The Area - Gastown

Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhood is undergoing a quiet revolution: architects, filmmakers, artists and designers have been seduced by heritage properties morphed into live-work spaces. Although it’s the birthplace of Vancouver (John “Gassy Jack” Deighton opened his saloon and the city’s first business in 1867), Gastown was, for a time, little more than a tourist trap of faux heritage sites and schlocky souvenir stores bordering one of Canada’s poorest postal codes, the Downtown Eastside. But plans for swank boutique hotels, an expansion of design haven Inform Interiors and a recently completed revitalization of the Dominion Hotel have given the area a much-needed boost. A formidable fashion scene is cropping up along Abbott Street, and further plans to convert heritage buildings into mixed-use spaces should ensure the continued influx of talent.

Eat:
Build your own tasting plate from the constantly changing menu of cured meats, cheeses and condiments at Salt Tasting Room (Blood Alley).

Drink:
A Shebeen is a hidden, illegal hovel, but there’s nothing illegal or rundown about the Shebeen Whiskey House. Offering the largest selection of whiskeys in B.C., this hidden gem is one of the best celebrity-spotting haunts in town. Go through the Irish Heather, 217 Carrall St., (604) 688-9779, to the red door across the private courtyard.

Browse:
Colourful sweaters designed by Marc Jacob’s former cutter Gauge, graphic shirts by Rogues Gallery and jeans by Meli Melo at One of a Few, 354 Water St., (604) 605-0685, and Richard Kidd, for one of the most breathtaking retail spaces in the city, 65 Water St., (604) 677-1880.