Leaving Will, With Grace
by Mark Seal
Where do you send friends for lunch? There's a place called
Market Grill, which has the best burgers in town. That's on
Granville Island, and that's my favorite lunch. It's a booth -
literally like a burger booth. Really fresh burgers and fries. It
has a great salmon burger and a great chicken-teriyaki burger. And
it's right on the water.
How would you spend an afternoon? The view from the Burrard
Street Bridge is just incredible - the view of the ocean, and the
mountains, and of downtown, of Kitsilano, of
Granville Island. One
of my favorite things is going over the Burrard Street Bridge,
particularly on a bicycle. Granville Island is a little island
underneath the Granville Street Bridge. It's where a lot of
personal boats are docked. There are places for kids to play,
restaurants, and a big fresh market - a farmers' market. There are
three different bridges going into downtown; Granville Island is a
great place to see all of them. Next would be South Granville,
which is Granville Street, from probably Third Avenue to Fifteenth
Avenue. It's 12 blocks of really interesting art galleries and
shopping and restaurants. There's a great shop called Liberty that
has hip home furnishings. We have a great table from Liberty. And
there's a great men's store on Broadway called Mark James.
What don't people know about the city? There's a real
artistic community in
Vancouver, and the city is really connected
to the outdoors. It's not a town where you're stuck inside for
two-thirds of the year. There's a lot of rain, but it's not a
freezing-cold, snowed-in winter town, so what a lot of the local
artists are painting is the beauty that they've grown up around.
Another thing that people are into, but I don't do it much, is the
skiing. There are several mountains - Whistler being the most
popular for
skiing. There's tremendous life outside the city. But
when I'm there, I'm usually there for such a short time that I live
downtown, I live in Kitsilano, I live in Granville Island.
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