When we were first told about meeting at Bearfoot Bistro, Rob and I were really confused. Vodka drinking in a cold room? Thoughts of being in a big cold room just made me think about the walk-in coolers at Real Canadian Wholesales. Turns out this was going to be a unique experience.

Bearfoot Bistro has a special space set up that you access through a hallway outside of the restaurant doors. You are provided Canada Goose, Artic-ready parkas which – even though are large and bulky looking – are comfortable to wear. Once everyone is dressed and zipped up, you are brought into the ice room ,which is the kept at -32C year-round. They boast that they are the world’s coldest vodka room and the only permanent sub-zero vodka room in Canada. They have set a limit of 20 minutes that you can spend in the room, since you would easily get frostbite on your exposed parts.

The room has bottles of vodka in shelves of sold blocks of ice. Everything has a blue tint to it. There is a bar counter set up with shot glasses for tasting their extremely cold vodka. Their selection of alcohol is from around the world and there are about 50 different vodkas you can choose from.

It was easy to lose track of which ones we were tasting: everyone in the room was so excited to be there. We were all handed shot glasses with vodka and, as you drank it, you could feel ice crystals forming on your tongue. You could taste some variations between the different shots of vodkas as you drank them. You could feel your fingers getting cold fast; every time you grabbed the next glass, your fingers were exposed to the cold air plus a glass at -32C. The last shot was served on a small ski with small glass boot shot glasses attached. It was a little tricky to make sure everyone got it in their mouths, instead of on their face, but it was a cool way of ending the tasting.

The vodka tasting experience is $48 and you sample four different vodkas. They also have a five-course menu available and a wine program with the biggest restaurant wine cellar in BC – boasting over 20,000 bottles containing over 2,100 labels. In addition, they host a unique Champagne bottle sabering experience. You can try to cleanly saber the top off a bottle of Champagne.

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Contributor Steve Polyak |

Locale British Columbia | Whistler |

Topic Food | Travel | Whistler Pride |

Photo Gallery Food | Travel | Whistler |