My name is David,

an entrepreneur at heart,

an artist in practice,

and a creative in everything I do.

I create unique spaces

where Vancouver’s weird and wonderful

can work, play, and socialize.

My name is David,

an entrepreneur at heart,

an artist in practice,

and a creative in everything I do.

I create unique spaces where Vancouver’s weird and wonderful can work, play, and socialize.

In 2006, I started The Narrow Group. What began as one small bar has grown into six bars and restaurants and twelve creative artist studio buildings across Vancouver. Along the way, I also founded The Emerald, The Rickshaw Theatre, and The Fox Cabaret.

In 2026, Artopia became realized. My efforts in fostering art spaces around Vancouver had expanded to the point that they had outgrown the Narrow Group umbrella. No better portmanteau could describe my vision for Vancouver than Artopia.

I bring life to empty spaces. When I travel, I notice what Vancouver is missing—a feeling, a vibe—and I come home to build it.

I design and lead every project myself. I figure it out as I go, put in the work, overcome the obstacles, and make it thrive.

Arts and culture are a force. We are an essential economic and cultural driver—and I believe Vancouver needs fun, unconventional ideas to shape its future.

We’ve spent years fighting the idea of “No Fun City.” Now we’re building a city full of life, creativity, and soul.

Because this is who I am.
It’s who we are.
And I love this city.

In 2006, I started The Narrow Group. What began as one small bar has grown into six bars and restaurants and twelve creative artist studio buildings across Vancouver. Along the way, I also founded The Emerald, The Rickshaw Theatre, and The Fox Cabaret.

In 2026, Artopia became realized. My efforts in fostering art spaces around Vancouver had expanded to the point that they had outgrown the Narrow Group umbrella. No better portmanteau could describe my vision for Vancouver than Artopia.

I bring life to empty spaces. When I travel, I notice what Vancouver is missing—a feeling, a vibe—and I come home to build it.

I design and lead every project myself. I figure it out as I go, put in the work, overcome the obstacles, and make it thrive.

Arts and culture are a force. We are an essential economic and cultural driver—and I believe Vancouver needs fun, unconventional ideas to shape its future.

We’ve spent years fighting the idea of “No Fun City.” Now we’re building a city full of life, creativity, and soul.

Because this is who I am.
It’s who we are.
And I love this city.

How I got myself into this mess…

When I moved back to Vancouver from California in 2006, the city felt… quiet. Too quiet. The Vancouver I’d grown up in — the gritty, freewheeling port town of the seventies and eighties — was gone. The punk scene was just an echo. The strip clubs, the loggers, the longshoremen, the chaos — all of it replaced by a kind of polite sameness. No Fun City was real, and I couldn’t stand it.

So I started building the kinds of places I wanted to exist. The kinds of places I’d seen in San Francisco and L.A. — underground bars, weird art spaces, punk shows, witchy markets — the kind of creative chaos that makes a city feel alive. When I opened The Narrow, there wasn’t a single bar like it. So I put 30K on my credit cards and built it. Same with the Rickshaw — there wasn’t a rock-and-roll venue left in town. I never did a business plan or a model. I just saw what was missing and thought, fuck it, let’s do this.

For me, it’s always been about finding a way. I see a space and immediately imagine what it could be — the smell, the sound, the texture of it. I swing the hammer myself, thrift the art, design the feel. Every project is a piece of me. The Emerald was my Mad Men fever dream; Key Party my love letter to 1970s red velvet sleaze; Uncle Abe’s my wink to the weird and wonderful. I’m a photographer by training, so I think visually — spaces are like portraits you can walk inside.

At my core, I’m an entrepreneur — the kind who can’t not do it. If I see a better way, I have to make it real. I believe in bending the rules, not breaking them. I believe work is play. I believe integrity and nonconformity belong in the same sentence. And I believe fun is sacred.

Over the past twenty years, I’ve watched Vancouver’s alternative culture come back to life — dance clubs, bars, art spaces sprouting up where there used to be none. We have started to come out of the shadows to take our place in the establishment. I don’t claim that’s my legacy, but it’s the movement I wanted to see. The city’s got weirdness again. It’s got life again. And if I’ve played a part in that, then I’m good.