VC09 - Victoria, British Columbia

Once a bastion of Old World Britishness anchored by the venerable Empress Hotel, Victoria has evolved into a hip metropolis with design-forward shops, chic boutique hotels, and savvy restaurants.

Seen at right: Victoria, British Columbia.
Photography courtesty Tourism Victoria

Getting There

By Ferry and Car - 2.5 Hours
Hourly sailings from Tsawwassen (40 minutes from downtown Vancouver) to Swartz Bay (a half-hour from downtown Victoria) in high season. Bcferries.com

By Air - 25 Minutes
Orca Air, $39, departs from YVR. 888-359-6722. Flyorcaair. com. West Coast Air flies from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria. 800-347-2222. Westcoastair.com

Out & About

Design District
Don’t miss the city’s design district — bordered by Store, Herald, Pandora, Fisgard, Government, and Chatham streets — with its warehouse-style design stores and intimate ateliers.

Bespoke
517 Pandora St., Victoria, BC, 250-298-1105
Farrow & Ball paints and wallpapers, mega-thread-count bedding, luxurious towelling, and great accent pieces set the tone here. Designers Ben Brannen and Heather Draper offer custom-built, down-filled sectionals and elegant furniture pieces with heirloom appeal. Draper also offers home consultations.

Onlyhuman Gallery
527 Pandora St., Victoria, BC, 250-383-6659
Furniture designer Chris Rothery and partner Christina Stack’s modern homedécor showroom stocks Rothery’s gorgeous wood tables; accent pieces provided by Jonathan Adler, Moooi, Droog, Bocci, and Artecnica.

Gabriel Ross
598A Bay St., Victoria, BC, 250-384-2552, 866-207-1111
An expanded showroom has upped the designer furniture ante at this favourite purveyor, with pieces we love by Frighetto and Cassina. Daddy-O will be suitably chill once he unwinds in the Cassina K10 Dodo Chair. Using a side lever, the swivel becomes a chaise with adjustable tilt and movable back and footrests. In full repose the chair resembles its namesake. Available in custom fabrics or plush leather. Bonus: free shipping in Canada.

Place Function and Design
3690 Shelbourne St., Victoria, BC, 250-381-3488
Trish Puckett’s fresh design sense has us flocking to her off-the-beaten-track Place for Iannone’s eco-furniture, Molo soft seating, and fun affordable décor accessories. Collectors of cool also come here to find the latest Unipo and Hazmapo figures by Portland’s Unkl. The tiny vinyl creatures, released in limited editions, are a hot collectible. The all-white, featureless Unipo encourages budding artists to fill in the blanks.

Winchester Galleries
• 2260 Oak Bay Ave., Victoria, BC, 250-595- 2777
• 1010 Broad St., Victoria, BC, 250-386-2773
• 796 Humboldt St., Victoria, BC, 250-382-7750
Fine art dealers Gunter Heinrich and Anthony Sam can always find just the right canvas. Historical or contemporary, established or upcoming, their repertoire of artists runs deep. Whether it’s Joe Average or a Group of Seven painting, Winchester can pull from its three gallery locations. Pick an era, a medium, and a theme; their world is your masterpiece. We’re partial to Joe Plaskett’s vintage pastel, Flowers From Paris #1, for a cool $8,500.

Plenty Epicurean Pantry
1034 Fort St., Victoria, BC, 250-380-7654
This emporium, which stocks fine foods (fair-trade, local, and global), also celebrates time-honoured crafts for the home. Elegant Colombian black clay La Chamba pots (the tagine is $62), the oldest genre of pottery in the New World, are formed, fired, and burnished by hand to a smooth satin black. Lead-free and certified free-trade, they can go from stovetop to oven to tabletop.

Muffet & Louisa
• 1437 Store St., Victoria, BC, 250-382-3201, 866-382-3201
• 2389 Beacon Ave., Sidney, BC, 250-656-0011
Not just a kitchen store, this cosy retreat has an extensive selection of St. Geneve super-fine bedding. Sheets and pillowcases in luscious colours and patterns come in luxe Egyptian cotton, high-quality linen, or German milled silk. Snuggly down duvets pad the nest with their lofty baffle-box design. They’re stuffed with Canadian, Polish, or German white goose down, or genuine wildharvested eiderdown from Iceland. (A hypoallergenic queen in Canadian goose down is $148.)

