Dockside Restaurant Granville Island Hotel

Tucked away on the eastern tip of Granville Island, there’s a jewel of a patio that is consistently voted as one of Vancouver’s best. Protected on three sides by a boutique hotel, the patio is totally set apart from the bustle of the island. The only occasional noise comes from the small vessels criss-crossing False Creek, with the Yaletown skyline and North Shore mountains as a backdrop.

Welcome to Dockside Restaurant and Brewing Company, in the Granville Island Hotel. It’s a rare feature for a hotel — a brewpub right in the middle of the building. Guests can peek in on brew master Peter Haupenthal’s fermenting tanks on the way to and from their rooms. Peter’s an effusive and friendly fellow, with an illustrious brewing pedigree. He got his start in his hometown of Merzig, Germany, and after apprenticeships in that country and neighbouring Switzerland, he obtained a master’s diploma in brewing and malting from the venerable VLB Berlin institute.

After that, his work took him to breweries in a variety of exotic locales, including Nigeria, Bolivia, the Marshall Islands and Belize. Most recently, he spent three years in Cambodia where he started up and ran Kingdom Breweries, the country’s first craft brewery.