It was a fuzzy night at the Bearfoot Bistro, but apparently that’s the norm in this legendary establishment.
We started the night off with a visit to the wine cellar for a champagne sabering and toast. We enjoyed a delicious dinner before heading into the Belvedere Ice Room for a vodka tasting, at -32 degrees Celsius (-25F).
The Belvedere Ice Room is the world’s coldest vodka tasting room and the only permanent sub-zero vodka room in Canada. We bundled up in Canada Goose, Arctic-ready parkas and went into the glowing blue room filled with more than 50 vodkas from across the globe.
We tasted four of them and discovered that extreme cold environment enhances the flavour while minimizing the alcohol burn. Sort of.
I will start with a list of the drinks that graced our table that evening. While I’m not shy to alcohol, I couldn’t even keep up with the half of it;
- Champagne
- Rosé wine
- White wine
- Red wine
- More white wine
- Even more white wine
- And, one more red wine
- Vodka
- Vodka
- Vodka
- Vodka
- Liquid nitrogen cocktail
- Whiskey cocktail
- Coffee cocktail
The night continued with Louis XIII, a 125 year old cognac priced at $2100 a bottle.
Bearfoot Bistro founder André Saint-Jacques said, “life’s short, might as well have a good time”.
I have a habit of writing down funny/interesting quotes on my phone, wherever I go. I promised my group that I wouldn’t publish any of their words from that night, but I just can’t help but share a few.
“Never give away your cork, it’s special”
(on Kenny Rogers) “He used to be a pretty handsome guy. In the 70’s. In a St. Nicholas kind of way”
“That’s life with a capital L”
“Pepper is the new salt”
The night brought funny stories, magic tricks and more laughing than I’ve done in a long time. You can see where the Bearfoot Bistro gets its epic reputation.
Concocting the liquid nitrogen cocktails
Extracting the Louis XIII
Liquid nitrogen ice cream mixing bowl
Zubrowka, Polish vodka
Nitro ice cream; tahitian vanilla bean prepared tableside, sundae toppings.
A perfect sabre
A donation of $6 per person will be added to the bill for this service, with 100 per cent of the proceeds going directly to the charitable organization ONE DROP, and these table centrepieces are a reminder.
André was an incredible host and the Bearfoot proved to have the best nightlife in Whistler. It may have been fine dining, but there’s no way any bar or club in town could have topped that. I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest an evening there if you find yourself in Whistler.
This trip was made possible by
Destination British Columbia and Tourism Whistler.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Great post Seattle! What an epic night you had. I have been in an ice room. There use to be a bar in Sydney call Minus 5 and inside it was made of ice just like the one you went to but I think not so cold. It was a pretty cool (pardon the pun) experience.
Jen recently posted..Destination of the Week – London
Haha definitely. Some of the others were a little slow the next morning :p Oh cool, when was it there and when/why did it close? I’d like to visit all of the ice bars in the world, haha 😀
It’s probably been 5 or 6 years since I have been there. I did a search for it recently as I was organising hens party and thought it would be fun to do with the girls but I couldn’t find anything recent about it so assumed it had closed a while ago. But if I hear anything about it being reopened I’ll be sure to let you know. I know there is one in NYC, as I wanted to go when I was there but just ran out I time. Maybe next time.
Jen recently posted..Destination of the Week – London
Hm, strange, and too bad. I’ve got no plans for NYC right now, but I’ll keep that in mind for next time, thanks :]