FALL FOR LOCAL

If you've been following us here or on social media, you'll know how excited we were for last week's Fall for Local. Organized by the amazing Kelly Turner, Fall for Local has been helping Vancouver's entrepreneurs connect for three years now. This year, Kelly added a daytime forum to the annual Pop Up Shop Soirée. We were fortunate enough to attend both, which not only gave us some great ideas for The Local Visitor, but also gave us the opportunity to connect with some amazing local entrepreneurs and businesses.

From 12-5pm, a group of entrepreneurs / entrepreneurs-in-the-making / interested people gathered at Heritage Hall to make new connections, collaborate, and listen to other entrepreneurs talk about their paths to success. They discussed everything from being an entrepreneur, to where to find funding, tips for visual media, and the importance of buying local (something we fully encourage!). 

The place was then transformed for The Pop Up Shop Soirée, which showcased some of Vancouver's established and emerging local shops and entrepreneurs. This portion of the day was open to the public, so watch out for it next year if you missed this year's! We met more great people doing more great things, and are looking forward to showcasing some of those great people and things here in the future.

Go here for a list of the speakers and businesses involved with the forum portion of Fall for Local, and here for some of the local businesses that showcased their stuff at The Pop Up Shop Soirée!

All week long we are collaborating with Fall For Local to feature 5 local businesses that will be participating at the Fall for Local event on October 22.  You can read a new post each day during this Week of Local on the Fall for Local blog.

JOYRIDE

The dictionary defines joyride as, “a ride taken for pleasure”, which makes it the perfect name for the experience that owner Claire Mandell creates at Kitsilano’s newest nail salon. The idea for Joyride came as Claire was looking for a career change (she had attended culinary school and was working as a cook). Inspired by her own manicures and pedicures, she came up with the concept to provide a different type of nail salon experience.

Despite not having any previous experience running her own business, Claire has been learning as she goes, with support from her family. The name is a nod to the male influences in her life who enjoy the fast and the dangerous (her father and her brother are former and current race car drivers, respectfully). Claire sees the experience at Joyride as something a little daring – taking time out of our busy schedules for our own pleasure.

Joyride opened a month ago and had its launch party last week. The salon is already fully booked on the weekends and appointments are highly recommended. People seem drawn to the unique experience that Joyride offers. Like meeting friends for coffee, Claire wanted to create an environment that draws people in and makes them feel comfortable. That starts with the décor, which is a combination of contemporary and comfort, while paying homage to the West Coast board culture that is so prevalent in the area. Recognizing that consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the products they use on their bodies, Joyride created its own line of plant-based products that use organic products manufactured in Canada. The nail polish brands are 3 Free or 5 Free, which means they do not contain the toxic chemicals that are found in most nail polishes. Any chemicals that are used (such as those required for sanitization) are quickly removed from the air by the salon’s air filtration system. All the nail technicians have a BeautySafe certificate so you can relax knowing you are in good hands. And like any true Vancouver experience, Joyride offers coffee, tea, and juice from nearby Glory Juice.

Services start at $20 for a manicure and $35 for a pedicure, which includes nail shaping, cuticle care, exfoliation, and a massage. There’s even a special service for Junior Joyriders, and men are always welcome. No matter what the situation, this Joyride is all about you!

All week long we are collaborating with Fall For Local to feature 5 local businesses that will be participating at the Fall for Local event on October 22.  You can read a new post each day during this Week of Local on the Fall for Local blog.

SONS OF VANCOUVER DISTILLERY

Up until a few years ago, we might have convinced you that Vancouver was still bound by the principles that were put in place during the prohibition. The recent changes to liquor laws, however, have been slowly modernizing the province’s alcohol consumption. This has brought on the recent proliferation of microbreweries, which have been popping up all over Vancouver. More recently, micro-distilleries have been taking advantage of this growing interest in local, small-scale production.

Located in North Vancouver, the Sons of Vancouver is one such distillery, which is dedicated to making good quality, local spirits. Cofounders Richard Klaus and James Lester are originally from Northern British Columbia, where they started learning to brew their own beer in junior high. After a series of events that included early “retirement” and traveling through Mexico, they relocated to Vancouver and decided to open a distillery together. They interned at distilleries in Washington and Portland until they were confident they knew enough to open their own.

