Discover BC’s
South Fraser Region

Just between us, I’m the kind of shameful American who’s only ever made a beeline for Vancouver or Whistler after crossing the U.S.-Canada border. If I’ve ever stopped in Surrey or White Rock, it’s been to buy a box of Timbits. (Like I said: Shameful.) For years, the southern edge of the Greater Vancouver Area was merely an obstacle between me and Stanley Park, the mountain air of Whistler Village, and my next order of Timbits. However, just 15 minutes from the border lies a great selection of local craft beer stops to explore.

So, when the BC Ale Trail invited my buddy Adam and I to spend a few days sipping our way through the breweries south of the Fraser River, I was eager to sample the region’s wide variety of local craft beers, savour its farm-fresh fare and globetrotting cuisines, and enjoy some of the urban greenery all over the likes of Surrey, White Rock, Delta, and Richmond. And this time, I’d abstain from Timbits.

We cross the border on a beautiful August Tuesday and grab lunch at our first stop in Surrey: Kathmandu Bar and Grill. The eatery specializes in Nepalese, Indo-Chinese, and Indian cuisine—and is one of several stops along Surrey’s Spice Trail, which focuses only on global restaurants brings together dozens restaurants across the city of 570,000. We start by splitting a bowl of fried Nepalese momos before noshing on a filling butter chicken dish, well-spiced naan, and tender chicken tikki masala. Every bite of every dish is packed with flavour; it’s clear that time, care, and thought went into each of these recipes, and that dedication to craft is a theme we’ll revisit, time and again, on our trip.

Our next stop is Central City Fun Park, Metro Vancouver’s largest indoor fun park where we’ll briefly escape the 30 C heat. As soon as the first burst of air conditioning blasts us, Adam and I survey the options—which include a bowling alley, flashy arcade games, a skating rink, and a series of rooms designed for creative selfies; one of Central City’s selfie rooms is fashioned to look like a pastel-coloured Parisian bakery, while a wall is adorned with dozens of stuffed teddy bears in another. Still full from lunch and looking for some laid-back fun, we play a round at one of the amusement park’s two mini-golf courses; the video game-themed course takes us through Sonic the Hedgehog’s famous golden rings, forces us to navigate the barrels that Donkey Kong loves throwing so much, and offers plenty of other nostalgia-fueled challenges. We’re having too much fun reliving our game-obsessed youth to keep score, but I’m pretty sure Adam beats me handily.

Next is a flight at Central City Brewers & Distillers. A few TVs play the day’s games in the background, plenty of sunlight filters in through the massive windows, and we peer into the distillery while sipping a few of Central City’s flagship ales and lagers; a tangy cherry sour and a heavy-hitting Belgian ale are among the highlights. I briefly consider ordering a smash burger topped with poutine from the on-site food truck—when in Rome, right?—but remember how full I am and decide to cool off back at the hotel.

Soon after, we arrive at our home for the next two nights: the thoroughly modern Four Points by Sheraton Surrey. The perks of the centrally located gem don’t end at its ideal location next to the highway (handy for getting around Surrey and the Metro Vancouver); the beds are plush, plug-ins and charging ports are plentiful, the fitness centre boasts all the equipment I’ll want for my workouts, and a seating area near the check-in desk provides plenty of space to stretch out away from the chic rooms.

We regroup after checking in and make a game plan for the evening’s craft breweries.

Our night out begins at Russell Brewing Company. The slogan “Live. Laugh. Lager.” is engraved on some of Russell’s wooden tasting-flight boards, which tells us where the brewery’s bread is buttered. Sure enough, Adam and I fawn over Russell’s salted lime lager—which tastes like a day at the beach—and its subtly sweet honey lager. We joke about working our way through Russell’s 12-pour flight, served in a keg lid, but the night is young. Instead, Adam grabs a four-pack for back at the hotel. 

Next up is dinner and beer at Way Back Brew Co. in Surrey’s Panorama Ridge neighbourhood. Way Back draws inspiration from the idyllic beaches and palm trees of Southern California—an influence evident in its airy atmosphere, old-school artwork depicting beach scenes and vintage roller skaters, and a tasting flight that comes inside a wooden surfboard. We play a little pop-culture trivia in between bites of pizza—and are in second place after the first round. We’d love to continue answering questions about European pop stars, old-school rock bands, and the filmography of Will Ferrell, but sunset awaits.

