Discovering Granville Island – Episode 2

Nicole is not an early riser and so I was on my own for a good chunk of the morning. I decided to start my day out at Rocanini Coffee Roasters, our new favourite local coffee shop right around the corner from our condo. It was a nice quiet Saturday morning and I managed to get some work done before starting the day once Nicole rejoined the land of the conscious.

Episode 2: https://youtu.be/cUo5YwpzO9o

It was Saturday, our first weekend in Vancouver. As we were working normally Monday through Friday we had to make the most of our 4 weekends we had in Vancouver. There were so many options and things we wanted to do while visiting the West coast of Canada, we had a hard time narrowing the list down.

One of the places that did make the list was Granville Island, described to me by friends who had visited in the past as a foodie’s Mecca. It’s a small little island, almost (it is connected to the mainland), in the little bay of sorts called False Creek which heads out to the ocean. The island is well known for the Public Market where you can acquire all means of food, from fresh produce, meats and fish to prepared food. You’ll also find lots of shops, unique little shops where you might find that one of a kind doodad you just have to have.

Granville Island also supports local artisans with an area dedicated to shops where you can get original works mostly produced right on site. Here we found a blacksmith creating interesting works such as candle holders and iron gates. And a silk clothing producers who we watched hand paint a massive silk scarf. Something I knew about before hand and kept an eye out for was a sake brewer making fresh Canadian sake, but more on that in a bit.

The easiest and funnest way for us to get to Granville Island was to take a ferry across False Creek. The closest pier from our condo, a short 10 minute, is Yaletown Ferry Dock, where we had the choice of two different ferry companies. Aquabus, with their colourful rainbow motif and False Creek Ferries, named after the waterway they travel. We opted for the latter, likely because it was the one that arrived first. It seemed like our fate was sealed with False Creek Ferries because we ended up purchasing a ticket pack as we felt we’d be making use of them several times throughout the month.

Locations

There were several locations featured in this episode

  • Rocanini Coffee Roasters – Our favourite local coffee shop which we frequent constantly on our stay in Vancouver.
  • Yaletown Ferry Dock – Closest dock to our condo where you can catch either the Aquabus Ferries, or the company we chose, False Creek Ferries.
  • Granville Island – A small island (almost) with lots of shops, restaurants, artisan shops, food market, little parks, and interesting little streets connecting them all. If you love food, you’ll love Granville Island.
  • Tony’s Fish & Oyster Cafe – Famous restaurant on Granville Island serving up tasty meals made with really good fresh fish.
  • Net Loft – A little complex full of shops, perfect to get our of the elements if you visit on a rainy day.
  • Gigi B. – A store devoted to hats, Nicole was on the hunt for a unique hat.
  • Market Kitchen Store – Kitchen gadgets galore, I picked up a coffee dripper filter here.
  • Paper-Ya – A store dedicated mainly to stationary type stuff. We picked up some interesting maps here.
  • Lee’s Donuts – Famous donut shop on Granville Island specializing in cake donuts.
  • BC Blacksmith Inc. – Artisan shop specializing in metal works. Their store is an interesting mix of open shop and sales area.
  • Alarte Silks – Beautiful silk goods can be found at this artisan shop, where if your timing is right you can watch silk scarf being hand painted.
  • Artisan Sakemaker – Canadian made sake is no longer unique, but Canadian made sake make from Canadian grown rice is. We had the chance to meet the owner and hear his story on how he had the idea to grow rice so he could make 100% Canadian sake.
  • Public Market – Where all the food is hiding, this market is full of produce, meats, fish and everything in between.

Thanks for watching/reading!

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