After taking over a North Vancouver space in March 2014, the pair started a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo to outfit their tasting room. They officially opened their doors in February 2015, with a fully outfitted tasting room where they offer samples of their three products: amaretto, vodka, and chili vodka.

Amaretto No. 82 is named after the 81 failed attempts that came before it, and is the first craft amaretto in North America (that they know of). The pair like the simplicity of old fashioned drinks (like the Old Fashioned), but thought it could be done a little differently. Their amaretto is sweetened with Demerera, BC blackberry honey simple syrup, and a combination of apricot kernels, Bourbon vanilla beans and orange peel. If your mouth isn’t already watering, it pairs so perfectly with ice cream that they teamed up with Earnest Ice Cream to create the Cherry Amaretto Sundae.

Their vodka is equally original, made with BC spring wheat, malted barley and fermented with champagne yeast. The result is a smooth vodka unlike any other you’ve previously tried at your local bar. Finally, if you’re really adventurous (or like to make really good Ceasars), try the Chili Vodka – it’s infused with Thai Dragon chilies and carries enough punch to really wake you up in the morning (or afternoon, or evening…).

The Sons of Vancouver Tasting Room is open Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 to 7:00pm. If you’re not looking to cross the bridge though, their products are available all over the city – check out their website for locations. 

All week long we are collaborating with Fall For Local to feature 5 local businesses that will be participating at the Fall for Local event on October 22.  You can read a new post each day during this Week of Local on the Fall for Local blog.

DESIGN LOVE CO.

There’s an adage that relates a woman’s mind to an Internet browser with thousands of tabs open. And as women know, keeping so many tabs organized is a full time job in itself. Which is why Design Love Co. is every woman’s best friend. 

Founded by Marissa Cristina, Design Love Co. is, “the modern woman’s sanctuary for fashionable luxe paper organization”. Currently, the company creates a twelve-month planner. This is no ordinary planner, though—it comes with sections for goal setting, billing / expenses / budgeting, to do lists, and both task—and appointment-based sections for each week. And it’s all bound and designed to fit in a professional and sophisticated book within your purse.

Marissa grew up with an interest in stationary—while most of us were decorating our high school agendas with magazine cut-outs, Marissa was designing her own pockets and finding ways to reorganize its layout. She took business at university for a year and a half before moving into communications. There, she landed an internship in graphic design, focusing on print and pre-press. After taking a yearlong course in typography studies where she learned to bind books, Marissa starting making her own planners. What started out as gifts for friends soon became an Etsy shop. Two years ago, Marissa made Design Love Co. into a full-time job and recently moved into an office space.

Marissa designs and chooses all elements of the planners, which are available on her website in both a black-and-white and a colour version. And when she’s not designing next year’s planner, Marissa is looking for ways to expand the business. With all this going on, it’s a good thing Marissa knows where to get her hands on a good planner!

We’re excited to let you know that we are collaborating with Fall for Local to feature five local businesses that will be part of the Fall for Local event on October 22nd. Starting today, the Fall for Local blog will post a different featured write up each day this week. Head over to fallinlovewithlocal.com/blog to see who we’ve been talking to.

Fall for Local was started by Kelly Turner in Ottawa in 2012 to promote local businesses and encourage collaboration between them. Kelly moved to Vancouver in 2012 and noticed that, despite all the local initiatives in the city, there was no promotion of knowledge sharing and cross collaboration. She teamed up with Pound & Grain, a local digital creative agency, and reached out to local businesses to participate in the city’s inaugural event. It has since grown from an evening soirée into a one-day networking and collaboration event.

This year’s event starts at noon on October 22nd at Heritage Hall (3102 Main Street) with a knowledge sharing “conference” that will feature a panel discussion, a hands-on workshop session, locally sourced snacks and goodies, prizes, an interactive photobooth, and more. A ticket also gets you access to the Pop Up Soirée, a showcase of some of Vancouver’s new and established shops and entrepreneurs. Tickets are $75 before October 8th ($95 after) and are available at fallinlovewithlocal.com.