Bells & Whistles

East Vancouver's Fraserhood has established itself as a thriving food-and-beverage hotbed, where each business newcomer fosters a good dose of originality, blissfully foregoing the trend du jour. The innovative Bells and Whistles is no exception, opening its doors in October 2017 with culinary clout – the casual dining and beer hall concept is helmed by Gooseneck Hospitality's James Iranzad, Josh Pape and Nick Miller, the team behind Wildebeest, Bufala and Lucky Taco. "We're pretty fearless about exploring our creativity, trusting that the public will come and see what we're excited about," says James. "Creativity is a big part of our motivation. We don't ever want to create safe restaurants."

Good friends for over a decade, James and Josh collaborated on their first project and opened Wildebeest in 2012. "As much as we're like-minded, we're also good at different things, which allows us to bring different strengths to our organization," says James. "Nick's been an employee since day one and rose up the ranks to operations manager; now he's a partner." The team looked to fill a void in East Van, which they felt had an overt need for their casual dining and beer hall concept.