5 Beautifully Designed Bars Across Western Canada

There’s something about a well-designed bar that makes for a beautiful evening—either with friends or alone. Where a clean, well-lit place sets the tone for the Hemingways of the world, sidling up to a relaxed spot at the bar with just the right lighting, wood tones, dazzling table tops and comfortable seating makes for the moment of serenity that any bar-goer is searching for, whether you’re writing a memoir or not.

Here are a few of our favourites, from East Vancouver to Edmonton.

It’s Okay Bar (East Vancouver)

Design 25 winners Studio Roslyn by Kate Snyder and Jessica MacDonald (along with senior designer Courtney Hundseth) embraced a bygone era with retro checkered carpet, a curtained bar canopy and disco ball decor when designing East Vancouver’s It’s Okay bar. Bold details (and the giant collage of Magic Johnson) are balanced by a muted palette of reds, purples and dark wood. It’s cozy but not cramped; eclectic but not messy; nostalgic but not dated—a slam dunk.

Wilfred’s (Edmonton)

Located in a quaint 100-year-old heritage brick building, Wilfred’s is a Paris-inspired diner on the west edge of Edmonton’s Brewery District. Romantic, heavy-on-the-millennial-pink restaurant in Edmonton, takes cues from the City of Love. Punches of black and brass balance a delicate palette of blush pinks, which shine in details like the Chromatica tiles by Stone Tile that decorate Wilfred’s bar-front. Working with Makespace Group, owner Shaun Brandt sought to create a cozy, intimate feel that borrowed from the French city’s food scene without compromising Wilfred’s diner DNA: a custom toffee-hued banquette runs along the length of one wall, welcoming parties of all sizes, while a series of leather-upholstered stools at the white-oak bar invites guests to stay a while.

Good Thief (Vancouver)

Vietnamese traditions, creative cocktails and innovative design come together at this Main Street restaurant. With a mix of velvety curtains, quartzite, warm woods, rattan and brushed brass, Ste. Marie created a cool dining room that embraces ‘nhậu’ (socially drinking and feasting). The modular bar incorporates cutting boards, ice storage, freezers and more to give the staff everything they need to produce complex drinks comfortably and at scale. There’s hidden storage aplenty in Good Thief—in the banquette seating, under the bar, in shelving above the tables and above the washroom ceiling.

Bar Chouette (Calgary)

Designer Courtney Molyneaux revitalized French bistro, Bar Chouette, with vibrant lighting, custom neon signs and playful decor, making it a standout in Calgary’s Beltline. Molyneaux and the team at Amanda Hamilton Interior Design brainstormed ways that the contemporary French bistro could grab the attention of patrons passing by. Globo pendants from Lightform; hung at varying heights, create a cozy, intimate atmosphere that beckons people to come in for dinner and late-night drinks. She also refreshed the walls with plaster to give the room a more warm and lived-in look, plus Andy Warhol-inspired wallpaper lines the bathrooms. “We wanted to put a cool edge on a vintage interior without it feeling too old-school,” she said at the time.

Straight and Marrow (Vancouver)

Genevieve Legg, founder and owner of Formed 4 Design, set out to transform a 108-year-old commercial space into a modern eatery back in 2020, and she did it. Electrical cable, conveyor belt wheels and gears and cogs (all gold-painted and primed) make up Straight and Marrow’s 23-foot feature wall. Legg and design colleague Leah Bradley updated the original mahogany tables by scorching them with a Tiger torch, then whipping them with chains and hammers. Wood panelling around the zinc bar top was switched out for a vintage metal wrap. The chairs were reupholstered in stitched, soft brown vinyl and the spherical pendant lights were given a metal makeover with hand-bent copper that Legg and Bradley salvaged from a local scrapyard. Behind the zinc bar, old barn wood was jigsawed to create shelving.