Thursday 11 October 2012

sunday brunch on commercial drive

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Look who came to visit!

Long-suffering Albert made the expensive and 15 hour (with stopover) trip to Vancouver to spend a week in the sunshine and celebrate my birthday. His first night, we stayed downtown in the Skwachàys Healing Lodge (pictured above), a hotel-meets-first nations art gallery and retreat right downtown (they were really nice and gave us free dinner). Although my family lives within a 20 minute journey of downtown Vancouver, it makes an enormous difference to actually wake up there, and simply step out the front door to start a day of urban wandering. Possibly one of the reasons I have a bit of a hatred for my native city is that I never lived downtown and everything was always a commute. Anyway, on a glorious, sunny day, there seemed nothing better to do than swing by the literacy festival Word on the Street downtown, and then head to Commercial Drive (a bit of a hipster paradise, but with normal people, families, and simply inoffensive hipsters mixed liberally in) for brunch at Café Deux Soleils. This café/restaurant/venue is one of my favourite places in Vancouver, and one of two similarly named places on the Drive (I spent an hour waiting once while my friend waited down the road in Café DU Soleil, bah). The food is amazing, and sitting at an unpretentious table by the window with slats of sunshine across your table feels at once normal and luxurious.

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Smoothies and Nanaimo bars, which I had a nibble of before taking the picture...

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A hummous burger which I can still taste in my memory

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Reflected behind me: the cavernous space with local artwork hung on the walls, and a stage for even shows/poetry slams.

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Farther down the drive, a "picture frame" had been erected in front of a public bench, for enjoying an in-perspective view of the North Shore mountains.

13 comments:

TheHeadlessMannequin said...

Vancouver sounds like a great place...literary festivals, arty hotels, beautiful framed landscapes! I'm also very impressed by your boyfriend snapping the reflective pic of the two of ye...mine is usually imploring me to put the camera away when we're out and about :)

Emily, Ruby Slipper Journeys said...

Nah, Albert's way worse than me about being unable to put the camera down, and that's saying something!

Kezzie said...

Ooh, the festival sounds great- what did you see exactly?

Emily, Ruby Slipper Journeys said...

Not a lot, unfortunately. There were a lot of tents with authors reading or taking part in panel discussions, but since I'm not too in the loop with Canadian authors at the moment, it was hard to get involved. I'll have to do research first next time!

Annebeth said...

Albert is so cute! and hummus burgers are the besttttttttttt anything hummus = instant drool for me.

btw I left a long reply to your hair question on my blog!

NRIGirl said...

Nice to "meet" Albert finally! Hope you had a happy birthday. Belated wishes. Many happy returns!

Closet Fashionista said...

Wow 15 hours! That is sooo long! But yay for him visiting you for your birthday! It sounds like you had lots of fun! (and yes, even if it's only a short while away it's always nice to actually wake up right where you want to be)
http://www.closet-fashionista.com/

Lindsey Louise Bales said...

mmm, this food featured here is making me so hungry! your blog is lovely, it's my first visit!

lindsey louise

hellomrrabbit.blogspot.com

Kezzie said...

Still, I bet it was nice to be there for the buzz!

Sasha said...

Love the color of your dress!

Laura said...

The frame is a really good idea!

Laura
www.whitewintersblog.com

Nav said...

Hummus burgers!>? I need to try those, I love hummus!

http://navlandstyle.blogspot.ca/

Emily, Resplendent Tranquility said...

I love when I'm still able to taste things in my memory. This looks like it was such a nice outing, Em. And I'm rather intrigued by the whole hotel-meets-first-nations art gallery concept!