The Bon Vivant Blog

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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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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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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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This is the best pie in town. In fact, we have cut hikes short on Cypress Mountain, just to get in some quality Savary Island pie time. It is the crust that really makes the pie. The crust is thick but not too fatty, not too salty – it just melts in your mouth. Its [...]

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T: Suddenly seized by a burst of early-morning energy (or perhaps just jet lag), I decided to head into town and pick us up some freshly-baked goods at this (relatively) newly-opened bakery. Greeted with a smile and the smell of freshly-baked bread (definitely a winning combo), I found a clean, well-lit place where any morning [...]

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T: Our major research project of finding the perfect (for us) espresso maker showed that when it came to espresso, all roads lead to Rome – that is, to Intelligentsia Coffee here in Chicago. So – we’re here for a week – definitely a destination that we wanted to check out. Their ‘black cat’ blend [...]

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