In Good Spirits: Glam gadget introduces Vancouver to Green Fairy magic

By Joanne Sasvari, Special to The Sun
April 23, 2010, 4:02 PM

As soon as guests spot the new absinthe fountain at West Restaurant (2881 Granville Street), they’re intrigued. With its gleaming glass reservoir, silver taps and mysterious purpose, it evokes a bygone bohemian age when everyone went crazy for a pale green herbal spirit nicknamed the Green Fairy. “The fountain arrived in January, and I love the buzz at the bar it has created,” says David Wolowidnyk, bar manager at the South Granville restaurant. “Absinthe has been misunderstood for ages, and the fountain has become a conversation piece that allows us to debunk some of the myths surrounding the spirit and introduce to people a classic method of serving it.” Read more

Absinthe, you see, is the most unfairly maligned drink ever. “Is it a drug? Is it poisonous? Is it dangerous? No, no and no!” Wolowidnyk insists. “Absinthe was wrongly accused of a crime it did not commit.”

Pictured: David Wolowidnyk, bar manager of West Restaurant, oversees the slow drip of ice water over a sugar cube on a spoon, from a classic absinthe fountain into a glass of absinthe. He says he ‘loves the stuff’ and the stories about it. Photograph by: Ian Smith , PNG