In The Weeds Podcast

Victoria Bartender and hospitality entrepreneur Shawn Soole is arguably the city's best-known bar and beverage expert.

Since arriving from his native Australia, Shawn's impact on the Victoria bar scene has been epic.  His involvement as bar manager at Clive's Classic Lounge helped grow cocktails culture dramatically in our city.  After that, his resume grew to include names such as Little Jumbo, Foxtrot Tang...

Have you ever thought about visiting Italy, but there's a global pandemic getting in your way?  We all hate it when that happens.  But lucky for you, Matty and Janel from Papooch's Truffles are here to bring beautiful flavors of Italy to you.

Bringing delicious products from Abruzzo Italy, where Matty's family comes from, to local chefs in Victoria has been an amazing way to share the love they have for both...

Some keen observers might have noticed a missing component in our podcast over the past few months.  And no, before you say it, not our social media presence... that's always been bad!!

I'm referring of course to the Athos to our Three Musketeers, the Dusty Bottoms to our Three Amigos, the Larry to our Threes Stooges, Mr. Andrew Johnson.

In January, after years of pondering, AJ found the courage to strik...

Dallas Harwood is half of the team behind The Vic Food Guys, a podcast and social media team dedicated to supporting the YYJ food scene.  And "dedicated" is definitely not an overstatement.  Especially because he does not work in the industry.  The ITW crew were struck by Dallas' passion and deep care for the people that nourish us.

The Vic Food Guys have been selflessly shinning a light on restaurants throu...

Some people are just naturally talented.  Enter Andrew Paumier, co-owner of Indecent Risotto.  He and his partner Shannon, both in life and business, have been slingin' arancini balls all around the CRD since 2016. 

Aside from being obviously charming and a delight to speak with, Andrew has dedicated his career to supporting the community.  Whether it be bringing people together one arancini at a time, sharing his ad...

This week on In The Weeds, Franz & Remi spoke with Brian Tesolin, Executive Chef for The Courtney Room at The Magnolia Hotel & Spa. 

Brian has worked for a number of very highly respected restaurants in his career, most notably but not limited to Sous Chef for for Hawksworth Restaurant in Vancouver and Langdon Hall in Cambridge, Ontario.

Lucky for us, he's found a home here in Victoria where he has be...

We've all experienced a terrible veggie burger haven't we?  You know the earmark; dry, under seasoned and completely lacking in any semblance of love.

Michell Scott and business partner James Davidson were tired of the type of veggie alternatives you reheat in a toaster.  So they decided to do something about that.  Michell is the business-brain behind product development at The Very Good Food Co.

From h...

A little under 13 months ago, we embarked on this podcast journey.

While Covid was certainly on everyone's mind, we soon realized that the real focus needed to be on the beautiful characters that have dedicated their lives to food & beverage.

Meet Chef Dan Bain.  Again.

For the second time, ITW's first repeat guest talks us through some of the challenges and innovations he's experienced...

This week we are treated to a conversation with Rachelle Cornish who is currently working her magic at Cold Comfort.

This amazing pastry chef started off as a graphic designer but decided to drop that and pursue her passion in baking.  Because of her hard work and dedication, she was able to work with some amazing companies like Fol Epi and Cobs Bread, traveled to Australia to work at some pretty awesome places and come ba...

This week our guests are Shane Harwood and Kyle Clayton of Haus Sausage Co.  These guys have been work like hell for the past 5 years to make their dreams come true.  

Starting off renting kitchen space to use after hours, work until the sun came up and doing all this all by themselves.  Oh ya, did I mention that they did this after they had already worked a full shift at their other jobs?  But it was all worth it.  The ha...

This week, we get to hang out with Chris and Stu from Dobell Sign Co.  These two wonderful Aussie's have been making an impact on the culture of Victoria for the past 15 years.

You can see their work all over Victoria like the sign of the Government Street Tattoo Parlour, their work at the Drake and most famously, their huge contribution with Phillips Brewery along with many others.  Their personal and professional ap...

In 2017, Zac and Julie left the corporate world behind and took a massive leap of faith into the new and exciting waters of owning their own vineyard.

But it wasn't just a dream and any old plot of land.  After much consideration, they fell in love with and took over ownership from Roger and Nancy Dosman of Alderlea vineyards..

Wine nerd alert!!!  This episode is packed with information.  Join us as we discus...

These days, it can be so rare to find someone in food & beverage who just gets it.  Someone who truly believes in hospitality and all the subtleties that just make the whole experience click into place.

On the off chance you aren't acquainted with this lovely human, meet Patrick Francis.

A hospitality pro through and through, Patrick has worked with some of the most celebrated restaurants in BC.  From Haw...

This week on ITW, we get a masterclass on cidermaking from Kristen Needham. She is the founder, president  and cidermaster at Sea Cider, located on the Saanich Peninsula here on Vancouver Island. We take a deep dive into what it takes to build, farm and bottle world class cider (and a pre-COVID events space). We aren't talking 2L Mountain Berry "Alco-pops" either.  We learn all about different apple varieties, the di...

Scones. Scones? You heard me. Scones. But not just any scones. Sidney Scones. This week on ITW we speak to Chelsea Columbus, the Wonder Woman behind some fo the tastiest baked goods on the planet. 

We take a look in the rearview mirror to see how Sidney Scones came to be and track Chelsea's trajectory to the baked good super star she is today. 

It's a perfectly sweet episode for Valentine's Day! So ...

What do you get when you mix a British environmentalist turned blacksmith  with a heavy machine fabricator? Charm, humour, chaos and lots of hot metal! This is the second time we have tried to connect with these two and it was completely worth the wait. Leechtown Blacksmith Company from Metchosin is Jake James - @jakeblacksmith and  Ryan Fogarty - @fogartomic.  Together they craft some of Canada's finest metalwork pieces plus ...

After a one month hiatus which (maybe) left our listeners foaming at the mouth, we are back for season 2. We've got some great guests lined up with some surprises along the way. 

Our first guest of the year is none other than Calen "Big Wheel" McNeil.  As the name suggests, Calen is one of the founders of Big Wheel Burger and Zambri's restaurant.  It's understandable to be impressed by that list al...