The Pairing
What to Drink at the Restaurants We Love
Kitsilano first, with one room worth crossing the bridge for. The spots we eat at ourselves, paired with the bottles we'd actually bring. Curated by Chris Reid, 20 years on the floor.
Heading out to dinner in Kits, or picking up takeout on your way home? Stop in on the way and we'll send you off with the right bottle. The shop is at 2752 W Broadway, open daily 10am to 11pm.
The Restaurant Guide
Pairings by Spot
Most of these places are corkage-friendly. Call ahead to confirm and check the fee. Eight bucks for a great bottle you bring yourself is one of the best deals in the city.
Maenam
Angus An's flagship. Bold Thai flavours, serious heat, refined plating. The wine list is excellent, but if you're bringing your own, you want aromatics and a little sweetness to ride the spice.
Bring These
- Hugel Gentil Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Muscat, and Pinot Gris in one Alsatian bottle. Off-dry, floral, with the acidity to cut through coconut milk and just enough sweetness to ride the chilli.
- Sperling Vineyards Organic Speritz Pet Nat Certified-organic Okanagan pétillant naturel. Bubbles are an underrated move with spicy food. This one lifts everything on the plate without fighting it.
- Beaujolais Villages — Drouhin If you want a red, this is it. Drouhin's Beaujolais is light, fruity, and about as food-friendly as wine gets. Low-tannin Gamay handles Thai heat better than anything heavier.
AnnaLena
Tasting menu only, and worth every penny. Mike Robbins's cooking is precise and local-forward. The wine pairings are exceptional, but if you're bringing one for the table before or after, here's where to start.
Bring These
- Champagne Duval-Leroy Brut A house that punches above its price. Bready, fine, and precise. AnnaLena is a place to celebrate, and this is the bottle for it.
- Lightning Rock Canyonview Pinot Noir Similkameen Pinot from one of the most exciting small wineries in BC. If the menu leans into local ingredients, lean into local wine. This belongs in a room like AnnaLena.
- JC Boisset Les Ursulines Bourgogne Pinot Noir The safe-but-stunning move. A proper Bourgogne never embarrasses you, especially next to refined Pacific Northwest cooking.
Au Comptoir
The closest thing to a real Parisian bistro on this side of the country. Steak frites, escargot, duck confit. The food is French, so the wine should be French.
Bring These
- Domaine Baudry Les Granges Chinon Loire Cabernet Franc done right. Earthy, cool-climate precise, the grape at every bistro table in the Loire Valley. Read the full story on the Baudry post.
- Perrin Côtes du Rhône Villages Grenache-led and generous, from a family that has been making wine in the Rhône since 1909. France has been pairing this with steak frites for centuries.
- Beaujolais Villages — Drouhin Light Gamay with duck. With pork rillettes. With anything off a chalkboard. The cheapest way to drink like a Parisian.
Folke
Literally a block from the shop. Plant-forward menu, deeply natural-wine-leaning bar. They have a great list of their own, but if you're bringing something, lean low-intervention.
Bring These
- Pamplemousse Jus Foch Nouveau BC Maréchal Foch made nouveau-style: low-intervention, carbonic, zero pretension. Low sulphites, maximum personality. Right at home one block from Folke's kitchen.
- Astro Bunny Pet-Nat Blend Ancient-method fizz from BC. Lively, textured, the kind of bottle you bring to a plant-forward dinner and everyone asks about.
- Orofino Gamay 2025 Similkameen Gamay from one of BC's most thoughtful producers. Juicy, low-tannin, and built for vegetable-forward cooking.
Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar
On Burrard in downtown. An oyster bar at the heart of the room, Michelin-recognized seafood, classical technique behind every plate. The kind of meal where the bottle gets noticed. Bring something with intention.
Bring These
- Champagne Duval-Leroy Brut Oysters and Champagne is the oldest move in the book, and it remains the right one. Duval-Leroy is the bottle we'd bring ourselves to a room like this.
