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This issue marks 15 years of MONTECRISTO Magazine (and the fifth of my tenure as editor). Thinking about how to celebrate this anniversary, it became important to me to look forward as well as back, to look at how this wonderful, complex city we call home continues to evolve.
I did, of course, pull the first-ever issue out of the archives and was happy to find that the core of what this magazine is all about remains the same: stories about interesting people doing interesting things, arts and culture, fashion and design, travel and transportation, food and drink.
In that first issue, we ran a story on the first stirrings of wider interest in electric vehicles, noting Vancouver’s early adoption of technology and interest in greener living. Fifteen years later, the city is one of the main centres of EV ownership per capita in North America, so it felt right to take a look at that growth, what it represents in terms of our current infrastructure, and where it may lead.
We also ran an image by Bev Davies, Vancouver’s irrepressible visual chronicler of the music scene, which continues to thrive against pressure on all sides, staying determinedly live and local. For this issue, I asked our regular online contributor and equally passionate local music writer Allan MacInnis to sit down with his friend and colleague to talk about her work and approach. His interview accompanies a collection of Davies’s favourite shots, many of them iconic in the genre.
Fifteen years ago, we were prepping for the Winter Olympics here and anticipating change on a number of fronts. In advance of the predicted swell in visitors, hotels were refurbished and others built from scratch. One of the more significant new properties was the Fairmont Pacific Rim, which is home to the Taschen Library, a space filled with the publisher’s beautiful oversized art books. We visited the library to speak to one of the imprint’s authors and editors, the creative polymath Jessica Hundley.
The Olympics also positioned Vancouver on the world stage as a city set on a very visible path of reconciliation, with the Four Host First Nations centre stage. In 2024, we are beginning to see what that reconciliation might look like, with our First Nation communities growing their business and cultural influence, perhaps most notably in real estate development. These new projects offer a chance to reframe the land upon which we live and will change city life in ways we can only now imagine. These pages contain a look at the Sen̓áḵw development and how it represents a new frontier for reconciliation.
The cover of our first issue was a reproduction of a work of art. In this issue, we pay tribute to one of Vancouver’s most famous painters, Jack Shadbolt, who deepened the way we look at the world. We also further our commitment to supporting local artists with an original short story by Vancouver mystery scribe Sam Wiebe, who takes as his backdrop another major Vancouver event of the past 15 years, the riot following Vancouver’s Stanley Cup loss.
In food and drink, the late and exceptionally deep frost that swept the Okanagan earlier this year means devastation for this autumn’s harvest. We hear from winemakers across the valley as they navigate the cost of survival and sustainability for their industry. On the happier side, we talk to one of Vancouver’s most celebrated chefs, who has returned after almost 17 years, taking over city institution Le Crocodile. The dining landscape may have shifted since he’s been gone, with more high-quality cookery and the arrival of Michelin, but Rob Feenie is ready to unroll his culinary arsenal and remind Vancouver what he brings to the fine dining table.
Please join us in celebrating 15 years of how MONTECRISTO sees Vancouver’s ever-changing landscape and raise a toast to the years yet to come.
Read more from our Autumn 2024 issue.
