The Keefer Bar

"If you only have time for one cocktail bar in Vancouver, make it the Keefer. Don’t even think twice. Take, for example, the Jade Dynasty (gin, mezcal, matcha, lemon, lime, bonito, sesame oil, and egg white). The cocktails use local herbs, spices, teas throughout the menu. Take note of the seasonal section of the menu." - MATADOR_NETWORK

MG: “For drinks, we usually rock with the Lucid Dream with Patrón, and for food, you gotta try their citrus olives, the dumplings and the brisket bao. It’s a dope spot to pre-game. Before the lockdown, we’d pull up here to eat and sip a bit. Ideal night out would be to grab some drinks, pull up to an underground party or pop-up and hit a studio after.”

"There are temporary patios and then there’s The Keefer Yard. Vancouver’s grooviest outdoor pivot popped up last summer in a vacant lot beside The Keefer Bar (No. 2 on Canada’s Best Bars for three years running), its surrounding brick walls covered in graffiti murals."

"Keefer Bar is one of the country’s best cocktail bars, and if you look closely, possibly one of the strangest. It has an apothecary theme, which means there’s a menu called Remedies and Cures, anatomy models on shelves, and glowing X-ray sheets inside the bathroom. What you’ll also find are extremely well-made drinks like the Tokyo Drift with tobacco bitters and the Skeleton Kiss with firewater tincture (a super spicy bitters-like ingredient). You could come before or after a dinner in Chinatown or strategically arrive in time for their Happy Hour (every day from 4-6pm) and have some of their small plates like soup dumplings or green onion pancake pizza. And if all of the dim lighting and random tinctures are starting to freak you out, choose a seat next to the fire pit on their patio out the front instead." - Shelley Mason

"The Keefer Bar was one of the first outposts to rejuvenate this once-dreary Chinatown street. Riffing off the area’s historic Chinese pharmacies (many still in operation), the Keefer takes on an apothecary theme. The drinks menu—called the “List of Remedies and Cures”—features ingredients like strawberry and rhubarb tea, glehnia root, and tinctures made from cardamon, magnolia bark, and red ginseng. The space shines in the late evening, when the dark space is packed with hipsters who crowd the bar." - Guy Saddy