restaurant reporter Yoka’s Coffee, Chocolate and Honey | #5-1046 Mason St. | 250-384-0905 Yoka Van Den Burg and Tristan Trotter
Sante Sante Gluten-Free Café | 2630A Quadra St. | 250-590-7174 Hanna Kofman and her husband Boris opened Santé Gluten Free Café in Quadra Street Village in March. This is a linger-over-your-meal, Parisian-style café. Deep red walls warm the indoors, and you can sit close to the fireplace or rest on the chaise lounge. Tables for the two-legged and water for dogs are outdoors for sidewalk-style dining. Floor-toceiling windows give an airy feeling, augmented by the open kitchen. Fellow diners range from seniors to urban business types to young hipsters and families. All are enjoying the mainly organic and local fare on this Monday noon hour with nary a free seat in the house. Light meals around $10 are vegetarian and vegan pleasing: a selection of quiches, almond or walnut-tahini pizzas with roasted vegetables, fresh daily soups like Tuscan white bean, and quinoa salads or sandwiches with choice of English muffin or bagel from gluten-free supplier Glutino. I found the roasted red pepper, tomato and amaranth soup naturally sweet and blended to a creamy smoothness, perfect for a
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chilly spring day. The spinach and feta quiche presented well, tasted mellow and disappeared far too quickly. Meat-eaters will need to be satisfied with a tuna melt or come on a day when chicken is featured. Fernwood coffee, teas, smoothies and house-made baked desserts can fill in the gaps outside meal times. Servers are friendly and enthusiastic, smiling during the lunch rush. Hanna, who herself has celiac disease, is a certified sommelier and the creative force behind the food. Saturdays are the busiest (Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.), so be prepared. Free of gluten does not mean only for the gluten free. Gluten eaters will be pleasantly surprised at the quality, taste and texture of the baked goods. Celiacs and the strictest of gluten-free diners can relax and delight in the fact that all menu items are safe for them to experience. Future plans include tapas-style evening offerings and wines specially selected by Hanna. This is one to watch. ——Kathryn Kusyszyn
Rebecca Wellman
Rebecca Wellman
Rebecca Wellman
(l) Hanna Kofman at her Sante Gluten-Fee Café. (r) Walnut almond tahini pizza with roasted veg: one is made with parmesan cheese and the other with dairy free ‘Daiya’.
It was 1983, and on a lark Yoka Van Den Berg began roasting coffee in the corner of a West Broadway Greek deli. A growing demand for fresh whole bean coffee in Vancouver’s westside found Yoka opening her own small coffee roasting shop at 3143 W. Broadway. Within a year or so, she outgrew that location and made a lateral shift to 3171 W. Broadway, where her eponymously named establishment remained until 2009. A lease-end on her place of business and the excessive cost of relocation in Vancouver spurred the jump to Victoria, and by mid-year, Yoka and longtime life/business partner Tristan Trotter went to work successfully purchasing and rezoning 1046 Mason St. to expanded commercial activity. At the same time, the project earned them a Hallmark Society Award of Merit for improvements to the 1913 two-level brick building. Yoka watches over a classic 1933 Royal coffee roaster, makes cappuccino and espresso for customers and weighs out whole bean coffee and chunks of dark Belgian chocolate for take-away. Yet another passion is bee keeping, which she actively pursues at her and Tristan’s permanent Pender Island home. A byproduct of that is the B.C. Interior honey that is on tap in store. Once that supply runs down, Yoka will be selling 100 percent island-raised honey. Yoka’s coffee lineup leans heavily on the classics like Sumatra, Kenya, Guatemala and venerable Ethiopian growing regions like Yirgacheffe. She also caters to those in the coffee community that prefer darker roasts – not currently well served in Victoria. In fact, their Swiss water decafs are available in three roast profiles, and they have a custom Turkish blend with a secret spice mixture added to the freshly roasted beans. —Colin Newell Open Tuesday to Saturday, 8:30 am. - 5:30 pm.,
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