Sunday Morning Chowdown

353 West Pender at Homer

604.899.4040

finchteahouse.com/

There’s a jewel among the cafés of downtown Vancouver: it’s called Finch’s. It is a beautiful space, full of light, and something akin to a French salon as designed by Wes Anderson. The room is lovingly appointed, full of antiques, with the menu cursively written on several framed chalkboards. In a city of homogeneous coffee chains (Commercial Drive excluded), a café as distinctive as Finch’s should be treasured. It’s the perfect place to leisurely read the Saturday paper.

Finch’s features fair trade coffee and fresh ingredients. The staff are friendly and quick. Dishes are made to order, but I didn’t notice a wait. They offer sandwiches, salads, soups and cheese plates. They also have adorably tiny bottles of nectar.

Finch’s does have breakfast dishes, but I ordered a baked blue brie baguette sandwich with roasted walnuts and prosciutto. It was as amazing as it sounds. The baguette was fresh and crusty, and the slight pungency of the blue Brie was paired delectably with the smokiness of the walnuts. While the portions weren’t quite able to match my appetite, I can’t say I left unsatisfied.

That’s in part because of how I finished my meal. Finch’s offers crème brulée, uh, brulée-d on the spot; you get to see a tiny torch being taken to custard. I have it on good authority that the spice cake and the brownies are very good as well. I’ve just never made it past the crème brulee.

The one critique I have about Finch’s is its hours. For those of us who don’t spend our weekdays downtown, there’s only a slim five-hour window on Saturdays for us to enjoy Finch’s. Word is they plan to start a Sunday brunch soon; that will be awesome.

Price: $12 Lineup: nope Vegetarian options: Yes Soy Milk: Yes