Creme de la Crumb – $5 for $10 SPECIAL OFFER!

Creme de la Crumb – $5 for $10 SPECIAL OFFER!

I’m writing this post on behalf of Good News Vancouver to help spread the word about today’s Creme de la Crumb special offer of$10 worth of food for only $5! See here for more details.

Of course I’ve had the great honour on launching my Follow Me Foodie Holiday/Winter drinks at this local gem of a bakery, so I’m putting my bias out there. Due to the nature of this event, and my relations, I’m not going to be writing my standard post. However I did still make a dent in the menu and as always I’ll still be honest with what I thought.

Creme de la Crumb first started as a tiny grab ‘n go boutique bakery and coffee shop on Granville Street (see my post here) and only a year after it has already found its second home. The second location is right under the CBC Building, and although discrete it’s actually a massive space with a casual seating area and free wi-fi! Unlike their Granville location, this location also serves up an extensive menu of savoury cuisine and hot food items along with their signature baked goods and pastries.

It really reminds me of the BG Urban Cafe, previously known as The Bread Garden Cafe. It offers home style hot foods and a selection of gourmet house made grilled sandwiches fit for the morning, afternoon or evening. This 700 Hamilton Street (Hamilton & West Georgia) location is open Monday-Friday 6:30am-8pm and Saturday 8am-4pm.

It’s not made upon order food, but the food is made fresh everyday each morning. Therefore they are reheated upon being served and that’s just something you have to go in expecting. It’s not a restaurant but a casual pay at cashier eatery and the food is rather simple, although some items were unexpected and quite “fancy”. The hot food is suitable for lunch and dinner and they’re predominantly homemade comfort food classics. I made the mistake of arriving late so a lot of their popular items had already sold out such as their oven roasted turkey breast sandwich, meatloaf and mac and cheese. I haven’t tried them yet, but things that sell out early are usually quite reliable options.

The sandwiches and baked goods is where it gets more creative and modern. I would have to say the thing that makes Creme de la Crumb special is definitely their bake shop. The part owner and creative cook Lydia Lee serves up old fashioned desserts and baked goods with innovative twists. Her cinnamon buns, scones and carrot cake are what started it all and it literally is the bread and butter of this promising operation. Her most popular scone is the Apple & Cheddar Cheese Scone which often sells out before 3pm, so you need to go early for that as well.

Of course a cafe has to offer up coffee, and the preferred coffee here is from Cafe Umbria. Creme de la Crumb is a great place for a grab n’ go breakfast, quick lunch, midday coffee, take home dinner or anytime Follow Me Foodie drink ;). Again, if you’re curious to give it a try, Good News Vancouver is offering $10 worth of food for only $5! See here for more.

On the table:

Pear & Almond Matte (Follow Me Foodie Drink)

• A concoction of real pear puree, almond milk and a hint of vanilla bean 12 oz $3.85 16 oz $4.45
• I really love pear, so for me this is a great combination to start your morning with.
• Of course I am biased since I’m talking about my own drink, but I will say that the Pear & Almond Matte is my favourite and also the most popular of the 3 drinks.
• It’s dairy free and you can taste the thickness of the pureed pears and the flavour of them throughout. It’s nicely balanced with with the aromatic scent of vanilla and real vanilla beans.
• It’s not too creamy, rich or sweet, but it’s full flavoured, soothing and perfect during cold rainy days.
• Save the best for last and that’s really the case in this drink. Naturally some of the pear puree sinks to the bottom, so with the last sip you really get the flavour and texture of real pear granulars.

Vanilla Bean & Pear Scone

• Our famous hand-rolled, all-butter gourmet scones. Perfectly moist and flaky, with no chalky aftertaste. $2.75
• The scones are massive! I love the texture of the scones here because they have an extremely crunchy exterior that tastes like baked crumble meets a nutty crunchy cookie.
• They are made with all butter, but they don’t actually taste that buttery or are they even that sweet. They’re soft and moist in the middle and their quite fluffy and cake like rather than flaky.
• I could bite into pieces of pear, but I couldn’t really taste the flavour of them. I think marinating the pears or cooking them down into a chunky sauce and incorporating it that way would infuse the pear flavour throughout the scone more.