- Attems Sauvignon Blanc Friuli Sauvignon Blanc from the Collio, on the Slovenian border. Precise, mineral, and built for seafood. One of the most food-friendly whites on our shelf.
- Averill Creek Chardonnay Vancouver Island Chardonnay from one of BC's benchmarks. The category has arrived, and this holds its own next to anything from Burgundy.
The Painted Ship
A few doors down Broadway from us. Michael Brennan's newest concept with the Mum's the Word crew. Vintage 60s/70s room, share-plate menu that bounces from PNW to Mexican to Asian, live music and DJs late. A genuinely happening room. Bring something that can keep up.
Bring These
- A Sunday in August Carbonic Orange BC skin-contact made with carbonic maceration: low-intervention, lively, a little funky. The right bottle for a room with this much energy and a menu that won't sit still.
- Montelobos Mezcal Highland agave from the Jalisco highlands, earthy and complex. When the menu leans into the Mexican thread, this is the move. Smoky, slow-sipping, built for share plates.
- Beaujolais Villages — Drouhin When the menu jumps from PNW to Mexican to Asian, light Gamay survives all of it. The most versatile red on the shelf.
Take-Out & Delivery
Pairings for What You're Ordering
Most nights you're not going out. You're ordering. Here's what to open with what's at the door.
Pizza Friday
- Michele Chiarlo Le Orme Barbera d'AstiItaly's pizza wine, from a Piedmont benchmark. High acid, low tannin, and built for tomato sauce.
- Beaujolais Villages — DrouhinIf pepperoni is involved, Gamay never lets you down.
- Perrin Côtes du Rhône VillagesBigger, rustic, grenache-forward. Great with anything aggressively cheesy.
Sushi Night
- Sperling Vineyards Organic Speritz Pet NatCertified-organic Okanagan bubbles. Pétillant naturel with sushi is criminally underrated.
- Attems Sauvignon BlancFriuli Sauvignon Blanc: crisp, clean, salt-forward. Disappears into the meal in the best way.
- Yoshi No Gawa Brewmaster's Choice HonjozoA premium Honjozo from Niigata. Approachable, food-friendly, and proof that the obvious answer is usually the right one.
Burger & Fries
- Escorihuela 1884 Mendoza MalbecThe grape France let go and Argentina made famous. Dark fruit, soft tannin, built for a burger.
- BC Craft IPAA cold can is sometimes the only right answer. We have the wall for it.
- Argyle Reserve Willamette Pinot NoirIf the burger is at a real restaurant, this is the move. Willamette Valley Pinot from one of Oregon's benchmark producers.
Indian & Curry Night
- Tantalus Riesling 2025Okanagan Riesling from one of BC's top estates. Dry but intensely aromatic, with the precision to tame heat without surrendering to it.
- Astro Bunny Pet-Nat BlendBC pétillant naturel. Bubbles cut through ghee and chilli oil better than anything still.
- Beaujolais Villages — DrouhinThe one red that survives a vindaloo. Light, juicy, low-tannin Gamay.
Cheese Board & Charcuterie
- Bottega Gold Prosecco BrutStart here. The gold bottle sets the tone before anything hits the board. Dry, fine, and festive without being serious about it.
- Domaine Baudry Les Granges ChinonLoire Cab Franc with hard cheese is one of the great moves of all time. Earthy, cool-climate, and built for exactly this.
- Château Petit Védrines Sauternes 2017The end-of-night move. A 375ml of Sauternes with a ripe blue or aged hard cheese is a small dessert without being one. Devastating in the right way.
Movie Night, No Cooking
- BC Craft TallboysThe wall of cans exists for exactly this. Local, cold, easy.
- A Good Negroni RTDPre-batched Negronis from craft producers. One of the fastest-growing categories in the shop, and for good reason.
- Beaujolais Villages — DrouhinLight enough to drink without thinking. Good enough to make the night feel like something.