Adam and I head west, racing the setting sun to Crescent Beach in South Surrey. We arrive to find families walking on the thin strip of shoreline, paddlers gliding through the water, and diners feasting on fish-and-chips at a waterside café. Boundary Bay and the North Shore Mountains fight to break through the haze before us; even with a wildfire raging over on Vancouver Island, we enjoy the views and resolve to return on a clear night.

Adam and I have a full day ahead of us, which begins with pastries and a breakfast sandwich at Combine Cafe and Bar. The stylish bistro sources seasonal ingredients from a farm in nearby Southlands Tsawwassen and works those flavours into huevos rancheros, a salmon teriyaki bowl, and other internationally inspired dishes. As I’ll soon learn, Combine’s focus on farm-fresh ingredients is a sign of things to come throughout Surrey and Delta.

Our next stop is Green Timbers Urban Forest Park—an oasis that’s home to a manmade lake, more than 20 kilometres of nature trails, and the fascinating Surrey Nature Centre. In the early 1900s, the old-growth forest here was decimated by rampant logging, a practice that ended in 1929. Since then, advocates have spent nearly a century restoring the forest to its former glory, as evidenced by the growing trees, wide range of ecosystems, and a thriving wildlife population that calls the park home today.

Adam and I walk around the lake, photograph the many adorable ducks indifferent to our presence, try to see resident beavers darting between cattails in the wetlands, and dive into the area’s history at the nearby Surry Nature Centre. Wherever Adam and I go, we can still hear cars and trucks drive by—yet it feels a world away from the hustle and bustle of one of British Columbia’s fastest-growing cities.

Adam and I celebrate the outdoor adventure over a flight at the charming 3 Dogs Brewing in White Rock. The pup-friendly brewery hosts a spacious patio, its taster trays are shaped like dog paws, and “dog flights” come with treats for our furry friends. I’m overwhelmed by the dozen or so creative choices on tap—but appreciate the easy-drinking radler and tropical guava sour; they pair well with the brewery’s signature hot dogs, which we enjoy next to public art pieces and high-rise condos. 

We walk a block over to the uptown tasting room at White Rock Beach Beer Company, where Adam and I chat with co-owner Bill Haddow for nearly two breezy hours. White Rock’s first craft brewery opened in 2013 and has remained a local stalwart for crafting dialled-in takes on old-school styles. I enjoy everything I try—and appreciate that White Rock isn’t chasing the latest trends. Highlights include a bready pilsner and a caramel-tinged brown ale, both brews I could have enjoyed when I fell in love with craft beer more than a decade ago.

The brewery takes a coast-influenced approach to its taproom—a surfboard hangs over the bar—and it’s a choice that Haddow explains by saying, “When you get down to the beach, you’ll understand.” With a little time to kill before dinner, we head down to the 470-metre-long White Rock Pier—and grasp the vibes Haddow was going for. Food vendors sell handheld dishes out of brightly coloured stalls along the promenade, families cool off in the knee-high waters below the pier, and views extend south to the San Juan Islands and north to the hillsides behind White Rock.

Dinner tonight is at Afghan Kitchen, which opened in 2017 and today delivers an appetizing blend of Pacific Northwest and Afghani traditions in South Surrey. Chef Ehsan takes time to explain that our burrata, for instance, comes with tomatoes sourced from a farm down the street, and is topped with dill, an important herb in Afghan cuisine. Adam’s slow-cooked lamb shank, meanwhile, falls right off the bone. We’re so lost in the magic of the meal, we say little while inhaling as much as our bodies will allow. Adam washes it down with a Belgian witbier infused with Afghan spices, and we both ponder how soon we can return.

Foodie Tip: Afghan Kitchen is one of the stops on the Surrey Spice of Life Tour, a curated, guided food experience along the Surrey Spice Trail.

Our epic day ends with a behind-the-scenes tour at Mainland Whisky, a craft distillery tucked away in an unassuming office park in South Surrey’s Campbell Heights neighbourhood. Owner Steve Watts gives us a mini intro of their “The Art of Distilling – The Mainland Whisky Story” tour while sharing change-making moments from his own distilling journey—first seeing a ramshackle still at a house party in the citrus fields of southern Texas, navigating the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as a brand-new distillery, and experimenting with sound to speed up the aging process. The tour wraps up with a hearty “cheers” over samples of smooth, vanilla-tinged whisky and cocktails crafted with (among other ingredients) Dr. Pepper.