Cinnamon Bun Latte (Follow Me Foodie Drink)

• A creamy cinnamon bun custard whipped with espresso and warm spices. 12 oz $3.85 16 oz $4.45
• Again, I’m biased because it’s my own drink. This one is sweeter and richer than the pear and almond matte so it’s really comparing apples to oranges.
• If you like cinnamon buns and sweeter coffees than chances are you will like this.

Cinnamon Bun

• Freshly baked rolls, layered with cinnamon sugar and a lathering of our mouth-watering vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. $3.25
• I confess… I’m actually not a huge cinnamon bun lover because I find most of them too sweet. However I actually really do like the ones here.
• They have a vanilla bean icing and they’re super soft, fluffy and moist.
• It’s a simple cinnamon bun, but made well and they sell out fast!

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

• Provolone, Havarti, Cheddar $6.95
• There are also mushrooms and onions in it. The thin, crisp bread was great and it’s definitely a finer grilled cheese sandwich.
• It’s a gourmet line up of cheeses but I found the Cheddar cheese dominant in flavour. Naturally it is the strongest of the 3 cheeses, but if you’re looking for that Havarti flavour it does get a bit hidden although the creamy texture is there. I think the Provolone used is a mild Provolone, which means it can only age 2-3 months so the flavour doesn’t really show in this combination.
• There’s also a very strong Rosemary and dried Oregano flavour so if you like those herbs than you’ll really enjoy this. It gives it a woody earthy flavour that works, but is strong.
• I wish the onions were a bit more caramelized because although soft they weren’t sweet.
• Overall still a tasty grilled cheese.

Ribs

• Main only: $4.95 1 Main + side: $7.95 1 Main + 2 side: $8.95
• BAM! What?! I say that like Lil’ Jon too. Who would have expected ribs like these to come out of a cafe?!
• I’m a huge fan of ribs and I have high standards for them and obviously I’m not comparing them to BBQ house ribs, but these were really good.
• They were falling off the bone tender and I literally pulled the bones out. The bones are skinny, but they do have meat on them… like me! HA! I DO have meat… just smaller bones.
• The meat was tender and covered in this sticky honey sauce that was on the sweeter side, but it did have a slight kick to follow. It wasn’t a bold hickory BBQ sauce, but more of a honey brown sugar version with perhaps some Worcestershire. They’re not heavy on garlic, which is good in this case since this location is not in a high volume business area (garlic breath is never good).

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

• Main only: $4.95 1 Main + side: $7.95 1 Main + 2 side: $8.95
• This is their vegetarian option for the main and a good option too. It’s pretty big and it’s filling without being heavy because it’s not creamy, saucy or heavy on the cheese.
• It was definitely one of the more gourmet mains offered and showed more of Lydia’s creativity.
• It’s generously filled with a mixture of spinach, artichokes, onions and some cheese, which I thought was Feta, but was actually goat’s cheese.
• It tastes like a spinach & artichoke dip meets a quiche, but without the creaminess and sauciness of either.
• It’s savoury from the cheese and quite tangy from the artichokes and the top is crispy with Cheddar cheese and no additional fillers like bread crumbs.
• Make sure you get it heated up because the goat’s cheese can get powdery as it comes to room temperature.

Green Beans with Bacon

• Side only: $4.25 Main + side: $7.95 1 Main + 2 side: $8.95
• This was simple and it would have been nice with the bacon crispy, but again it’s not a restaurant so you give and take in some areas of the food… although they could be sprinkled on afterward to retain crispness.

Sweet Potatoes

• Side only: $4.25 Main + side: $7.95 1 Main + 2 side: $8.95
• They’re actually yams. It’s a simple side and they’re tossed in olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Carrot Cake

• Perfectly moist and loaded with pineapple and coconut. Topped off with our famous vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. Converting carrot-haters one bite at a time. $2.95
• This is one of their claims to fame and most popular desserts.
• It’s pretty much the 2.0 version of a carrot cake. It’s not your traditional carrot cake, but like the tropical version of one.
• This is a pineapple upside down cake meets a carrot cake with shredded coconut.
• It’s quite dense and chunky and really loaded with tons of pineapples and visible shreds of carrots and coconut. When you bite into it you can really get the texture of the coconut and the flavour of the pineapple even more so than the carrot. It’s very moist, sweet with caramel like flavours and there’s a hint of cinnamon spice, but no raisins or nuts.
• The icing is a bit dense rather than creamy, but I do like the flavour of the icing here. It’s sweet, tangy and has that wonderful vanilla scent and real vanilla beans that give a nice contrast to the cake.

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