Creme de la Crumb

Restaurant: Creme de la Crumb
Cuisine: Bakery/Desserts/Coffee/Sandwiches
Last visited: June 25, 2010
Location: Vancouver, BC (Downtown/Granville Street)
Address: 466 Granville Street
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: n/a
Service: n/a
Ambiance: n/a
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:

• Opened June 2010
• Boutique coffee shop
• Husband and wife operation
• Coffee/Sandwiches
• Fresh baked daily
• Specializes in home baked goods
• Everything made from scratch
• Popular for baked goods/pastries
• All butter, all natural – no shortenings
• Contemporary/creative
• Cafe Umbria Coffee from Seattle
• Special menu requests accepted
• Catering
• Take-out only
• No seating
• 4 patio chairs for the summer
• I know the owners so I can’t comment unbiasedly
  

**Recommendations: Cinnamon buns, carrot cake

Creme de la Crumb is a small take away boutique coffee shop that recently opened on Granville street in downtown Vancouver. It serves fresh home baked goods that are made daily from scratch. There is no seating available so it’s only for take-out, however they offer catering services too. Also they did recently start offering 4 patio chairs for the summer.

Opened by husband and wife team Ryan and Lydia, you can watch Lydia bake at 6am in the large display window. I know Lydia and Ryan and thus I won’t ‘rate’ the food, service, or overall experience and keep comments to a minimal (well for me it’s considered minimal lol).

Creme de la Crumb reminds me of Cafe Medina meets Eeatly (the old Chocotl) in Yaletown. It has a European atmosphere offering grandma’s home baked classics with contemporary twists.

Lydia’s baking station. Baking has always been a childhood passion of hers so with her husband’s support they both quit their jobs in the finance industry and opened up Creme de la Crumb. Lydia’s food philosophy is to make her baked goods and pastries from scratch daily. How she manages to bake all her baked goods (about 9 things) from scratch daily… I have yet to figure out.

My 1st visit to Creme de la Crumb was on the Vancouver Foodie Tour – Granville Street. After tweeting about Creme de la Crumb’s grand opening they were contacted to participate on the Granville Street Foodie Tour! (They probably would have been contacted regardless, but I just want to prove that social media really works! Follow me! @followmefoodie ;))

Everything I tried were sample sizes that we had on the foodie tour so it’s not really representable of what Creme de la Crumb actually serves.

On the table:

I’m a sucker for Matcha lattes but I actually ended up ordering their Lavender Latte which isn’t on the menu. Not everything is on the menu yet, but Lydia does accept special requests if she has it in stock. 

Coffee

• My favourite coffee in Vancouver is 49th Parallel or Elysian Coffee, however I really liked the brand from Creme de la Crumb.
• They use Caffe Umbria a family-owned gourmet retailer from Seattle which is based on Italian coffee traditions and style.
• It’s really strong, and really delicious.

Vanilla Bean & Pear Scone

• $2.75
• All butter scones, baked fresh daily with no preservatives.
• I liked the texture of the scones and loved the crispiness of the outside. Nice and moist!
• I just wish there were more diced pears and vanilla flavours.
• Note: We had these fresh out of the oven and the mini version isn’t on the menu.

Lime & Coconut Scone

• $2.75
• All butter scones, baked fresh daily with no preservatives.
• Again the texture is wonderful and I could see the lime zest and flaked coconut… I just wish there was more lime and coconut flavour.
• I wonder what it would be like if she replaced the milk with coconut milk… ? Hmm
• This creation reminded me of the Peak Freans LifeStyle coconut and lime cookies. They do a great gourmet version of these cookies at Giraffe Restaurant too.
• Note: We had these fresh out of the oven and the mini version isn’t on the menu.

Carrot Cake

• With Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting $2.95
• It’s very moist!
• What’s interesting about this home baked carrot cake is that there’s coconut and pineapples in it! It was a carrot cake with a tropical twist!
• Note: This is a sample size, so this mini version isn’t on the menu.

Cinnamon Buns

• With Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting $3.25
• Freshly baked cinnamon rolls with lots of cinnamon, sugar and frosting.
• I am trying to remain unbiased considering I know both the owners… however I will say that I don’t even like cinnamon buns and I liked this one! It’s really tender and soft and nice and moist with creamy frosting. The cream cheese isn’t too obvious or tangy which I like, I just couldn’t taste the vanilla bean part.
• Note: We had these fresh out of the oven and the mini version isn’t on the menu.

Grilled Steak and Blue Cheese Sandwich

• With balsamic caramelized red onion, arugula, mushrooms $6.75
• They serve a small selection of homemade gourmet sandwiches to go. They’re made fresh every morning. You can ask them to hot press it since they have a panini press.
• The sandwich breads are not made in house, but it is from a good gourmet bakery.

This one has a walnut bread which was a great idea!

Salami, Mortadella, and Prosciutto Sandwich

• With Provolone, olive pepperoncini tapenade, arugula $6.75
• This was on a focaccia bread.
• I haven’t tried this one yet.

Pan-Seared Salmon and Roasted Garlic Aioli Sandwich

• With arugula, red onion marmalade $6.75? or $7.25?
• This one was on a hoagie style submarine sandwich bread.

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