The Bon Vivant Blog

This is a popular totally vegan restaurant in the heart of Kensington. I remember when it first opened as a tiny storefront with a few seats which soon expanded into the building next door. I have a strange addiction to their muffins – which have a nice crusty top and are tasty but with a [...]

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We’d all love for our cities to have a Pierre Hermé or a Thomas Haas. Well, if you look hard enough, pretty much every city has someone (probably from Europe) who has opened a bakery, and is putting their passion into pastry. Didier Julien and his family and team at Julien’s are doing just that [...]

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Dufflet Rosenberg – the “Queen of Cakes” is a Toronto institution who first opened her eponymous cafe over 30 years ago when she opened her first store on Queen West. There are now 3 Dufflet cafes scattered around town and we stopped by the location in the Beaches. The Beaches actually has a small serene [...]

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So – we had to come back. We’d been here twice before (here and here), but I didn’t feel that the prior posts did this particular patisserie justice. We went there on the torture test day – Saturday morning. Lots of foodie people around – most of them clad in lululemon or spandex, living the [...]

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Excellent french patisserie in Yaletown. Try the decadent cakes. Haven’t tried the croissants. View Larger Map Ganache Patisserie 1262 Homer Street Vancouver, BC V6B 2Y5 (604) 974-1599 Price: Not cheap Would We Go back: Yes

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We had high expectations of this place, particularly given its popular eponymous cookbook. Rebar is a Victoria institution with many people raving about its tasty vegetarian food. Robert Belcham, the chef/owner of Fuel in Vancouver also did some training here.  Thus, our hopes were high and sadly we were disappointed, particularly given the wait. Even [...]

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So we tried to tackle the list that a newspaper in France, Le Figaro, printed listing the best croissants in Paris. The list reproduced below: LE CLASSEMENT DES MEILLEURS CROISSANTS DE PARIS (List of Best Croissants in Paris) 1 – Pierre Hermé 2 – Triomphe 3 – L. Duchêne 4 – Mulot 5 – Lenôtre [...]

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Fauchon www.fauchon.com 24-26 place de la Madeleine, 8ieme arrondissement, Paris Hours: 8am – 9pm, Mon – Sat, CLOSED SUNDAYS Phone: 01.70.39.38.00 View Larger Map Just go there. It is french institution with two stores in Place de la Madeleine filled with beautiful food products – particularly exquisite (or should I say exquisite-looking since we never [...]

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Going for a run around a city is one of the best ways to sightsee. It allows you to cover more ground than walking but also gives you the ability to make unexpected stops at unforeseen sights.  We ran around New York City to the Soho/Greenwich Village/Little Italy region.  During the run, we happened to [...]

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So this was it. Like Plimpton and Hunter Thompson covering Foreman vs. Ali, we decided to immerse ourselves in the hot action going on uptown . The debate has been raging for years over who has the best pain au chocolat in Toronto; a couple of contenders have emerged on both the bulletin boards and [...]

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