Each year there are those cocktail week events that you find yourself telling your friends about over and over—or that you forever regret having missed out on. Here are five that will be all the buzz this year; if you don’t have your tickets yet, what are you waiting for?
Signature Sunday Cocktail Brunch
ARC Restaurant at the Fairmont Waterfront - 900 Canada Pl
Sunday, March 2, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This was the very first cocktail week event, the one that launched everything even before there was a cocktail week, and it’s still one of the week’s highlights. After all, who doesn’t love to linger over Sunday brunch?
Held this year at ARC Restaurant, it features chef Adam Middleton’s locally inspired cuisine and equally inspired cocktails to go with. It begins with a standup reception featuring a welcome cocktail and small bites, then eases into a four-course gourmet brunch, each classic-inspired dish paired with cocktails based on premium spirits. (Brand ambassadors will be on hand to tell you all about them.)
This is the best way to start the day—and kick off Vancouver Cocktail Week 2025!
Cocktails and Cabaret: The Prohibition Edition
Ventura Room - 695 Cambie Street
Wednesday, March 5. Doors: 6:30 p.m.; Show: 7:30 p.m.
If you thought the 2020s would have more glamour and less existential dread, well you’re in luck. This burlesque event at the Ventura Room recreates those other ’20s, the Roaring ones, with a seductive night of burlesque, soulful singing and live music.
Sip on handcrafted Prohibition-era cocktails (no need to bring your flask of bootleg gin!) and be dazzled by the captivating performances and vintage elegance.
The hidden door is open—will you join the revelry?
A Locavore Cocktail Adventure
The Acorn - 3995 Main St
Wednesday, March 5. 4 seatings: 5:30 p.m., 6 p.m., 8 p.m., 8:30 p.m.
Drink and dine local, deliciously. Few meals will ever be as elegantly kind to the planet as the ones served at this Michelin-recommended, vegetable-forward, locavore restaurant on Main Street. But this one-night-only dinner outdoes them all because it also features cocktails—and not just any cocktails.
The Odd Society’s Mia Glanz, creative genius behind the Mia Amata Amaro, joins The Acorn’s head bartender, Lewis Reid, for a multi-course cocktail-paired feast that will exceed all your expectations.
Understanding Umeshu
Zarak - 2102 Main St
Wednesday March 5, 3 to 5 p.m.
One of the best features of cocktail week is the opportunity to discover something new, whether it’s a spirit, an ingredient or the cocktails you can make with them. This seminar serves up all three.
Umeshu is a Japanese liqueur made from ume, a fruit that is known as a Japanese plum, but is actually more closely related to the apricot. In any case, it’s delicious, especially in CHOYA’s umeshu. CHOYA is Japan’s largest, most renowned umeshu producer, with 100 years of crafting this liqueur from only natural ingredients: ume fruit, sugar and distilled spirits.
CHOYA brand ambassador Shinji Inaba and the president of the Sake Association of B.C. Yuki Konishi will take you on an immersive ume journey, while you enjoy a CHOYA cocktail created by Winnie Sun and a snack alongside.
Black & White Gala
Spanish Ballroom at Rosewood Hotel Georgia
Saturday, March 8, 7 to 8 p.m. VIPs; 8-11 p.m. all partygoers
Cocktails! Party clothes! Fancy bar bites! Live music! Everyone who is anyone in the Vancouver cocktail world! The closing night gala is the biggest, most glamourous event of Vancouver Cocktail Week, and it’s one you don’t want to miss!
Don your most stylish black-and-white cocktail fashion and step into the beautiful Spanish Ballroom where top bartenders from near and far craft unique cocktails just for you. It begins with a VIP hour with passed canapés and cocktails, and then the doors open onto the party of the year, with cocktail-inspired food to graze on, a DJ and live music to dance to, and sips from more than two dozen premium spirits brands to savour.
Note that this event also supports Mind the Bar.