Dining

Red Fish Blue Fish
1006 Wharf St. (on the pier), Victoria, BC, 250-298-6877
Sustainable seafood served wharfside out of a former cargo container. Get it grilled or deepfried, with fries or wrapped inside a tortilla (their signature tacones). Local farmers provide the greens, and the surprise hit of tempura-fried dill pickles with housemade tartar sauce is a sweet-salty-crispy tour de force.

Pig BBQ Joint
• 749 View St., Victoria, BC, 250-381-4677;
• 304-1913 Sooke Rd., Victoria, BC, 250-590-8034
The aroma of smoked meats draws you into chef Jeff Hetherington’s stainless-steel kitchen. Five bucks buys you slow-smoked brisket, pulled pork, or smoked chicken served on the requisite squishy white bun, slathered in house sauce, and topped with crunchy coleslaw.

Niche
225 Quebec St., Victoria, BC, 250-388-4255
Chef Jason Leizert dazzles with innovative cooking in this contemporary room set in the shell of a Victorian-era heritage house. His appetizer of goat-cheese ravioli is served with squash, sage, and walnuts; a main of Albacore tuna is served with beans, chanterelles, and clams — both are sublime. Unique wine picks, especially strong on Island, B.C., and California wineries.

Brasserie L’Ecole
1715 Government St., Victoria, BC, 250-475-6260
French country cooking with local ingredients and ace service continue to excel. Chef Sean Brennan provides reliable standbys of moules, steak and frites, endive salad with lardons, or rich onion soup, but the plats du jour really show off his chops. Beer-braised duck legs in a delicate broth of chickpeas and summer vegetables see truffled basil purée; cured pork loin makes bons amis with a sauté of transparent apples, bacon, kale, and fingerling potatoes. Bière lovers can navigate through the French, Belgian, and Quebec suds.

Zambri's
911 Yates St., Victoria, BC, 250-360-1171
Rustic lunches are announced on the blackboard — fresh tomato sauce with house-made sausages, meatballs, pastas, and antipasti. Everything is hearty and satisfying. Key décor changes and candlelight transform the room for the dinner hour. The menu changes to reflect what’s fresh: vitello tomato is seductively rich. Mains see local rockfish with peperonata, beef striploin with gorgonzola fonduta and truffle oil, and cauliflower allasabbia. Owner Joe Zambri’s wine list shows increased strength with rare and unsung Italian varietals — many by the glass.

Bed Check

Swans Hotel
506 Pandora Ave., Victoria, BC, 800-668-7926
{PRICE} $109 to $359. Fully furnished two-level penthouse with rooftop garden, $895 per night.
{DESIGN} Edwardian-era heritage building, impeccably restored with original wood beams. Well-appointed loft-style suites with full kitchens, leather armchairs and couches, antiques, and an impressive art collection.
{AMENITIES} Wi-Fi throughout the hotel, treatment botanicals, fresh flowers, fruit, and bottled water.

The Oswego
500 Oswego St., Victoria, BC, 877-767-9346
{PRICE} Studio suites from $269 based on single/double occupancy.
{DESIGN} Modern West Coast, incorporating slate, granite, and brick, with lots of natural light. Artwork has a botanical theme and the bar area screens the Planet Earth series.
{AMENITIES} Cucumber-infused water in the lobby, Acca Kappa spa products, Internet, flat-screen TVs, French-press coffee.

Inn At Laurel Point
680 Montreal St., Victoria, BC, 800-663-7667
{PRICE} $204 for a standard double room.
{DESIGN} Earth-tone décor, museumquality art hanging in the halls.
{AMENITIES} Watch the harbour action from the chaise lounge in your sleek Erickson Wing room, or spend some time browsing the original pieces of Native and Asian art lining the hallways. The Potlatch Feast Dish — Wolf Seal by Henry Hunt is particularly exquisite