Last week I was granted a sneak peek of Craft Beer Market, which is taking shape in the beautiful old Salt Building in the midst of the Olympic Village.
Scheduled to open in October, CBM will boast Canada’s largest selection of draft beer, with 140 taps including a planned 55 from B.C., covering a wide selection of the province’s breweries.
The 13,000-sq. ft. space will have room for 400 seats plus an additional 50 on the patio. A huge oval bar takes centre stage, while there will be two 60-seat mezzanine areas available for private bookings, as well as a private room.
But from what I could gather, the most notable feature will be the giant temperature-controlled keg room. Situated on the main floor behind windows, for all to see, this cooler will hold around 300 kegs at a time and will be the origin of the draft lines sprouting up and out across the wooden beams of the historic building, en route to the bar.
Keg room under construction
Rendering of completed keg room
I have to mention again what a beautiful building this is. I first saw the interior at the Vancouver Craft Beer Week beer festival in 2012, and I was blown away, particularly by the diagonal jumble of ceiling beams that act as a filter for natural light coming through the high windows.
It seemed a tailor-made space for the festival, and now Craft Beer Market — which already has a giant taphouse in Calgary and another underway in Edmonton — is tailoring it to its own specs. Marketing manager Alison Robertson, who showed me around the space last week, said the interior was presented very much as blank canvas for the company’s ideas.
Rendering of the completed bar
The historic nature of the building, then, remains intact; this includes the pillars bracing the main floor — visible from the corridor to the washrooms via full-length windows — which recall when False Creek lapped at the Salt Building’s feet. Now it’s dry in the basement, I could see this space housing some fantastic long-table dinners; but Craft Beer Market has decided to keep it as a storage space for the time being, Robertson told me.
Old trestles underneath Salt Building
Those full-length windows in the basement are just one of many examples of a kind of transparency in the venue. As well as the keg room, the kitchen will be open to view, as will, of course, the view over False Creek to the North Shore mountains, via the patio.
Craft Beer Market has strived to remain completely transparent in the whole planning process, as well. There were grumbles of concern from a few neighbours in the Village when the taphouse was announced; CBM hosted an open night to address any issues their future neighbours might have. The main entrance has been allocated on the south side on 1st Avenue, where there’s less chance of noise reaching the surrounding condos.
As well as being a huge addition to the craft beer scene in Vancouver, Craft Beer Market is set to create between 150 and 200 jobs for the city. A hiring fair has already been held; a second one runs this coming Saturday, Sept. 7. Among those employees will be a line cleaning expert, who will be responsible for maintaining all of those 140 draft lines. (It takes five days to get through them all, apparently.)
Oh yeah, and there will be draft wine, too. And I haven’t even mentioned the food menu, which will aim to promote local produce (and the Calgary menu looks considerably more interesting than most other pubs’). In fact, Robertson told me, Craft Beer Market pitches itself as a restaurant first, albeit a restaurant with a strong beer focus. That means families will be more than welcome.
Above all, Craft Beer Market’s arrival will make for one tasty rivalry with Tap and Barrel, situated not 50 metres north. And you, dear craft beer drinker, will be the winner of that contest.
Some archive photos of the Salt Building, courtesy of Craft Beer Market:
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