NEW + IMPROVED

Our latest lifestyle choices

ENTERTAINMENT / The new 98-seat Hendricks Resto-Lounge occupies the Westin Grand hotel's upper lobby overlooking Library Square in downtown Vancouver. What's a resto-lounge? It's a 1,300-squarefoot space with a cocktail bar and a full-service restaurant, plus live music or a DJ twice a week. RETAIL / Vancouver's Nordstrom Pacific Centre now has an incubator project to showcase and support new designers. Called the Lab, it's one of only two in Canada and five worldwide.

DINING / Botanist, Fairmont Pacific Rim's new restaurant in Vancouver, also includes a lab–for developing cocktails–along with a bar, dining room, champagne lounge and garden, all inspired by botanical principles. The secondfloor space, expected to open last month, replaces Oru. TRAVEL / Guests at the Opus Hotel in Vancouver's Yaletown can now get a taste of B.C. without leaving their room. Minibars offer a selection of local beers, spirits, spiked coffee and other goodies. GEAR / Founded and run by a group of avid cyclists, 7mesh Inc. in Squamish has produced a new Oro Gore-tex jacket that is not just light to wear–93 grams for size medium–but thin enough to stuff in a pocket until needed. EDUCATION / B.C. has a new place of learning. Yorkville University, previously online only, has opened its first physical campus, located on West Georgia Street in Vancouver. Frederictonbased Yorkville, which offers a bachelor of business administration for working adults, has nearly 2,000 alumni across Canada. –F.S.