Fratelli Authentic Italian Baking (1795 Commercial Drive, East Vancouver, 604-255-8926) makes biscotti, dolce, and St. Honoré, a lavish cream-puff affair named for the patron saint of pastry makers. For a large variety of biscotti and festive cakes such as panettone, another option is the Calabria Bakery (5036 Victoria Drive, East Vancouver, 604-324-1337).
In another realm entirely is Liberty Bakery (3699 Main Street, East Vancouver, 604-709-9999). It’s really a leafy corner coffeehouse filled with idiosyncratic prints and sculpture by the owners’ artist daughter and son-in-law. The owners take pride in their traditional Swedish baking, and the community responds. This is a popular meeting place in the SoMa (South Main) area.
Boulangerie La Parisienne (1076 Mainland Street, 604-684-2499) delivers classic French breads and desserts, such as Napoleons, mousse, and limon tarte. Take a window seat and enjoy the Yaletown scene.
At the other end of the dietary spectrum, Panne Rizo Bakery Café (1939 Cornwall Avenue, Kitsilano, 604-736-0885, www.pannerizo.com) is a wheat- and gluten-free establishment a place, says a clerk, where celiacs eat with confidence. It certainly doesn’t look or taste deprived: as well as a variety of rice breads and savories, its bakers make rice-based sweets such as butter tarts, macaroons, and berry galettes even rum balls au chocolat.
Back to convention, a nice little traditional Greek outlet is Serano Greek Pastry (3185 West Broadway, Kitsilano, 604-739-3181). If you’re like me, you’ll look no further than the baklava or kataifi — all dripping with honey — and perhaps the spanakopita (spinach pie).
Both light-filled coffeehouse and bakery, La Petite France (2655 Arbutus Street, Kitsilano, 604-734-7844), run by Christian and Anne Ziss, is nicely located at the edge ofthe recently redeveloped Arbutus industrial lands. A traditional patisserie, it produces both breads and sweet buns, as well as all-stops-out French pastries.
My Ukrainian source frequents Everett’s Bakery (1388 Kingsway, East Vancouver, 604-876-4814) for a dozen loaves of a dark, heavy rye bread he says is the only rye in the city that satisfies his Eastern European and Jewish friends.
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