Duncan BC Accommodations | Jacquie Gordon's Bed & Breakfast

Good Local Food in Old Time Atmosphere

April 4, 2025 By Jacquie Gordon

old time atmosphere makes for fun lunch — Old time atmosphere makes for fun lunch

Pioneer House Restaurant serves good local food. It is just 12 minutes from Jacquie Gordon’s Bed and Breakfast in Duncan BC. and conveniently located on Hwy # 1 just south of Duncan. It is easy to access from Bench Road or coming north just beside the Highway past Koksilah Rd. Since the 1970’s this restaurant has been popular with tourists and locals alike and is one of the main attractions of Whipple Tree Junction.

Great Food Choices

Entering the restaurant’s warm cozy atmosphere our eyes light up. We see home-made deep dish apple pie, cheesecake desserts and dinner plate sized cinnamon buns in the glass covered cabinet. A friendly waitress seats us at large wooden tables with comfortable wooden chairs. We are presented with an impressive day’s menu with special food features. One of my favourite dinner specials available every day is their AAA grade roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. It comes in three sizes to suit any appetite. An Extensive Menu for all tastes include celiac and vegetarian choices. How about seafood mushroom caps? Chicken Brie with local brie, sliced apple, red onion, tomato, alfalfa sprouts and pesto mayo on rice toast?

Food kids love.

varied menu selections — Varied menu selections

Kids can choose cod fish and chips, cheese quesadilla, and baby burgers. Holiday menus include Roast lamb at Easter, Free Range Turkey at Thanksgiving and Special Christmas and New Years Menus.

Fun with Friends

Having lunch with friends we each ordered something different. I chose spinach salad topped with large tender prawns, cranberries, and house made dressing. I love that this fully licensed restaurant chooses sustainable, fresh and BC made products. I had a Cowichan Valley pale ale and others had wine.

Buffallo watching guests at Pioneer House — Buffalo watching guests at Pioneer House

Take in the Atmosphere

After placing our orders we had a chance to enjoy the old time atmosphere. We surveyed log walls reaching up to a high ceiling and burled wood railings. It was fun to identify many old artifacts displayed on shelves about the room. Mounted on the flood to celing stone fireplace (with real wood burning fire) stares a buffalo head. At the opposite end of the room, stretching the whole width is the original heritage saloon bar. found in the St. Frances Saloon, (1890-1971) Butte Montana it became the inspriation for this unique restaurant. I consider this a top eating place in Cowichan Valley for good local food in a fun atmosphere.. For more details: www.pioneerhouserestaurant.com

I hope you enjoyed reading about this interesting restaurant and its good local food and welcome your comments. We will not share your contact information.

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The Somenos Marsh in Duncan is attracting Important Wildlife

October 24, 2024 By Jacquie Gordon

Somenos Marsh Wildlife Refuge just five minutes from Jacquie Gordon’s Bed and Breakfast off Highway #1 north of Duncan and is an Open Air Classroom in Cowichan Valley where a group of us met Phil Jennings for an interesting tour. Phil is an enthusiastic supporter of the Somenos Marsh Society working tireless to preserve this habitat for people, plants and wildlife. He led us along a gravel walkway past a picnic bench to a raised viewing spot designed for wheelchair accessibility and overlooking part of the meadow and Mount Tzhouhalem in background. An attractive sign points out the importance agriculture to wildlife with colourful pictures of songbirds, geese, herons, swans, ducks and other birds which can be seen here. The wooden walkway built by enthusiastic volunteers now makes a complete circle that takes us further into the marsh.

Watt’s Walk

As we started on the walkway we noticed many of the planks had writing, the first of which gives the name “Watts Walk”, named after one of the first contributors to the establishment of this delightful area. Other contributors used this idea as memorials to loved one and we found many familiar names as we walked along. Being a marsh area the walk way is raised well above the water, keeping feet dry even in our wet winters.

Learn the Birds’ Native Names

Posted at intervals are photos and facts of the local birds including their native names. One of my favourites the Spotted Towhee (Sxeesh) often shows up in my garden with its rosy breast and distinctive call. This valley has been home to the Cowichan peoples for thousands of years and archaeological evidence has been found on both side of the Marsh.As this is early fall the native plants such as snowberry, and wild roses provide berries for the birds to feast on. Frogs and small birds become meals for the larger birds like Coopers Hawk, Northern Harrier(Xuxumel’s), Osprey, (Ts”ihw-ts”uhw)Bald Eagles (Yuxwule‘). In summer the tree swallows ((Qw’uqw’sutsun) feed on mosquitoes and other flying insects. These are such a delight to watch as they swoop over the meadows and water. Each of the many bird houses built by volunteers for the swallows has been occupied.

