Historic Steveston Village

Yesterday afternoon I was just relaxing around the house when Barb suggested that we go out for dinner. As it was a since sunny evening, around 6:30 we put the top down on her car and drove south to Steveston for dinner. Located at the southwest tip of Richmond, Steveston’s origins began over 100 years ago as a fishing village and was the location for some the largest fish canning companies in North America. While most of the canning companies have relocated, to this day, Steveston remains the home of the largest fishing fleet in Canada.

Barb and I go to Steveston about once or twice a year and usually bring our bicycles. Being perfectly flat, all of Richmond is perfect for touring around by bike.

The Steveston village is really quite distinct from the rest of Richmond. Almost stuck in time, it still has the obvious remnants of it’s fishing past but it seems to be in a metamorphosis stage of transforming into a modern small town with restaurants and cafes on the boardwalk beside the fishing boats.

In the evening when the sun is going down, Steveston’s several kilometers of boardwalks along the river are a nice relaxing way to wind down after a a seafood dinner (and there are many choices to get good seafood here). We went for dinner at a place called the Tapenade Bistro which is a French/Italian bistro with plenty of chairs outside underneath umbrellas. I had a grilled Salmon (wild, not farmed of course) and Barb had roast lamb (not exactly local fare but delicious nonetheless). I was tempted to have the bouillabaisse (a favourite of mine from our first trip to Provence, France) but settled for the more local Queen Charlotte salmon. We finished off the meal with a shared creme brulée.

Steveston seems to have grown in popularity over the years as a tourist destination and it gets pretty crowded during the summer days. If you go there in the late afternoon/evenings, the crowds have thinned and there still plenty of sunshine hours to enjoy walking along the water.

Baden