Vitamin Daily Vancouver reader Kristy wrote, “Hi! I would love your advice on some venues for my friend's stagette in Vancouver. Dinner and dancing, classy and fun but not over-the-top expensive. Thanks!”

Herewith, our picks for a special stagette sans Chippendales and heavy spending:

Keep the party all in one place at Calabash on the edge of Gastown. Dine upstairs on Caribbean fare then move your crew downstairs to its subterranean lounge for cocktails and cutting a rug. Pose for photos in the old elevator car situated conveniently close to the dance floor and DJ booth.

In Chinatown, three hip haunts are all within stiletto distance. Start with supper at Chinese brasserie Bao Bei, followed-up with a post-dinner drink at the Keefer Bar to really loosen your dance legs for a finish at Fortune Sound Club.

Do it a little differently on Commercial Drive by taking an evening Burlesque, Bollywood or Salsa class with the girls at Drive Dance Centre then head up the street to Havana for Nuevo Latino cuisine and pitchers of fresh strawberry mojito.

The devil on one shoulder is coaxing us to stay out late again while the angel on the other begs us to stay in and play Scrabble.

At new Gastown joint Guilt & Company, we can satisfy our angels and demons. Situated in the brick underbelly of Chill Winston, the bar and live venue serves up boozy drinks and classic board games into the wee hours.

Check out their free comedy nights on Wednesdays (while you play chess) and order yourself a “Lying Eyes” cocktail ($12), which comes with a Polaroid picture of you and your crew.

And if Trouble is what you’re looking for, they’ve got that game too.

Guilt & Company, 1 Alexander St. (downstairs), Vancouver, 604-288-1704, www.guiltandcompany.com

Your veggies are domestic and so is your dining table, so how come your vodka comes from France? 

Pemberton, B.C.’s new Schramm craft vodka ($50), made by 32-year-old master distiller Tyler Schramm, is the only certified organic potato vodka in the world.

The winner of Double Gold at the World Sprits Awards in Europe, it’s a sipping vodka with a floral nose and creamy finish that goes down more like a French marc.

So now there is less guilt buying all your clothes from Vanessa Bruno and Isabel Marant.

Schramm Vodka tastings and tours, $6, Thursday-Sunday, 1954 Venture Place, Pemberton, B.C., 604-894-0222, www.pembertondistillery.ca
For retailers, click here.

Prep school is meant to prepare you for the rigors of upper academia, but what most of us learned about liquor as pupils was unsanctioned and no more sophisticated than coolers, kegs and shooters. Now that we’re grown, we’ve graduated to The Diamond Preparatory School For All Things Drink.

Known for serving up serious cocktails, the Gastown establishment is now offering courses for aspiring bartenders and amateurs alike hoping to master mixology. In Classic Cocktails 101, we were taught the basics of making six smart drinks—from the proper stirring technique for a margarita to how long a whiskey sour should be shaken—by owner Josh Pape, who first demonstrated (and let us sample) and then coached us through crafting two of our own.

Their next classes, Gin & Gin Cocktails and How to Stock Your Home Bar & Throw a Cocktail Party ($90 each), are this weekend. But if you’re all booked up, they’re also available for private tutoring.

The Diamond Preparatory School For All Things Drink, 6 Powell St., Vancouver, www.di6mond.com, for more information and to enroll email school@di6mond.com

You could wear your Vancouver pride on your sleeve, or you could pour it in your glass.

With its graphic, pop art label designed by artist Douglas Fraser, Absolut Vancouver pays tribute to our city’s biggest assets: sea, sky and snow-capped mountains. The limited-edition bottle is first of its kind in Canada and available exclusively in B.C., making it a less ubiquitous souvenir to gift out-of-towners.

There’s also an artistic after-effect of taking one home—a dollar from every bottle goes towards a local arts project that you vote for.

That’s the spirit!

$25.95 at B.C. Liquor Stores.

Pristine white tablecloths, red velvet wallpaper, and century-old antiques—there’s nothing poor about Pourhouse.

Within the historic brick and beam Leckie Building, the long-awaited restaurant tips its fedora to Prohibition-era speakeasies, serving up classic cocktails and comfort food, but with a 20th century twist.

