Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House ★9.1

The Downtown Seafood Saloon That Runs on Ice, Brass and Piano

Most Vancouver restaurants pick one mood. Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House runs several at once: a horseshoe oyster bar working through the day, a piano in the bar at night, and a roof garden two floors up where the evening ends. Come for one drink and you can spend the night moving between rooms.

The Concept · The Story

The room opened in 1985 — exactly a century after the man on the sign stepped ashore. Seraphim “Joe” Fortes was born in 1863 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, to a Barbadian father — which is why Barbadian researchers still claim him as Bridgetown-born. He sailed from Liverpool around Cape Horn on the Robert Kerr and reached Burrard Inlet in September 1885. He tended bar in the young city, taught a generation to swim at English Bay, and in 1900 became Vancouver’s first official lifeguard, credited with pulling at least twenty-nine people out of the water. The house calls its own format a San Francisco-styled seafood grill. Executive Chef Ryan Green came up through this kitchen — sous chef, executive sous chef, then the top job.

What to Order

Oysters first: the shucking station is the loudest argument the house makes, and the work behind the horseshoe bar is half the performance. The headline order is Joe’s Seafood Tower on Ice, built in tiers. Beyond it, ask for the Fresh Sheet — a daily list of classically prepared fish and shellfish rotating through Arctic char, halibut, jumbo scallops, Nova Scotia lobster and snow crab. Two long-standing plates to know: the cedar-planked Grilled Wild Salmon and New England clam chowder. On the chop-house side, thick-cut steaks and chops are not an afterthought, and the wine list runs past three hundred labels.

The Space

There are more than ten distinct places to sit, and choosing between them is half the evening. The main room is anchored by the soaring horseshoe oyster bar and deep booths built for long dinners; the mezzanine looks down on the room and on the music. A mahogany-walled Wine Room takes private tables, and the bistro-bar is where the after-work crowd lands. Above it all sits the roof garden — living green wall, outdoor fireplace, a second horseshoe bar — which fills on the first warm evening of the year.

Good to Know

Do I need a reservation? For dinner and for the roof garden in summer, yes; the bar keeps space for walk-ins.

Is there live music? Yes — piano in the bar in the evenings, audible from the mezzanine.

What if I don’t eat seafood? It is a chop house too — steaks and chops carry their own half of the menu.

Is it good for eating alone? A seat at the horseshoe oyster bar is one of downtown’s better solo rituals.

Is there a happy hour? Yes, early evening — freshly shucked oysters and mini shrimp and lobster rolls.

Opening hours