The Alibi Room, Vancouver's scene-setting craft beer bar, changes ownership

After 16 years, a family group of owners is handing over the reins of the Alibi Room — a bar-restaurant in Vancouver's Gastown neighbourhood known for pioneering craft beer tasting in the city. 

Greg Armstrong, Raya Audet and brother- and sister-in-law Nigel and Kerry Springthorpe have sold the business to Four Top, a Victoria-based hospitality group. 

While the new owners have vowed to keep the venue's staff and homely atmosphere, the departure of the team that turned the Alibi Room into the hub of the city's beer scene marks the end of an era. 

"Amazing customers who became friends have been sending me notes and it's going to be a sad chapter to close, but I'm glad it's continuing on," said Audet, who had been managing the ground operations at the two-level bar-restaurant on Alexander Street. 

"It's definitely bittersweet."

Early last year, Armstrong, Audet's husband, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called chordoma, so they decided to move to Powell River to "just kind of settle down, slow down life a little bit," she said.

The restaurant was left to the Springthorpes to run, but with three children and two other businesses in the city — the Magnet and the Brassneck Brewery — to take care of, they agreed it was time to sell.  

"To leave the place in good hands, to walk away with our heads held high… that was important to us," Nigel Springthorpe said.  

'Craft beer headquarters' 

The Alibi Room opened in 1998 and Springthorpe worked for its first owners until 2006, when he and his family team took over the business, he said. 

He says back then, he would drive his truck to different breweries in B.C. and bring back kegs of beer for customers to try.

"That was kind of the seed of how it started," Springthorpe said. "Just trying to create this environment for people where they could … have many choices and things that they can't usually get their hands on."

Joe Wiebe, content director of the B.C. Ale Trail, a tourism project promoting craft beer in the province, says the Alibi Room became the "craft beer headquarters" for Vancouver. Back in 2006 there weren't many places to try beer made by B.C. breweries, he said. 

"It really became this place for education, for teaching people about craft beer… You could go there and you'd always find something you never had before and you could learn about something new," said Wiebe.

Given the Alibi Room would serve 50-plus varieties on tap, it gave customers — which often included local brewers — a chance to compare styles and flavours, Wiebe said. 

"It was a pretty important thing for a brewer to have one of their beers put on tap at the Alibi Room. It was like a sign that you've reached a certain achievement to get Nigel's approval," he said. 

Staff culture 

Springthorpe says he'll miss the regulars, the staff and the 100-year-old building — all contributing factors to why customers love the place. 

"[Coming in] it's just like putting on an old pair of slippers. Like, for a lot of people, that feeling of coming home, that comfort feeling," he said.

The business also developed a "really super solid crew" of staff, he said. 

"A lot of those people are still really connected to each other. They've stayed really close friends. That I'm most proud of," Springthorpe said. 

Audet says she feels lucky to have met her customers and staff. 

"We hired some amazing people right at the beginning, and the staff culture was created ... They cared about customers who walked through the door and they cared about each other," she said. "It was a real beautiful balance of those two things."

Geoffrey Simpson with Four Top says they want to try out some new menu items, but will continue curating the best beer list and will keep the current staff.

"Everyone's got mixed emotions. Change is always difficult," said Simpson. 

"They've been treated extremely well by the whole team… over the years, and we want to make sure they continue to have that same family feeling."