Keen-eyed Vancouverites have been watching the West End space at 961 Denman St since late 2021, when signs went up for a "health bar and cocktail lounge" called The Jungle Room moving in where the Dover Arms pub stood for many a year.
The Dover Arms was a popular draw in the neighboorhood, from its launch in the mid-1970s to its demise in April 2017, and locals have long wondered what might take its place. The Jungle Room declared its intent nearly a year and a half ago, and now comes word the upscale themed restaurant and bar will officially open April 28 (though some may experience the venue in its current "soft-open" mode).
The Jungle Room describes itself on OpenTable (where they're already accepting reservations) as "Vancouver's first jungle-inspired cocktail lounge."
With just a scantly-populated Instagram page and no website (so far), details about The Jungle Room are thin, though it seems we can expect decor based on lush tropical greenery, craft cocktails, and elegant eats. For example, the Jungle Room's menu includes a sablefish dish that features a squid ink puff, chorizo-stuffed cuttlefish, samphire (a plant similar to asparagus), salmon caviar, and a saffron champagne velouté.
The Jungle Room is one portion of what's actually a two-prong venture on Denman near Barclay. The next-door space at 955 Denman, which was the West End Liquor Store until May 2019, is set to become Kev's Epicerie, a gourmet marketplace. Signs for Kev's Epicerie appeared at the same time as those for the Jungle Room, and both have ties to a now-defunct operation in Chinatown called Kevin & Kevin Juice - a juice bar by day and a cocktail bar by night. Kevin & Kevin Juice closed up its Gore Street ops with virtually no fanfare at the end of January this year.
Currently, Kev's Epicerie is in the hiring stages and is touted as being a "gourmet market that offers imported fine food" as well as prepared foods by Chef Eric Arrouzé, previously the Corporate Executive Chef for Kevin and Kevin Restaurant Group.
