Kick your heels together and say it three times (yes, you, and your little dog, too!): BC IS BACK!

As of today, the province has entered Step 2 of its Restart Plan, which means:

✅ Outdoor personal gatherings, spectators at sporting events and organized seated gatherings (movies, anyone?) of up to 50 people are now permitted;

✅ Recreational travel resumes for people around BC;

✅ Liquor service now allowed at bars and restaurants until midnight!

Just in time for summer, this is your cue to get out (safely) and continue showing your support for cafes, bars, restaurants, breweries, wineries and other businesses around BC!

Welcome back, BC. ❤️ We missed you.

Stand tall. Stay strong. Show love. Support local.

It’s almost time to show the dads in your lives the love — Father’s Day is less than a week away, so whether that involves BBQ, golf or backyard beers, the clock is a-tickin’!

To that end, three local businesses — @thepiehole, @mainstreetbrewing and @onearrowyvr — have joined forces to offer an ULTIMATE FATHER’S DAY GIVEAWAY of pies, bacon and beer via @thepiehole!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

PRIZE:

🥧 One 9" Hickory-Smoked, DOUBLE Bacon Cheeseburger Pie and one 9" Classic Apple Pie from @thepiehole;

🥓$100 of artisanal bacon from @onearrowyvr;

🍻 Four different 6-packs of our Main St. ‘Core Four’ (Pilsner, Naked Fox IPA, Kingpin Pale Ale, and Fruit Bomb Sour) and a Main St. T-shirt to show off that beautiful Dad Bod in all its rippled glory!

TO ENTER:

1) Follow @thepiehole, @onearrowyvr, and @mainstreetbeer;

2) Go to @thepiehole, share their post and tag a friend in the comments!

THE FINE PRINT:

Contest ends Thursday, June 17 at midnight. Not sponsored by or affiliated with Instagram. Good Luck and may the BEST dad win!

However YOUR business is marking Father’s Day this year, let us know by sending us a DM or email to hello@breakingbreadnow.com with all the details so we can help share the love this week!

📸: Janis Nicolay @pineconecamp

Stand tall. Stay strong. Show love. Support local.

An inspirational message and a great lesson in resiliency from Chef Donovan Gomes of Toronto’s @thechickencartel_to in a recent piece by @menumagca.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Donovan was laid off from @elcatrinca — the largest Mexican restaurant in the 6ix. Instead of tossing in the towel, he rolled up his sleeves and got to work on a new project — a pop-up kitchen that he soon hopes to transition into a more permanent brick-and-mortar operation.

While appreciative of government funding at the outset, it wasn’t enough to live on long-term, so he had to create his own opportunities in order to support his family.

“I had a number of business concepts and narrowed it down to chicken. It is affordable, versatile and consumed in many peoples’ homes,” he says “There are so many chicken joints in this city, but I (wanted) to use chicken as the vehicle to celebrate the ethnicities in Toronto that I have been exposed to all my life.”

While he faced some initial challenges in the early stages when it came to start-up and working capital, he has learned new skills along the way that have served him well when it comes to looking at the future of his new venture.

“I’m digesting information that I was never exposed to as an employee. I had to learn things about business ownership,” he says. “It has been a good learning experience in website design and photography.”

For more on Chef Donovan’s unique successful-reinvention-in-the-time-of-COVID story, check out the latest issue of @menumagazine.

Stand tall. Stay strong. Show love. Support local.