Granville Island, which is actually a peninsula and not an island,
is one of the top tourist destinations in Vancouver, but the locals love it too.
Granville Island has many unique finds and is home to several super-local small businesses,
some of which are family-owned and some have been around for decades.
Normally it's quite busy especially in the public market but if you go earlier in the day you might
be able to avoid the crowds. Right now it's also a bit quieter than normal so I thought I'd come
here and highlight some of the local eats that you can find here in Granville Island's public market.
Our first stop is Siegel's Bagels. Siegel's Bagels was founded by Joel Siegel who moved
to Vancouver from Montreal in the 70s and started his own bagel business because he couldn't find
good Montreal-style bagels in Vancouver. These bagels are kettle boiled and then baked in a
wood-burning oven resulting in a bagel that's crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside
I got the popular rosemary rock salt bagel without anything in it so that I could really taste the
bagel by itself, but you can certainly add some cream cheese or other fillings.
Next up is A Bread Affair. A Bread Affair is British Columbia's first certified organic
bakery. Their website states that they source their ingredients from local farmers and that
each loaf of bread is artisan-crafted. I picked up a loaf of roasted garlic and cheese bread
which they kindly sliced up and also one of their pastries, the pain au chocolat.
For the tea drinkers, we have the Granville Island Tea Company founded by Mark and Deb
Mercier in 1999. You can find a huge selection of loose leaf teas that you can buy by weight
they also serve up some hot drinks as well and the Masala Chai tea
is one of their most popular. I also picked up 50 grams of their cream earl grey tea to take home.
Now I just want to quickly mention the birds on Granville Island.
You should not feed the birds here no matter how imploringly they look at you;
they need to be able to find their own food. Seagulls especially can get quite aggressive so
keep an eye on them and your food. One flew above me and tried to snatch my bagel out of my hand.
Our next snack is a sweet one. Lee's Donuts started in 1979 on Granville Island by Alan and
Betty Ann Lee and is one of the original vendors in the public market. They still use the original
recipe from over 40 years ago. These days you'll often find a lineup of customers hoping to nab
some of Vancouver's beloved donuts. The honey dip donut is a favourite among customers so I
got a couple of those along with some bavarian donuts which has a vanilla custard filling.
Time for something soupy. The Stock Market has been on Granville Island since 1986
and they serve up soup made from scratch daily using ingredients from other market vendors. They
also have lots of soups that you can pick up to go which is what I did. I got the manhattan smoked
wild sam chowder to take home and had it for dinner with some of the bread from A Bread Affair.
Moving on, we have A La Mode, a pie shop that also opened in 1986 by Angus McKay. They have
many sweet and savoury pie options to choose from and also some unbaked pies that you can
take home and bake later. They're also known for their pot pies, one of which I ordered for lunch.
This is the clam chowder pot pie and it's served with a side of salad. Last but not least Longliner
Seafoods is a family-run business and another one of the original vendors in the public market.
They offer fresh local seafood as well as candied and smoked varieties - you can even get them
packed up to go in airline-approved packaging. This is the smoked salmon that I picked up.
And with that, I've only just scratched the surface of the delectable eats and treats that you
can find at the Granville Island public market. I hope you'll be able to try some of these out
for yourself if you ever come and pay Vancouver a visit in the future and I'll see you next time.