The Bon Vivant Blog

In the heart of extremely trendy Yaletown is Urban Fair – this grocery store/cafe is so trendy, perhaps it isn’t in the heart of Yaletown so much as it is the actual heart of yaletown. That one I’ll leave to the urban anthropologists – I’m just the food guy. Anyway, if you need very pricey [...]

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There really only are two places in Vancouver for truly great coffee: 49th Parallel Roasters and Wicked Cafe. The people here really love coffee. They import Intelligentsia coffee (often referred to as the best coffee in the U.S.) from Chicago and they’ll either pull you one of the best ristrettos in the city, or sell [...]

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Gene – the local coffee shop on Main Street is located in the quirky thin corner building at the corner of Main and Kingsway. An almost all-white space – named apparently for their carpenter? – it definitely appeals to the hipster Main Street crowd. There aren’t too many coffee shops these days that you can [...]

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Walking into this comfortable somehow homey (although still funky) cafe feels like walking into your friend’s place for a bite to eat among friends. In fact, we do run into friends in the cafe. The setting is a funky casual collection of tables and chair with friendly tattooed and pierced staff. It is not only [...]

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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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Up there with the rest of the world’s famous cafes – Les deux Magots, Cafe Select, Cafe Greco, the tea room at Fortnum & Mason, Cafe Florian – Cafe Tortoni is Buenos Aires’ oldest and most famous cafe. It certainly has the atmosphere and the pedigree to be in the list of the World’s Top [...]

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So I tried to make a reservation for dinner at Chez Panisse restaurant but they only take reservations exactly one month in advance and I was off by one day. Luckily, they also take reservation for their café which also does lunch. Comfortable arts and crafts style room with an open kitchen and also a [...]

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Brewing a huge list of coffees by the cup – like a manual Clover system. I tried their most popular brew – Jason’s Blend but they seem to have a blend for all tastes. T tried the handmade espresso in a cappuccino – interestingly prepared with vigorously hand-shaken milk and I think they poured the [...]

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Boudin Bakery – of the famous “San Francisco Sourdough”. Right in Fisherman’s Wharf, great shop, great bread. Not much more to say – their sourdough bread is great. We didn’t get a chance to try their soup or any of their other bread, but yup – go here, buy their bread. Sourdough might not be [...]

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We had heard they had good espresso and yes – they do use 49th parallel beans but the latte was nothing special. Too many servers in a small space with a little bit of attitude. The space itself is not that nice inside and needs a little bit of dusting – particularly of the lights. [...]

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