and chill.

“That’s all it was for me is to be able to create a bar and I think that’s just needed in the city in general. If [the application] wouldn’t have passed we would have [only] been a restaurant and struggled and it wouldn’t have been my dream.”

Bogue’s ‘70s-inspired cocktail bar and grill has been a huge hit over the past year with guests loving what he describes as “an adult amusement park with surprises around every corner”. Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions features a 1901-built heritage building at the entrance and the service area is flanked by front and rear patios featuring vibrant murals. His establishment screams ‘game-changer’ in a city bereft of fun ideas.

While Bogue is relieved to have passed the hurdle of becoming a bar, he’s frustrated by the entire application process, which presents planning problems from the get-go as you open your doors to pay your bills but have conflicting ambitions for your space.

“My goal would be to open a bar from day one, but nobody has that type of money. I can’t sit on a place for two years waiting for a liquor licence, so that has a myriad of problems, right? You’re designing something that needs to operate like a restaurant but the goal of being a bar….there’s a lot of challenges. How do we design seating? Am I paying for tables we’re going to move later? How do you do this?”

It’s a fair question, which makes you wonder if it’s impossible in the current climate to design and open a brand new, purpose-built bar in Vancouver. This is before you even factor in the availability of liquor licences in the first place.

To put things into context, there is currently a moratoria on new stand-alone liquor primary licences in the Granville Entertainment District (GED) and Downtown Eastside (DTES), which has been ruling out new downtown entrants since the ‘90s. Across the rest of the city, there are strict minimum distancing regulations in place, which spreads liquor primary licences thin and creates a nightlife vacuum in the outer, mixed-use districts. When you add cost-prohibitive timelines into the mix, it’s easy to see why the nightlife landscape in Vancouver has remained stagnant for so long.

The City of Vancouver’s red tape has also played a significant role in stymieing the impact of positive legislation change at the provincial level. For instance, when the BC government first introduced dual licences in 2017, there were no eligible applicants in Vancouver until last year when the city removed its own roadblocks.

Thanks to the initiative of Councillor Pete Fry, in June and July of 2022, council voted to lift the moratoria on new liquor primary licences in the GED and DTES and suspend the 2005 policy guidelines regarding liquor establishment distancing. These changes applied only to existing food primary restaurants that wanted to obtain a dual licence.

Finally, the conditions were right for three establishments to apply: Cinema Public House, Cold Tea and Hamburger Mary’s. Under the new leadership of Mayor Ken Sim, all applications were approved by council on March 8 of this year, over six years after dual licensing was legalized. A handful of other dual licence approvals have since followed, including that of Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions.

Seizing upon the momentum, the time was right for Mayor Sim to back up his sentiment that Vancouver was “open for business.”

On July 14, Sim held a press conference at Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions to announce the establishment of a hospitality sector working group to “identify, adjust, and eliminate red tape that present challenges to businesses in the sector.” The City-staff led initiative will give hospitality industry representatives a voice to help shape policy change, a move that Bogue welcomes.

“I met with Ken [Sim] before he was running [for mayor] and heard his platform and his commitments to the industry and so far he’s doing it,” he said. “Between Laura Ballance [PR for the Hospitality Vancouver Association], Ken Beattie [Executive Director at British Columbia Craft Brewers Guild] and Ian Tostenson [President/CEO BC Restaurant and Food Services Association], it is the right group. Those are legit, cool companies that represent the industry. I’m hoping to be part of it as well. I think I have a good voice for the independents that don’t have budgets to pay for these lobby groups, so I would love to have a seat in the room.”

It’s an important step in the right direction as Ken Sim’s council looks to make life easier for the local economy. A major part of that effort is keeping the big picture in mind when applications face opposition. For too long, “not in my backyard” vocal residents have held sway over council decisions and Bogue is relieved to see the community being prioritized first under Mayor Sim.