Extra insights: Today we learned about the Surrey Signature Experience and visited two participating business, Afghan Kitchen and Mainland Whisky. It’s more than just food and drink — Surrey’s bookable, locally led experiences are a window into the city’s heritage and depth, shared through its people and stories.

Our time in Surrey wraps up with breakfast at Ruex Café and Bar. The stylish bistro resides downtown and dishes an appetizing mix of Instagram-worthy brunch dishes; my pork belly eggs Benedict arrives perfectly tender, and the roasted red pepper hollandaise adds a whiff of heat to the dish. Adam, meanwhile, devours a biscuity Biscoff French Toast.

We head west—from the bustle of Surrey to Steveston, a harbour and Richmond neighbourhood at the western edge of the Greater Vancouver Area. Dozens of fishing boats are docked near where the Fraser River, British Columbia’s longest waterway, flows into the Pacific Ocean. We visit Fisherman’s Wharf, where anglers sell the day’s catches straight from the boat. The vessels are ringed by teal-hued waters—the byproduct of the Fraser’s glacial runoff.

Lunch today comes courtesy of Hog Shack Cook House, which sits a few steps from the water and specializes in a saucy brand of Kansas City-style barbecue. I take what feels like hours trying to decide among Hog Shack’s many meats and sides before settling on a satisfying combo plate that includes tender brisket, a flavorful mound of pulled pork, and a piece of moist cornbread. On our visit, we learn that the Hog Shack is the Lower Mainland’s only establishment to serve only craft beer—with nary a Molson’s or Coors Light to be found.

From there, we head to Fuggles Beer Co.—Richmond’s first brewery and something of a nerdy hangout where comic-book covers line one wall and board games wait to be played in the corner. Sebastian, the brewery’s production manager, leads a brewery tour and walks us through the Fuggles lineup of fruit-forward ales. Adam and I gush over the paloma sour ale (sporting strong grapefruit flavours), a well-balanced mango wheat ale, and a coconut-tinged porter. To a beer, they taste like summer in a glass; even the porter boasts subtle, Caribbean-inspired flavours.

We check into our spacious suite at the Coast Tsawwassen Inn, which resides in the leafy Delta neighbourhood of the same name. The room affords plenty of space to stretch out, Adam makes good use of the in-room coffeemaker during our stay, and the location makes it easy to see some of the nearby parks.

While Adam takes a little downtime, I decide to visit a few of the local parks. The outing takes me to Deas Island Regional Park, where I walk along the Fraser River and, at one point, through a veritable tunnel of trees; Burns Bog, home to the Delta Nature Reserve—the largest undeveloped urban landscape in North America; and Centennial Beach at Boundary Bay Regional Park, whose views extend eastward toward Surrey and White Rock. (Pro tip: If you’re inspired to follow in my footsteps, consider saving one or two parks for Day Four; I wanted to visit the parks before an atmospheric river arrived in Delta the following day and packed the trips into a busy afternoon.)

For dinner, we snag a corner table at the tony Four Winds Beach House & Brewery. Natural wood ceilings arch high overhead while a fireplace sits in the heart of the spacious dining room. Housed in the growing Southlands development, the beer hall pairs its eclectic beers with a lineup of Pacific Northwest-inspired fare. A mango passionfruit hazy pale ale bursts with bright, tropical flavours, and the crisp Czech dark lager delivers the slightest hints of coffee bitterness. Dinner itself is a perfectly flaky filet of beer-battered, wild-caught lingcod—a decidedly upscale take on the down-home favourite.

Our final full day of the trip begins, down the street from our hotel, with light bites at L’aromas Cafe & Bar. I eat a breakfast sandwich from the local chain while talking with Adam about how to spend our final day in Delta—rain and all.

We spend a few minutes browsing the old-school storefronts in Ladner Village before crossing the Fraser River to visit Westham Island. On the way, we pass stalks of corn swaying in the breeze, strawberry patches, wheat fields that somehow still glow under cloud cover, and vibrant sunflowers—the surest sign yet that we’ve left behind the hustle and bustle of the big city.

As we soon find out, the farms offer clues for what’s to come. 

Our first stop on Westham Island is Emma Lea Farms. If the weather had been nicer, or if we’d been prepared with boots and rain-proof gear, we might have grabbed a few berries from Emma Lea’s U-pick field out back. Instead, we salivate over the farm store’s selection before departing with pints of fresh-picked strawberries and blueberries. (In case you’re wondering: No, our haul won’t survive to the end of the trip.)

