Markus’ Wharfside Restaurant
Caffè Artigiano affè Artigiano has arrived in Victoria C and is raising the bar on truly great coffee in a city already nicely steeped in café
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culture. Created by the Piccolo family, Caffè Artigiano originally opened in Vancouver in December 1999. You may know them as the café that includes “latte art” on their sidewalk signs. They earned their loyal customers one at a time, built largely on better-than-average specialty coffee services and really good mid-day meal choices. Within the past two years, the Piccolo brothers have sold off the enterprise to Earl’s creator Willie Mounzer, whose eye for branding and regional expansion has allowed the business to take a quality product and export it from the Lower Mainland. Meantime, the Piccolo brothers, Vincent, Sammy and Michael, have been freed to concentrate on their true love, roasting the beans at 49th Parallel Coffee—the supplier of the very beans that fuel Caffè Artigiano. The café’s design mirrors that of its com-
panion stores on the mainland—bold colours and leading edge Euro-urban chic. Some Victoria residents might be reminded of the design of Torrefazione Italia: fashion forward without a trace of the cookie-cutter styles more typically associated with chain coffee establishments such as Starbucks. And how’s the coffee? Drawing from the very best of the artisan and small-batch roasts of 49th Parallel Coffee, Caffè Artigiano offers superlative specialty coffees from the traditional European café menu: eight-ounce cappuccino, 12-ounce americano and latte, espresso in single or doppio and caffè macchiato the way they serve it in the old country—perfect espresso marked or stained with a spoonful of steamed milk. And if you are looking for light breakfasts or lunches, Caffè Artigiano sources all its baked goods locally, including the wonderful Bubby Rose’s Bakery.—Colin Newell 1140 Government St., in the lobby of the Bedford Hotel 250-388-4147
Victoria’s first gourmet burger joint opens
he mutton burger might not be the first burger you’d think of ordering when you first T read the menu at the new Pink Bicycle, but being
a former chef and member of the I-hate-to-seegood-food-go-to-waste club, I ordered up one mutton burger, fries on the side. There’s a back story to this burger beyond it being a mere patty made from mature sheep. The previous night I had watched the F Word and Gordon Ramsay’s “Put Forgotten Mutton Back in the Kitchen” rant. It seems Brits used to eat a lot of mutton until WWII when it was prolifically used as army rations and rather disgusting in tins. Since then it has fallen from favour - that was until Ramsay’s quest to bring mutton back. That, and the mutton in the Pink Bicycle burger comes from Sea Bluff Farm in Metchosin and the gruyere from Little Qualicum - making it a true Island burger. So, how was it? I loved it. Juicy, not overdone, with a pronounced lambiness without being too strong or funky. The bun, from Bond Bond’s bakery next door, was fresh, liberally sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and ably able to hold everything together. Pink Bicycle Gourmet Burger Joint, 1008 Blanshard St., (250) 384-1008
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EAT MAGAZINE MARCH | APRIL 2009
Chef Aliso
Rebecca Wellman
Vancouver Island’s best kept secret (250) 642-3596 1831 Maple Ave. Sooke www.markuswharfsiderestaurant.com
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Macchiato (with heart), latte (with leaf ), espresso (small cup) put together by barista champ Sammy Piccolo.
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