Beer and a Curry is Bringing the Best of a British Sunday to Vancouver

Get ready for the work week with Indian food and craft beer.

Sunday afternoons can be rough. We get it. All the things you didn’t get to do on the weekend lie behind you, and a long work week stretches ahead. Times like these require a lesson in quashing existential dread from the people who do it best: the British. Drawing inspiration from the great British pub traditions, Jenni Baynham—formerly an editor at this magazine—and Jo Owen are putting together a new monthly event for Vancouverites. It’s called Beer and a Curry, and it’s exactly what we need before a Monday. “I’m from Scotland, and Jo is English,” says Baynham, “In the U.K. there’s a really popular tradition of going out for a beer and a curry on a Sunday night before work. It’s not about drinking a lot, more of a chance to eat and chat with your friends over a few beers before the workweek starts.” When they moved to Vancouver, Baynham and Owen tried to keep that tradition alive, going out for Indian on Sunday nights. They found great Indian food in town, but noticed that the city’s vibrant craft beer scene hadn’t worked its way into many curry houses. “We kept talking about how that was such a shame until eventually we decided to do something about it,” says Baynham.  “We shopped it around to a few breweries who loved the idea and hired Raj Thandi as our chef for the first event,” Baynham says. Thandi specializes in Indian comfort food with curries made from scratch roti made with her mum’s recipe. They decided on Main St. Brewing for their first go on Sunday, July 8th. Homemade roti (Photo: courtesy Beer and a Curry)For $35 guests get a beer and a seat at the communal table. Curries—one veg and one meat with plenty of roti to go around—will be served family-style. Everyone is welcome to seconds, thirds, and fourths, and Main St. will be pouring extra beers at $5 a pop. Dinner on the 8th will be all about the curry, beer, and conversation, but Baynham and Owen want to work some themes into their future events. “Some breweries want to have a bring your dog night, and one brewery in North Van wants to incorporate a hike into the event,” Baynham says, “more of the casual stuff you want to do on a Sunday night.”  Whatever they have planned, we’re pretty into the idea of wolfing down curries to decompress before Monday.

Beer and a Curry x Main St. Brewing Co.  Sunday, July 8 (7:00 PM to 9:30 PM) Main Street Brewing Co, 261 East 7th Ave. Vancouver  Tickets and more info here