“Based on the history of this city under [Mayor] Stewart, everything was denied based on one NIMBY. Liquor stores would get shut down because parents would come together and say how bad it is for the neighbourhood. The city just has a track record of listening to the minority and cancelling fun. So, [the vote for my liquor licence] was so terrifying.

“I knew Ken and his council were the opposite. They were committing to fun and listening to the larger voice and what the impact is on the community in a positive way, but you don’t f****n know what’s going to happen. At the end it’s literally them voting and it comes up live on a spreadsheet. It was all unanimous, so after all that stress they all voted in favour, in support of me.”

When asked what he would fix about the whole application process, Bogue was emphatic.

“Timeline. The time it takes is absurd. People can’t afford to sit on a place and pay rent. Other markets will approve things within days. It’s just taking way too long, so time is the one thing that really needs to be fixed as well as the polarity between a liquor primary and food primary.

“Creating this distinction has not worked. We have defunct nightclubs all over this city. We have shells of public houses. So, it’s obvious it’s not working by separating these two licences.”

Given licensing policy is determined by the BC government, it’s clear that change will need to occur at both the provincial and local levels to help revolutionize the industry and give entrepreneurs the creative freedom they desire.

Consumer trends and tastes have outgrown a system that pigeonholes establishments into becoming either a restaurant or a nightclub. Younger generations are seeking new cultural experiences and connections in the age of an increasingly online world. But without opportunity, there is no supply to meet demand. The licensing structure in BC leaves a gaping hole in the market for venues that welcome diners and socializers alike.

In comparable countries like the UK and Australia, pubs are an institution where guests can order a meal at the bar and collect it from the kitchen themselves when their assigned buzzer goes off. This allows complete freedom of movement in the venue and an integration of all guests, regardless of their intent to dine or drink. A free market in BC could incentivize casual dining restaurants to head in this direction, or at the very least, allow a separate lounge area for those looking to make new friends.

While dual licences have allowed restaurant operators more freedom in the evenings, the polarity between a food and liquor primary licence remains. Establishments must adhere to food primary rules until 10pm, effectively switching from one licence to the other. Bogue thinks a liberalized approach to licensing will help raise standards across the board.

“I believe in an equal playing field for everybody. Any restaurant that wanted to do it [get a liquor licence] should have the opportunity to. Then it just comes down to your operational model or what your business plan is.

“I believe in survival of the fittest. I want everybody to benefit from doing better. I think it’s very small-minded to just think about your own business and I would abolish [the distinction between food and liquor primary licences] altogether but that’s not my decision.”

When the rate of progress is so slow, it makes you wonder if there is a lack of public desire for things to change. After all, you can’t miss what you’ve never had. The consensus on societies’ state of loneliness, however, is all the evidence Bogue needs.

“People do [care], it’s just they don’t do anything about it. It was before Covid, there was a huge conversation about social isolation…not having the opportunity to meet and connect, and then we went into the most extreme social isolation, so we need it more than ever to have these types of places for people to gather.

“People are living in shoe boxes for houses. So it’s very entitled to vote against these things when you live in a big f**k off house and have your own backyard.”

Governments at both provincial and local levels have always had a conservative approach to liquor policy in BC, but Bogue believes we’re well overdue for a regulation overhaul.

“The speed at which it’s happening is what’s surprising. I think whoever came up with [liquor regulations]...there was intention behind it, whether it was keeping the public safe or not letting nightclubs get out of control, but it hasn’t shifted with time. That might have been the perception in the ‘90s but we’ve had 20, 30 years on this draconian system and not changed.

“If we know [cultural change] is happening [in other cities], why aren’t we doing it?”

As BC’s most influential city, Vancouver has an opportunity to lead the way by removing barriers to entry and facilitating competitive equality in the hospitality sector. If the industry is allowed to breathe, it could be the proof of concept needed for the BC government to go a step further and liberalize licensing.

Whether Vancouverites realize it or not, they’re being deprived of opportunities to connect with their fellow residents. It’s time the ‘No Fun City’ stands up and earns its place on the world stage.