10 sweet spots in Metro Vancouver to indulge your sweet tooth
Credit to Author: Joseph Ruttle| Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2019 23:00:54 +0000
Special to Postmedia Network
Sometimes, nothing will do but a sweet treat. A cookie, perhaps, or a chocolate truffle, or heck, a fancy multilayered gâteau of dacquoise, crème pâtissière, ganache, mousse, gold foil and chocolate shavings. Just me? Whatever you’re craving, these Vancouver pâtisseries and chocolateries have all the sprinkles and more.
The famous peanut butter sandwich cookies at Beaucoup Bakery in Vancouver.
2150 Fir St.
This adorable spot under the Burrard Street Bridge is quintessentially French in its DNA, but with chef and co-owner (with her brother Jacky) Betty Hung behind the ovens, it also offers some of the most exciting flavour combinations in town. Think: Raspberry Lychee Rhubarb Eton Mess Croissant. Beaucoup produces proper viennoiserie as well as tantalizing tartes and other treats like the irresistible peanut butter sandwich cookies. Also worth picking up: Hung’s cookbook, the Taste Canada award-winning French Pastry 101.
A selection of handcrafted chocolates at BETA5 Café in Vancouver.
409 Industrial Ave.
These aren’t just any old chocolates. These are gorgeous, gemlike works of art bursting with flavours like Thai mango and sparkling praline. Co-founder Adam Chandler is the pastry chef and chocolatier behind BETA5, which has been named one of North America’s top 10 chocolatiers and has received numerous international chocolate awards. They recently opened this sweetly chic café, where they also serve some of the most adorable cream puffs in flavours like salted caramel, variations of chocolate or the lychee rose, which comes topped with a macaron.
4907 Mackenzie St.
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Everything is better with butter, especially when it’s this sweet little Point Grey bakery (now in its new Mackenzie Street location). It’s the vision of baker and designer Rosie Daykin, whose confections and bestselling cookbooks can be found all over the city. Think traditional treats with cosy modern flair: muffins, scones, cupcakes, cookies and squares like the sea-salt-dusted Bajillionaire Bar of shortbread, caramel and dark chocolate.
1689 Johnston St. | 101 – 31060 Peardonville Rd., Abbotsford
Owner Wim Tas is a true master chocolatier who has won countless awards for his beautiful bonbons. He and his team carefully craft their bars, truffles, caramels and chocolates from the finest ingredients. Good luck deciding between the honey caramel topped with a candy bumblebee or white chocolate raspberry heart or the milk salted caramel. Then again, why not have them all? Note that while the Granville Island location is handy, the Abbotsford one is huge and offers a much larger selection, including chocolate for home bakers.
103 – 2636 Montrose Ave., Abbotsford
In Abbotsford’s charmingly restored historic downtown, discover a treasure trove of some of the most irresistible baked goods in the Lower Mainland. We’re talking sticky buns and gooey brownies, twice-baked almond croissants and sweet, sweet sugar buns. If you’re there on a Saturday, there are doughnuts, if you’re lucky, there might be London Fog-glazed croissants. Owners Tyler and Cassandra Duft (she’s the pastry chef) don’t believe in bitsy food, so these are generously sized and properly made treats. Not surprisingly, they also sell out fast, so plan to get there early.
769 Hornby St. | 2156 W. 41st Ave. | 175 – 628 East Kent Ave. South
Since 2010, owner and pastry chef Franck Point has brought the artisanal baking traditions of his native France to Vancouver. His boulangeries-patisseries are elegant Parisian outposts of marble and chandeliers, charming spots to settle in for a cafe crème and a pain au chocolat. Display cases are filled with traditional French pastries such as macarons, sables and canelés as well as viennoiseries including the apple-stuffed chausson aux pommes. It’s a sweet trip to Paris, without the airfare.
159 East Hastings St. | 5 East 5th Ave. | 2887 W. Broadway
For years it was a tradition to stop at the Function Junction location of this Whistler bakery and load up on chocolate chunk cookies and lemon-lavender loaf for the drive home. And then, finally, owner-bakers Mark and Paula Lamming opened a location in Gastown and every sweet tooth in town celebrated. Now there are three in Vancouver (and two in Whistler), and we couldn’t be happier. Head here for the outrageous brownies, salted caramel bars, carrot whoopie cakes, gigantic “adults-only” cookies (dark chocolate, rosemary, sea salt) and lemon blueberry basil scones — and don’t forget to pick up a loaf of bread for later.
The irresistible butter tarts at Temper Chocolate & Pastry in West Vancouver.
2409 Marine Dr., West Vancouver
The “temper” in the name does not refer to tantrums or bad moods; in fact, quite the opposite. Instead, it’s all about the sweet art of preparing chocolate so it has a glossy sheen and perfect snap, an art that pastry chef and owner Steven Hodge has fully mastered. He trained at Cordon Bleu and worked with Thomas Haas before opening his sleek Dundarave café, where you will find chocolates, confections, pastries and gorgeous cakes like salted caramel or passionfruit, which are exquisitely decorated with marble buttercream.
The Paris Brest cake at Thierry, a pâtisserie and chocolaterie in Vancouver.
1059 Alberni St.
For many of us, special occasions mean one thing above all: a cake by Thierry Busset. Born in Auvergne, France, he was the legendary pastry chef to a trio of three-Michelin-starred restaurants in London and Gordon Ramsay himself called him “one of the finest pastry chefs in the world.” Then he moved to Vancouver, where he led the pastry program at Toptable’s CinCin and West restaurants before opening his own shop and café on Alberni Street. He and his team make every element of their glorious chocolates, macarons, tarts, cakes and petit fours from scratch. Resistance truly is futile.
2539 West Broadway | 128 – 998 Harbourside Dr., North Vancouver
Thomas Haas is perhaps Vancouver’s most famous chocolatier, a multiple-award-winning fourth-generation pâtissier who was born and trained in Germany and worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe and New York before landing in Vancouver in 1995. His beautiful chocolate work continues to raise the bar for every pastry chef in the city. But we’re also there for the perfectly buttery croissants and toothsomely chocolatey “sparkle” cookies, the salted caramels, glossy hazelnut praline cake and, each Christmas, the richly decadent bûche de noël.
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Joanne Sasvari is a Vancouver-based food and drink writer and the author of the Vancouver Eats cookbook.