Just down the road, we stop into the store at Westham Island Herb Farm, where an explosion of colour sprawls out in every direction. Bright orange carrots tumble out of a bucket alongside pints of peaches and berries. Tomatoes come in shades of red I’ve never seen before. Dried bouquets of purple and yellow flowers hang from the ceiling. We marvel at crimson, softball-sized beets. Even one of the walls is painted a brilliant golden-orange hue.

Up next is the Four Winds Brewing Co. Taproom and Kitchen in Tilbury. After last night’s dinner, I was eager to try more of the Four Winds lineup at the brewery’s second (original) location, which totals more than a dozen beers and spotlights standard styles alongside innovative offerings. My flight covers all the bases—hops imbue my pilsner with a subtle, citrus-tinged bitterness, while the Juxtapose IPA dials back the dankness of most Pacific Northwest IPAs for a refreshing, tropical-inspired approach. 

What makes the breweries in Richmond and Delta worth visiting, though, isn’t just that they produce solid craft beers—though we’ve yet to try anything less than excellent. But over the past few days, in talking with tasting room employees and passionate brewers, Adam and I started noticing how much of a connection these breweries feel to the land around them. Ingredients for ales and lagers are sourced from as close as possible, as often as possible, while food menus routinely shift to incorporate whatever’s fresh and in-season. We’re surrounded by some of the most fertile farmland in North America, and Lower Mainland breweries embrace that with open arms.

Nowhere is that more true than at Barnside Brewing Co., where the area’s agricultural past and present collide in countless fascinating ways. The brewpub resides in a building that was crafted with reclaimed timber from a pair of century-old barns; the brewery grows its grains on site and hops across the street; and the berries for my perfectly tart strawberry sour were sourced from Emma Lea Farms—just 11 kilometres away. Nearby growers, farmers, and producers who make it all possible are shouted out on a chalkboard in the tasting room.

Barnside’s chips and dip came highly recommended by friendly locals, and, sure enough, the house-made dip is infused with fresh, Westham Island dill. Co-owner Ken Malenstyn stops by our table to share the Barnside story, and I struggle to pull myself away from my gooey grilled cheese sandwich—served with B.C.-grown-and-crafted pickles, of course—long enough to thank him for all the work he and his team have done.

We relax after lunch and regroup for dinner at Il Posto in Ladner Village. The eatery clearly takes a serious approach to its well-crafted lineup of wood-fired pizzas, creative bruschetta, and hearty, house-made pasta dishes—but I’m charmed by how playful it all feels. A copy of Massimo Bottura’s Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef lines the wall, acting as a kind of mission statement for Il Posto’s casual vibes, and a joking dictionary definition of the word “hangry”—a portmanteau of “hungry” and “angry”—winks at the satisfaction that comes from a filling meal of Italian favourites.

Our plan today is to grab a quick breakfast before going our separate ways; Adam is driving back to his home on the Oregon Coast, while I’m heading east to begin my next BC Ale Trail adventure.

In the meantime, we gather at Nat’s Coffee House, a friendly neighbourhood shop whose seats next to the stone fireplace must be a hot ticket on soggy fall and winter mornings. I opt for a vegetarian breakfast burrito and am surprised at how flavourful and filling it is, even without bacon or ham, and snag a pair of pastries for the road.

While Adam’s coffee cools, we take a few moments to debrief on the whirlwind we’ve experienced. Surrey and White Rock gave us a taste of the Greater Vancouver Area’s international flair and cosmopolitan energy—where passionate chefs share cuisines from across the world, cutting-edge taprooms reside in the shadow of high-rise condos, and bucolic parks offer a respite amidst it all. Delta and Richmond, meanwhile, forced us to slow down and embrace a quieter—yet no less fulfilling—way to travel; we tasted the flavours of the region and experienced a connection to the land that deepened our appreciation for every sip and bite along the way. In the midst of it all, we got outside and marvelled at how the region’s growing communities have retained their countless natural charms. 

We’ve always known that Vancouver is the sun around which the rest of the Lower Mainland orbits—but we learned this week how much there is to see and do beyond the big-city sights. We can’t wait to return. And while I can’t speak for Adam, I didn’t miss the Timbits.