In early February, we made a trip to The Garden in Strathcona. Like the first place on the list, Their There, I’d never heard of this place, but it’s definitely one of my favourite places that we’ve been to. 

Like their name would suggest, The Garden has some lovely greenery inside and out, inside the shop, there was a mix of small tables, short counters and couches. They also have an excellent selection of local goods such as candles, books, and accessories. 

This time, since I’d never tried one before, we ordered a cortado with our latte to share. For those (like myself) who don’t know, a cortado is a shot of espresso mixed with an equal amount of steamed milk. Cortar means ‘to cut’ in Spanish. The idea here is to dilute the espresso shot with the milk, but not add a lot of the texture that you get in drinks like cappuccinos and lattes. Their espresso, fair-trade from Argo roasters, shone through nicely in the cortado, and the latte was lovely. 

We tried the food on offer yet again and couldn’t resist trying some cookies before our breakfast food arrived. We got a chocolate chunk, and a ginger molasses and both were soft and chewy and just plain magical. I can’t quite remember what they called the egg-toast-deliciousness that we ordered, but one was a nice slice of bread topped with mushrooms and cheese and then topped with a poached egg, and the other was topped ham, swiss and a poached egg. Both were served with some lightly dressed greens. They were fantastic. 

The Garden has a really laid-back, cool atmosphere, and I really look forward to going back there once things get a little bit more back to normal.

My coffee buddy/best friend/all-around great human, Alicen and I were crossing an Oscar movie off the ol' 'to watch' list, and figured that was a perfect excuse to cross off a place from the 'ol coffee list!

Since we were going to see 1917 at Scotiabank downtown (remember seeing movies in theatres?! God I miss that), we decided to hit up the Helmeken and Burrard location of Elysian. Most Vancouverites are probably familiar with this local coffee roaster/chain. They're known for their excellent coffee and the fact that they don't have wi-fi. 

Incidentally, this was the only location of Elysian that I hadn't visited! It's attached to the Burrard Hotel and has a cool mid-century vibe. Plus, the people watching, even in January (thank you temperate Vancouver winters), was excellent. Since we did it at Their There, we decided to continue getting a latte and an Americano to share, along with a couple of items from their breakfast menu (we were VERY early for our movie).

Their coffee was great, no surprises there, since I'd been to their other locations, but I did get to experience a little more of the 'balance of fruity flavours' the Daily Hive article mentioned with the Americano (I'm usually very much a latte girl). We shared the avocado toast, like the true Millenials we are, and some perfectly poached eggs on toast with sweet potato fries. Honestly, I'm not really sure how avocado toast got so closely tied to my generation, but I'll take it, it's DELICIOUS, and the pickled onions and microgreens that Elysian put on theirs made it extra lovely. (see pictures below!)

Elysian has four locations around Vancouver. All of them are a little bit different from the next, but the throughline is excellent coffee and a wonderful place to sit and chat (although maybe not right now).

Waaaaay back in October 2019 (seems like an AGE ago, doesn't it?) an "ultimate" list of coffee places in Vancouver from the Daily Hive popped into my newsreader. As someone who both enjoys being caffeinated and lives in Vancouver, I saved the article. (I also have a tendency to keep lists of the best doughnut/brunch/sandwiches, but that's a blog post for another day)

Then at the end of the year when I was doing a loose plan for what I wanted 2020 to look like (spoiler: not this), I proposed to my lovely, coffee-loving (I' mean she has 'coffee' in her online handle!) friend, Alicen, that we pull out that list and explore our city, one coffee shop at a time. Unsurprisingly, coffeeshopcynic thought it was a great idea.

On a bright January afternoon, we visited our first place from the list, Their There. Situated on W4th in Kitsilano, this place was bustling with people and had a fun but chill vibe. We grabbed a little table and got to the business of ordering. Now, unfortunately, because of my very lackadaisical approach to updating this blog, this was six and a half months ago, so I don't 100% remember what everything was called. However, I think the pictures give you a good indication of the yumminess we got to eat and drink.

From my memory, the latte and Americano were both excellent, and the breakfast sandwich was awesome. Then there was like an eggs benny/hash thingy (you see it in the pic below), which was SO nice. Plus, we just had to have their cronut-y type pastry, also top-notch.

All in all, when the world opens up again (whenever that might be), I'd recommend going and checking Their There out!