Pull up a leather-studded stool at the beautiful 25-seat bar and order yourself a Gold Fashioned ($12), sweetened with maple syrup, by star bartender Jay Jones. When the Maker’s Mark starts going to your head, it’s time for a plate of scallops, crispy Sloping Hills pork belly and horseradish-applesauce ($14).

Welcome to the Pourhouse.

Pourhouse, 162 Water St., Vancouver, 604-568-7022, www.pourhousevancouver.com 

The old Habit doesn’t die hard—nine months after a kitchen fire took them out of commission, the nouveau-hippie hot spot is back with a new bag of tricks.

There’s the new (albeit retro) design that looks like your grandparents den—if they were swingers—with leather button-back booths, red orange Eiffel chairs and a wall of shag in the woodsy rainbow that typified the Seventies.

There’s the new (albeit classic) cocktails, like the Tequila Sunrise, retold with fresh, natural ingredients that each come in separate glasses, with directions and a personal-sized shaker to mix up one’s own.

And there’s the new menu that includes old standbys like tuna casserole, but with a twist—think seared albacore instead of the flaky stuff, penne, organic mushrooms and asparagus in a parmesan-panko crust.

This Habit we keep, not kick.

Habit, 2610 Main St., Vancouver, 604-877-8582, www.habitlounge.ca

George Ultra Lounge bartender Shaun Layton, fresh off his first place win at London, England’s National Bombay Sapphire Cocktail Competition, mixed us his winning elixir, the London Vine.

We suggest ordering two, one for you and the other for Bradley Cooper (He’s Just Not that Into You) whom we spotted there last Friday, incognito in a ball cap, fatigue vest, and jeans. Bottoms up, Bradley!

London Vine

60 ml Bombay Sapphire Gin
15 ml fresh grapefruit juice
15 ml vanilla simple syrup
15 ml B.C. Pinot Noir
Dash Campari
Lemon zest (1 inch piece)
1 black plum, pit removed and quartered

Method

Muddle lemon peel and plum in mixing glass, add other ingredients and shake well. Fine strain, plum fan garnish.

George Ultra Lounge, 1137 Hamilton St., Vancouver, 604-628-5555, www.georgelounge.com

Granville Street may not be the epitome of refinement, particularly come 12 a.m., but there’s a restaurant that overlooks the late night licentiousness that could very well redefine its rep. Herewith, a few things that make The Refinery so fine.

1. The top-to-bottom thought that went into its cool, eco-friendly design, including Kirei board tables, reclaimed fir beams, recyclable Herman Miller Eames chairs, energy efficient LED lighting, and the list goes on.

2. Complex cocktails ($10-$14) crafted by award-winning mixologist Lauren Mote that are made to be healthier for you, with fresh ingredients and sweeteners like vitamin and mineral-loaded blackstrap molasses. Did we mention they’re downright delicious too?

3. That while the locally sourced and cured in-house charcuterie and seafood is not to missed, they give ode to the former famous patron of the space, The Sugar Refinery, with a vegetarian board ($18) of preserved garden goodies.

4. They filter and bottle their own still water on-site (as good as off the glacier). They compost. They even have bicycle storage to encourage staff to get to work in a more sustainable way.

5. All these refined reasons to brag, yet it remains totally down-to-earth.

The Refinery, 1115 Granville St. (upstairs from Sip Lounge), Vancouver, 604-687-8001, www.therefineryvancouver.com

Marilyn would say diamonds are a girl’s best friend, and we’d agree, only our Diamond looks good and serves up drinks too.

The bar, in the classic, cool sense of the word, is a Gastown gem right out of the gate. As soon as you ascend its dark staircase, nab the far corner table that gives a prime view of the Gassy Jack landmark, as well as the interior bedecked in brick, custom diamond wallpaper and a bit of tropical verdure.

Make the cocktail menu your personality test. Broken into boozy, refreshing, delicate, proper, notorious and not so boozy sections, with icons of the glass they come in, we turned out “refreshingly tall and short on notorious” thanks to signature drink Colin’s Lawn ($7) combining sake, vodka, Kaffir lime, mint and soda. To ensure we didn’t turn scandalous, we filled up on above par bar snacks like handmade pork and shitake gyoza ($5) and citrusy rock cod ceviche ($12).

Looks like we've found the perfect place to mine for a flawless sparkler. Huge rock, anyone?

The Diamond, 6 Powell St., Vancouver, www.di6mond.com