Vancouver bar owner finally gets liquor primary licence -- $40K and 18 months later
A Vancouver bar owner can finally set the vibe he wanted for his establishment after getting a liquor primary licence approved. But it was such an intense, expensive, and emotionally taxing process that he would never do it again, even as an industry veteran.
Cameron Bogue is the owner of Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions, a bar tucked into the industrial area where Broadway, Olympic Village, and Mount Pleasant converge.
He had a vision of creating a bar that also serves as a community gathering space where folks can mingle and hang out. Nothing groundbreaking, but something fun and different than your average public house, and more like what you’d find in other major cities.
His whole life is food and beverage and he’s got 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry, including running the beverage program at Earls Restaurants in the past.
“I’ve opened this because it’s my dream,” Bogue told Daily Hive. Vancouver is his favourite city in the world, and he saw “a huge opportunity to help the market, influence it and bring something cool to the city.”
But it was a long road to getting the licence he wanted, and while now Bogue can celebrate getting his new licence, it was hard fought and his story sheds light on the challenges that many bars are facing in the city.
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Mount Pleasant Vintage
The bar is located at 67 West 6th Avenue, and it’s where Bogue wanted to be since the start of his journey to bring Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions to life. “This area just has such a cool [demographic] and we’re only three blocks off the beaten path so we can be a bit more rowdy and have a bit more fun.”
Today, the vibe is like a ’90s house party, and Bogue insists he’s not reinventing the wheel with his bar, but it’s still unique to Vancouver.
“The offering is just something Vancouver doesn’t have because we’re pigeonholed into this liquor licensing system that makes everything either a restaurant or a nightclub,” he said.
Bar or Restaurant?
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In Vancouver, to boil the complicated licensing processes down to simple terms, you can either be a restaurant (Food Primary establishment) or a bar (liquor primary establishment), and there are fewer bar licences available than restaurants.
When Bogue first started out, he simultaneously applied for both a Food Primary Liquor Licence, which he knew he would get relatively soon, and a Dual Licence Liquor Primary, which he knew would be a long, laborious process.
Becoming a bar
Essentially the only thing that’s changed day to day in his establishment after an 18-month process is that now Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provisions is open later and folks may stand at the bar.
“Vancouver’s demonized it by saying you can’t stand at a bar… and we’ve lost this sense of community,” said Bogue. “If you can open a bar in Vancouver you can open a bar anywhere because the challenges are just monumental… I’m never opening another restaurant in this market ever again.”
Successes and fears
While the road to getting his liquor primary licence was long and expensive, the original budget for the process was $25,000, but it ended up being $40,000, it was also filled with fear and uncertainty.
“The hardest part was the emotions,” said Bogue. “This process consisted of the city’s delayed timelines, one-way communication of them just telling us what to do, no dialogue,” said Bogue.
The most intense part of the process was going to City Hall. “You sit in this terrifying room with 20-foot ceilings, it looks like you’re in the f***** bat cave as the councillors sit around a U-shaped table,” said Bogue. “At that moment, the public gets to speak in opposition, I have to rally support in favour… My life was in the balance of their hands at that very moment.”
Bogue, who double-mortgaged his home and put down $2.75 million into his bar, got five minutes to say his piece before City councillors voted yes or no on the spot.
“Where I am is where I wanted to be,” said Bogue in the aftermath. “I knew the challenges coming into this.” The hardest part is how relentlessly unwelcome he feels as a bar operator in the city. Things are better now, with the new licence, but far from a perfect success story.
“Yes, we’re having a lot of fun, but success is a poor assumption,” said Bogue. “It’s razor-thin margins, it’s supper challenging.”
Vancouver’s future as a fun city
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Bogue said that the City’s liquor licensing process is hurting young creatives and entrepreneurs, preventing anything fun and innovative from emerging.
“This is a city run by rich-a** m************, and the opportunity isn’t here for us. There’s no incentive, the City is fighting against us for bringing in cool concepts… it’s a fight every day to try to do something cool,” said Bogue.
He wants to see the City liberalize zoning and step out of its ultra-conservative zoning and liquor licensing processes. On Friday, Mayor Ken Sim will make an announcement on the patio at Mount Pleasant Vintage. Daily Hive has reached out to the City to learn more.
“I’m here because I want to make waves. I want to be in the boat with the operators and change this game.”
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