Winter Holiday

Soon we will see the return of the once-endangered trumpeter swans for their winter holiday in Cowichan. These majestic birds with their brilliant white plumes and distinctive honk can be seen flying overhead, swimming on the lakes and bays and feeding in fields and marshes throughout the valley. I am always amazed when they fly over my yard on their way to nearby Quamichan Lake. You can learn more at www.somenosmarsh.com

Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence

July 8, 2023 By Jacquie Gordon

Jacquie Gordon’s Bed and Breakfast AWARDED 2016 TRIPADVISOR CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE

Recognised as a Top Performing Bed and Breakfast in Duncan BC Reviewed by Travellers on the World’s Largest Travel Site tripadvisor.com

Jacquie Gordon’s Bed and Breakfast today announced that it has received a TripAdvisor® Certificate of Excellence award. Now in its sixth year, the award celebrates excellence in hospitality and is given only to establishments that consistently achieve great reviews on TripAdvisor. Certificate of Excellence winners include accommodations, eateries and attractions located all over the world that have continually delivered a superior customer experience.

When selecting Certificate of Excellence winners, TripAdvisor uses a proprietary algorithm to determine the honorees that takes into account the quality, quantity and recency of reviews and opinions submitted by travellers on TripAdvisor over a 12-month period as well as business’s tenure and ranking on the Popularity Index on the site. To qualify, a business must maintain an overall TripAdvisor bubble rating of at least four out of five, have a minimum number of reviews and must have been listed on TripAdvisor for at least 12 months.

“Winning the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence is a real source of pride and praise to God for the strength and encouragement to provide the best in service and hospitality for our guests at Jacquie Gordon’s Bed and Breakfast. Thanks also to all our past guests who took the time to complete a review on TripAdvisor,” said Jacquie Gordon, Owner and operator of Jacquie Gordon’s Bed and Breakfast. “There is no greater seal of approval than being recognised by one’s customers. With the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence based on customer reviews, the accolade is a remarkable vote of confidence to our business and our continued commitment to excellence.”

TripAdvisor is pleased to honour exceptional hospitality businesses that have received consistent praise and recognition by travellers on the site,” said Marc Charron President, TripAdvisor for Business. “By putting a spotlight on businesses that are focused on delivering great service to customers, TripAdvisor not only helps drive increasing hospitality standards around the world, it also gives businesses both large and small the ability to shine and stand out from the competition.”

Jacquie Gordon’s Bed and Breakfast

Jacquie’s guests become friends at this quiet get-away conveniently located just 2 Km east of Duncan BC in the beautiful Cowichan Valley. One of the featured gardens of the 2015 Cowichan Valley Family Life Garden Tour, our beautiful 1920’s Heritage home and garden offers a taste of elegant living, reminiscent of the old British enclave of which this home was a prominent part. A couple or family can luxuriate in the spaciousness of our Vista Room in Queen or Twin beds with view of the valley and gardens. You’ll sleep soundly in an antique double bed in our Heritage room. Cosy dressing gowns and WiFi provided. Enjoy quiet morning coffee on the veranda then Jacquie’s awesome gourmet breakfast served in the Fireside Room. Stroll the gardens and sip afternoon tea on the patio or sitting room, and Jacquie will help you learn more about the great local restaurants, wine tours, whale watching, hiking, theatre or shopping. We are close to downtown Duncan, VIU and Cowichan Bay. You’ll be glad you came.

A Year in the Garden

June 24, 2022 By Jacquie Gordon

History of Our Garden

The house at 2231 Quamichan Park Place was the original 1928 home on 5 acres previously owned by Colonel Lendrun, past principal of Cowichan Secondary School.

We purchased our home in 1991 just after the property had been subdivided into 14 lots, seven of which are adjacent to ours. The resulting hexagon with a pump house in the middle was our landscaping challenge.

The original driveway off Jaynes Rd was eliminated leaving a bare area scraped to shale.

The east side was a gravel road way, the north had been dug up to put in the water main, and the rest was sparse grass. Some older trees and shrubs were left close to the house including two cherry trees, two fir trees, two emerald cedars, contoneaster and assorted cedar shrubs.

Our first year we brought in twenty dump trucks of soil, then planted grass up to the edge of the property. The pump house became our garden shed. With so many small areas to water, we installed in-ground sprinklers. We added a brick patio and sidewalk to lead to our hidden front door.

Eventually we added beds and shrubs to the border, patio and sidewalk areas.

We love our home and garden and when my husband passed away in 2008, I was inspired to start Jacquie Gordon’s Bed and Breakfast.

Sharing this lovely spot with guests from all over the world is truly a gift from God.