Best Bakery for Apple Pie & Florentine Cookies in Vancouver

One of Vancouver's best bakeries is one you hear very little about, Patisserie Bordeaux in the city's Kitsilano neighbourhood. 

Name:  Patisserie Bordeaux
Location:  3675 W. 10th Avenue (Alma Place between 7-11 and Browns Social House)
Specialities:  Pastries & Pies, Cakes, Breads, Chocolate, Wedding Cakes

The apple pie is absolutely fantastic and I would highly recommend it.  You will be glad you made the trip to Kitsilano.

Another 'must have' is Patisserie Bordeaux's Florentine Cookie - an Italian biscuit made from setting nuts (almonds) into a caramel disc which is then coated on the bottom with dark chocolate.  Since initially trying them, they have become an immediate favorite.  While Florentine cookies are particularly popular during the holiday season, luckily Patisserie Bordeaux has them available year round.

DJ SHANTEL in Vancouver = Supa Goodie

Cover of Disko Partizani (2007)

On June 13, DJ SHANTEL brought his Balkan beats to the Red Room Ultrabar (@REDROOMVANCITY), and what FUN it was.  For his first visit to Vancouver, a good-sized crowd showed they were not scared to make Wednesday evening 'Club Night'.  He opened the show with an friendly introduction and soon brought the Red Room jumping with his Balkantronika.  I left the show with the feeling that more people should discover DJ SHANTEL!  

A special thanks to Caravan World Rythms and Beats Without Borders (especially Nils) for their commitment to bring such a great show to Vancouver. 

Images from the show by Shawn Scheepers (@ShawnScheepers):

In addition to playing my personal favorite 'Authentic', he performed an excellent remix of 'Disco Boy'. Check out a video of the original version:

Italian Day on Commercial Drive

What:  ITALIAN DAY on The Drive
When: June 10, 2012
Where:  From Venables to the Grandview cut on Commercial Drive
Why:  Share the spirit, pride and tradition of the Italian community and its contributions to Vancouver

"Commercial Drive, the main street of the Grandview neighbourhood, is a retail andrestaurant-oriented street on the east side of Vancouver, British Columbia.  The Drive, as the neighbourhood is universally known, is a wildly entertaining multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-sexual district with a reputation to match.  In 1997, the alternative magazine Utne Reader voted the Drive one of the fifteen hippest neighbourhoods in North America. For many years now, the Drive has been a first haven for many of the waves of immigrants - East European, South American, Caribbean, African - that arrive in Vancouver.  The present cosmopolitan armosphere has evolved in the last two decades directly out of an Italian ethnic tradition, a quarter century older, so strong that even the local Post Office stamped its envelopes as from Little Italy." (Source: The Drive by Jak King, 2011)

Images from the 2012 Italian Day on Commercial Drive:

View of Commercial Drive on Italian Day

Good Food at Italian Day on Commercial Drive

Salted Fish Being Served During Italian Day

Italian Day Smiles for the CBC

Family Fun at Italian Day on Commercial Drive

"Little Italy" Kids Singing

Crowds Crossing 1st Avenue

Commercial Drive Cowboy at Mintage

Ederlezi Balkan Brass Festival 2012

On May 4-5, Vancouver's Russian Hall played host to the "Ederlezi" Balkan-Roma Brass Band Festival. The festival featured special guest trumpeter Demiran Cerimovic as well as:

• Orkestar Slivovica (Vancouver)
• Orkestar Zirkonium (Seattle)
• The Bolting Brassicas (Lasqueti Island)
• Bucan Bucan (Victoria)

Orkestar Slivovica

Wandering the streets of Vancouver with battered and ancient instruments, appearing and disappearing into the night, and dressed in the highest fashions of your great-grandparent’s youth, with a bottle in hand of that delicate concoction which is half of the band’s name, everything they cross paths with becomes a Balkan wedding dance party, with tunes from Serbia, Macedonia, and other mysterious and distant lands.


Orkestar Zirkonium

Orkestar Zirkonium is a mobile, thirteen-member brass-and-drum ensemble that borrows from a variety of musical traditions, composes original music, and kicks out celebratory spectacle in a variety of circumstances. They are based in Seattle, Washington.

The Bolting Brassicas

The Bolting Brassicas Marching Band are a street-side ensemble that play Balkan Gypsy and Klezmer Funk tunes which are loud, happy and danceable. They are based in Lasqueti Island.



For more information on other Caravan World Rythms events, visit http://caravanworld.homestead.com/.


For more Music, Food and Things To Do in Vancouver, follow ShaunsVancouver on Twitter.

Experience The Best of Vancouver

Introduction to Music, Food & Things To Do in Vancouver

Prior to each trip I made abroad, I would spend hours researching everything I could about the city I was to visit. The sites, the food, the customs, the history, the streets, the tours, etc.  During my travels, I have always wanted to have a true cultural experience.  After a number of trips, I realized that I have spent more time researching cities like Paris, Frankfurt and Prague than the city where I live. 

In the years that have followed, I have:

• Read just about every tourist book on Vancouver
• Taken numerous self-guided walking tours
• Asked everyone I know for 'good ideas'
• Eaten at many local restaurants and pubs
• Driven to almost all 'must see' sights in the surrounding areas
• Attended several concerts at the historic venues

My experiences have built great memories, and I would like to share these with new visitors to Vancouver as well as other locals wanting to get the most out of Vancouver.  All opinions are my own and I will have personally experienced everything that I post.


I am interested in hearing your experience with activities, restaurants and concerts during your visit to Vancouver.  Also, if my posts are helpfull to your travels, feel free to drop me a note.