Our Story

In each publication we bring to fruition, we engage with the best writers and creators that we can find. They connect with the people in the industry of focus for the publication: food and beverage, beauty and fashion, lifestyle or home décor.   They find the inside story, the stories of time and place, people and the challenges they met. We love luxe, stylish, fresh and fun. We absolutely cherish the distinctive.

Urbanity’s founder, Mark Taylor, breathed life into Urbanity Publishing Inc in 2017, and shortly afterward he acquired Gem City Guide print magazine. Taylor had been researching niche market print for several years, and was intrigued with the surge in readership in this channel. Taylor’s intent is to create or acquire additional print and digital lifestyle publications with a focus on the food and beverage industry.

Urbanity: the quality or state of being urbane (notably polite or polished in manner. Merriam-Webster).

Mark Taylor is the publisher at Urbanity Publishing Inc, where he has curated and contributed to Gem City Guide print magazine in Vancouver, BC for several years, and now publishes and contributes to Inside Spirits digital magazine. He has spent the last four decades in and around the wine, food, spirits and cigar industries, and has dined and drunk, sniffed and smoked, his way through North America and Europe.

James Tobler was Editor first of NUVO and then MONTECRISTO magazines, over a period of 20 years. He edited and wrote the Passport blog for Kiwi Collection for its first two years as well. He has written four cookbooks, with the chefs, for Araxi, Blue Water Cafe, West, and Cin Cin. He has contributed to a wide variety of publications, including The Globe and Mail, Okanagan Life, Fox News Lifestyle, and Wine Access magazine, where he was Managing Editor. He currently works with Mark Taylor on Gem City Guide, and, now, Inside Spirits magazine.