6 Ways to Enjoy Historic Strathcona Right Now

Eastern promises: Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood is where history and hipsters collide

Strathcona is Vancouver’s oldest residential neighbourhood, where modest workers’ shacks and boarding houses grew outward from the Hastings Mill, founded in 1865 at the foot of what is now Dunlevy Avenue. For nearly 150 years the area has welcomed successive waves of working-class immigrants from every corner of the world. Eastern Europeans and Italians claimed much of the less urban, eastern and southern sections, and the Chinese, Japanese and black communities established their own distinct precincts (Chinatown, Japantown, Hogan’s Alley) closer to downtown.

Today, Strathcona is the latest frontier in the city’s ongoing gentrification wars. On the side streets, once affordable clapboard heritage homes welcome young families with a spare million or two, while the major arteries compete for the grandest condo mega-projects. In the nooks and crannies—not yet reno’d or re-zoned for towers—entrepreneurs, artists and artisans man studios and helm stores and restaurants that cater to hipsters and bon vivants. It’s the push and pull where Vancouver’s past and present meet that give Strathcona an authenticity and vibrancy unlike that of any other neighbourhood.

Here are 6 great ways to experience the Strathcona of the past and the present…

1. Time travel: Take a walking tour

Don’t let Gastown’s fake cobblestone streets (installed in the 1970s) and famous “Steam Clock” (powered by three electric motors) fool you. Strathcona is older and more historically diverse than its Disney-fied neighbour to the west. Take a walk through time with James Johnstone’s award-winning Strathcona Walking Tours where you’ll spy Vancouver’s oldest standing residence at 398 East Cordova Street, the ghosts of three separate red-light districts, and the once-thriving hobo camps of the Depression era.
Or you can get a feel for the ‘hood and guide yourself by artist Cristina Peori’s 25-by-85-foot historical mural map located on the side of the building at 890 East Hastings Street.

2. Art attack: Experience the East Side Culture Crawl

Since its rather humble beginnings in 1994, the annual East Side Culture Crawl has grown to be one of the city’s largest art events and one that celebrates the neighbourhood’s unique creative spirit. Over the course of four days in mid-November, over 500 artists open their Strathcona studios, lofts and garrets to the public, with more than 30,000 people taking part in the free, self-guided tour.

3. Café culture: Sip the afternoon away at a quaint coffee shop

Fact: There are no Starbucks locations in residential Strathcona, much to the locals’ delight. Caffeine fiends gravitate to quirkier mom-and-pop cafés nestled in corner heritage buildings. The Wilder Snail is definitely on the crunchy side, with pedal-powered stools to charge your laptop/smartphone as you nibble on organic, gluten-free fare.
The bijou Finch’s Teahouse boasts a mini grocery section on library ladder shelves (that’s curated more for ambiance than practicality) and some of the best baguette sandwiches in town, like the popular pear, prosciutto, bleu brie and walnut variety.

4. A room with a brew: Drink up local flavour at the Strathcona Beer Company and the Settlement Building

One of the newest offerings in the area, the popular and straightforwardly named Strathcona Beer Company is a 12,000-square-foot complex that produces 5000 litres of classic, international craft beer at a time (think Czech Pilsner, Vienna Lager, “Strathcona” Golden Belgian Ale, British IPA) and serves a mean pizza straight from the oven of their ultra-modern, white-on-white tasting lounge.
A steel plant in the 1920s that’s been completely renovated by internationally acclaimed designer Omer Arbel, The Settlement Building (pictured at top) houses Vancouver Urban Winery with 30 vintages on tap, Postmark Brewing, which specializes in (lower alcohol) session beers as well as the award-winning Belgard Kitchen restaurant whose weekday “Happy Afternoons” from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. are packed with folks who leave work a little early.

5. Hot, hot Heatley: Check out live entertainment at this hip hangout

If a proper pub is supposed to represent the neighbourhood that surrounds it, then The Heatley is Strathcona’s favourite local. Reminiscent of a longshoremen’s union hall by way of the Chelsea Hotel, the former hardware store is an unpretentious watering hole with a solid menu, a dazzling cocktail list and a devil-may-care decor. One of the city’s best people-watching spots, on any given night you can catch an acoustic set or a visiting DJ, listen in on a book launch or just get lost in the lyric swirls of artist Ola Volo’s black-and-white mural over the bar. (Check out the making of the mural here.)

6. Dinner belle: Stop by the Mackenzie Room for inventive cocktails and brilliant bites

The award-winning Mackenzie Room is polarizing. Is it the very essence of Strathcona distilled into restaurant form or is it a deceptively louche lounge for the ironic hipster set? Why not both? From its twee, tarnished silver platter collection on torn-wallpaper walls to the matchy-matchy distressed furniture and cedar-shingled ceiling, the room is soigné enough in its ramshackle chic to call shenanigans. But chef/owner Sean Reeve’s food is insanely on point, even if the daily rotating menu is only available on a communal chalkboard (ugh). The delightful cocktails are inventive and quaffable enough that you may overindulge and lose your pierced and plaid-shirted server in a sea of equally decked-out patrons. If you’ve got a party of four, definitely spring for the “I Want It All!” option with a taste of everything on offer that night.