Elks Club of New Westminster

The New West Elks were brave enough to invite a whole gaggle of us into their clubhouse overlooking Columbia Street. They were a welcoming bunch of people, with a wider age range than you normally see in a pub (i.e., lots of grannies) and with a blue-​collar feeling that has actually become a bit rare in these parts.
The beer selection is not for the snobbish (Coors and Canadian aren’t even ironic yet, and I confess that upon seeing/​hearing my options, I had a moment of «What can I drink?!»), but the awesome selection of diversions include regular meat draws, live bands, karaōke, pool, and my personal new favourite, shuffleboard. A friendly regular showed us how to play, and answered all our stupid questions as we learned, and soon it was like I’d been finessing my slide on the Promenade Deck with Gavin McLeod all my life.
The club seems very welcoming of visitors, if you can find the door around the back of the building (go up the path between a couple of wedding dress shops, and make a sharp turn into a scary little parking lot and you’re in), and membership is quite shockingly cheap.