Our city is filled with plenty of exceptional local cafes that not only serve up a delicious cup of coffee, but top-notch baked goods as well. When you can find a cafe filled with both talented baristas and bakers, the combination is too delicious to avoid.
If indulging in pastries is wrong, we don’t want to be right.
Contributed by Hana Joi
1. Gluten Free Epicurean
Bakery owner Delainy established The Gluten Free Epicurean after losing two family members to food allergies. This drove her to help others by adapting recipes that everyone could indulge in regardless of sensitivities. Delainy has her own food allergies and says that every item originates from her own cravings that she then to adapts for herself. Turns out a lot of people relate to her cravings too!
The bakery also offers options that are dairy-free, nut-free, refined sugar-free, grain free, soy free, paleo and vegan.
Drop-in and try their daily quiches made with fresh seasonal ingredients or one of their bestsellers: the salted oat cookie, AKA the Goldilocks of cookies; decadent and crunchy, with the right amount of saltiness and sweet.
2. Small Victory Bakery
For breakfast, lunch, or your next coffee break, indulging at Small Victory Bakery is never the wrong choice.
The expertise of their bakers is apparent, not only in the most complex pastries served, but in the foundational items essential to any Parisian bakery – bread and croissants. Their fluffy and crisp in-house bread, and selection of buttery, flakey croissants are all the rage.
Plus, if a bakery has a solid selection of sandwiches and fresh bread baked daily, that’s usually a good sign.
3. Liberty Bakery
You may recognize this place from their Instagrammable kawaii Totoro cookies and artistic interiors. If you think this place blew up from social media, you’d be mistaken. Liberty Bakery has been a neighbourhood institution in Mount pleasant for almost 19 years.
One of the original owners was a Swedish baker and the recent owners (that took over in 2015) are local artists. The fusion of the owners’ backgrounds display their love of art and homage to their Scandinavian heritage.
Their pastries fuse standout quality ingredients, and European technique. Some of their most notable items are their croissants, chocolate chip cookies, and of course, their Totoro shaped gingerbread cookies. Pair any with a solid cup of coffee from local roasters, Elysian coffee or their in-house hot chocolate.
4. Purebread
Walking into Purebread is pure bliss.
It’s a wonderland experience that makes every adult feel like a wide eyed child in a candy store. Their owners began by baking at home for their family to baking for farmer’s markets, before growing to their 5 locations in BC. None of their baking contains additives, and none of our breads contain sugar.
Purebread constantly creates new additions inspired by changing trends and seasons. They just brought back one of their favourites for the spring, an apricot vanilla bean scone; chunks of apricots, creamy white chocolate and delicate vanilla bean.
Alongside their regular items, they have a variety of specialty items each week.
View more features from Volume 4:
NOMS Around Canada
Q&A With Sift & Simmer