Bigsby The Bakehouse: Be afraid, be very afraid

Be afraid, be very afraid.

It’s the bread. That alluring carbohydrate sparking call of the siren loaf........

I happened into a place today on MacKenzie Street in Vancouver,  a few doors north of 33^rd Avenue, that has the most incredible bread.  BIGSBY: THE BAKEHOUSE.

Teen-Boy Bread

Take their big homemade Country Loaf aka “Teen Boy Bread” -- so called because MacKenzie Heights moms have been known to go home with a loaf in the morning and then come back for another loaf in the afternoon, the whole loaf having been devoured by one of those 6 ft. food-vacuuming aardvarks known as the teenage son. 

It’s a $6 yin and yang of good (whole wheat flour) and slightly less good (unbleached white flour). Bigsby tries to get organic and local whenever possible. 

I heard another customer tell co-owner Earl that the egg sandwich he made her (free-range organic eggs; mayo made onsite with organic ingreds) was "the best egg sandwich I've ever had in my entire life." Now that's one delish egg sandwich.

Posters on the Bigsby Bakehouse Facebook page concur. Jeanna: “I just had the best sandwhich [sic] I have ever had in my life at Bigsby's. It was a beef brisket sandwhich [sic]. Amazing..........” 

An idea of prices?  A grilled cheese sandwich made with the Teen Boy Bread is $5.50 and comes with an intriguingly tangy pickled carrot and a small sprinkling of very fine crisps.

Co-owners, Earl and his sister Ellen are the former owners of the Red Onion Café, a famously Kerrisdale icon, very popular with teens, kids, and their parents, which they started 1985. With your bill, you always get a red onion.

This is Bigsby's dish,  "Food Porn:" avocado, olives, blood orange, pineapple, red onion, arugula, butter lettuce, with a blueberry- honey mustard dressing. 

"It's fun to play with extreme flavours and balance them out with something so mellow as blueberry-honey.”  (Notice the subtle homage paid to red onions).

Good coffees – and brewed decaf which I appreciated ($1.75) -- They even had Agave Nectar (lower on the glycemic index) for sweetening along with the organic sugars.

And free wifi.

What more could you ask? Oh, okay – homemade soups that sound delicious. Carrot-lentil, that sort of thing. Other sandwiches. And breakfast things involving “THE BREAD” and organic eggs.

It's a really nice, simple place, with good food, and a happy welcome. Open until about 5 most nights. Closed Mondays.

Where:
Located near the sleepy little crossroads of 33^rd and MacKenzie, Bigsby's is a door or two down from the WindsorMeat Shop. A few doors the other way is that MacKenzie Heights 80s icon, McGuillicuddy’s (pre-owned children’s wear and kiddy paraphernalia) - and things like the SpiRe yoga studio; funky pet food store, Barktholomews Pet Edibles, whose owner Nancy loves creatures (“Our vision is to live in a world where all animals are loved as unconditionally by us as we are loved unconditionally by them”).

So if you want to throw down a quick Downward Facing Dog ... then grab a steak to toss on the barby tonight ... and bribe your dog with gourmet baked treat while you flop into Bigsby’s for coffee, a cinnamon bun and check the email, you know where to go. Lots of free easy street parking, which is an incentive of its own in this town.