Freebird Chicken Shack is on the move, but it’s not going too far.
Chef Angus An’s Freebird Chicken Shack is moving to a new and bigger location in River Market. Along with its signature rotisserie chickens and side dishes, he’s added grilled items and a new fried chicken recipe and expects a liquor licence to be in place by summer.
The Freebird Chicken Shack, which opened in River Market in 2015, is the youngest of the four eateries from the award-winning chef, who also owns Maenam in Kitsilano, Longtail Kitchen at River Market, and Fat Mao Noodles in Vancouver’s Chinatown. The new space, which takes over the 800-square-foot space formerly home to Wally’s Burgers, will seat 20 people and have five additional stools the counter.
Fitness and fun
A boutique studio is aiming to bring unique fitness experiences to downtown New Westminster.
Vive Tu Vida Fitness, which opened on Columbia Street on Oct. 1, offers a variety of speciality group fitness and dance classes for adults including Zumba, PiYo Live, Bootcamp, Barre, Yoga, BollyX, Ballet, Sexy Street Jazz and more. A press release states that the classes are “exercise in disguise” because they’re so much fun people forget they’re working out.
The studio is hosting a special wine and yoga event on Saturday, March 11 called Vino-Yasa Flow. Tickets are $28 and available on the studio’s website.
“Participants will be able to mindfully enjoy wine as they flow through a variety of chakra balancing poses, and discovering the connection between consumption, breath and movement,” said a press release.
More info is available at www.vivetuvidafitness.com.
Business wins award
A New Westminster-based business recently took home two HomeStars awards.
JMT Roofing and Painting in New Westminster was honoured with a Best of Award and a Giving Back Award.
HomeStars, which has been recognizing home improvement professionals with the Best of Awards for the past nine years, aims to help homeowners find reputable professionals through its database of companies and online reviews.
“Not only have customers given JMT a 96 per cent Star Score rating, the company is dedicated to helping the community,” said a press release from HomeStars. “They volunteer at local food banks and donate their time and resources to surrounding schools and families - from sorting donations to preparing hot meals, making deliveries, distributing literature and even recruiting other volunteers. JMT has also donated roofing labour and materials for many non-profit buildings, as well as providing roofs at cost for families in financial need.”
Giving back and helping people in need is a focus for the company. As owner John Jaswal says, “It’s not about the money; it’s about the people.”
New West biz installs bitcoin ATM
Waves Coffee House has installed a bitcoin ATM in its corporate headquarters in New Westminster.
The coffee shop at 715 Columbia St. is the latest corporation to acknowledge the digital currency bitcoin, following in the footsteps of the likes of accounting firm Deloitte, which unveiled a bitcoin transaction machine (BTM) at its Toronto head office in September. The machines exchange digital currency for Canadian dollars.
“The pronounced diversity of the established companies increasing their involvement in what has been dubbed the future of finance is comparable to that of the customer demographic seen by BitNational, Canada’s second largest bitcoin ATM operation, who are the operators of the new Waves Coffee House bitcoin ATM,” said a press release from BitNational.
