This past weekend my lovely wife and I spent a night in Victoria. I had bought return tickets on Harbour Air at a silent charity auction, and decided to celebrate my completion of another trip around Sol by overnighting. We booked a room at the very pleasant Oswego Hotel, which I’d recommend with the proviso that it bears the flop sweat of a condo project brought to market at the height of the econpocolypse. Boarded the plane here in Vancouver for an absolutely beautiful ride across the straight. If your summer visitors love the ferry to the island, they will freak out on a seaplane.
We left our bags at the Harbour Air Inner Harbour terminal and set off to Spinnakers Pub for lunch. We had a fantastic meal that should be a wake up call for every shitty CFD operator in British Columbia. THAT’S how you do simple unfussy food. What is wrong with a world that has Joey’s popping up like Starbucks but there’s only one Spinnakers?
Walked back towards Red Fish Blue Fish where we intended to have second lunch but passed when the lineup looked like it was longer than the one for Space Mountain at Disneyland. It very well may be the best fish an chips in the province, I’ll never know because I’m not standing on line that long even if they are handing out fifties at the end of it.
We then pick up the bags and head over to the hotel for the ultimate childless indulgence, the mid afternoon nap. No one bitching me out because the hotel doesn’t have a pool, pure perfection.
Dinner was at the Vanmag award winner, Braserrie L’Ecole. Solid french bistro in what passes for Victoria’s Chinatown. Not Le Regalade good, but definitely could compete here being on par with The Foot on Cambie or FoBo in East Van. Good service, and wine list, the only downfall was the overcooked canelé for dessert, which required a steak knife to render asunder and had the custard interior cooked way longer than would be tolerated in Bordeaux. They removed it from the bill when they saw we weren’t happy with it.
The next morning we got up and hiked downtown to Wildfire Bakery to get some bread to bring home. Easily BC’s best bakery, no contest. Only Fieldstone in Surrey comes close to getting as much flavour out of simple ingredients. Perfect texture, crunchy on the outside and soft and almost oily on the inside. Breakfast was at the nearby hipster infested Floyd’s Diner. I swear you could see the pods Arcade Fire were incubated in by the washrooms.
Time to head home. A tip for future Harbour Air Passengers; one lucky riders gets to sit up front in the co-pilots seat. I thought I could best my odds by wearing a shirt with very aeronautic epaulets, and my piloty-est looking watch. The best way however is to take a sharpie marker and scrawl “shotgun” on your boarding pass. Milling about at the gate prior to boarding so that you are first in line works well too. Sorry anonymous passenger that thought he’d get the coveted seat because I’d want to sit with my wife; I’ve sat beside her on plenty of aircraft, I’ve never rode upfront with the pilot however.
~KT
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Floyd’s is sooo over-rated. Just like Sophie’s in Kits.
People still go to Floyd’s?
Next time you are over try out Fol Epi and give Wildfire a pass. Everything that made Wildfire great left when Cliff Leir sold his share.
Agree that Fol Epi is worth checking out though it is out of the way if you are walking.
Floyd’s was nasty the last time we went, very much like Sophie’s.
Wildfire Bakery was around the corner from my house (60 feet away) and the smell of baking bread is the BEST way to wake up in the morning; still the ONLY thing I miss about Victoria, though the foodie scene is bubbling up constantly there … next time, STAGE and CAFE BRIO
Free Leonard Pelltier!