Uprising Breads Bakery
1697 Venables Street
Vancouver, BC
Note: Today, I have a two-post “special”. The “other” post – Vancouver’s Bakers Market, can be found here.
A week and a half ago, during Thanksgiving weekend (as a reminder for non-Canadian readers, specially if you are from the US: we celebrate Thanksgiving in the second Monday for October), I was invited to my family friend CL’s home. Wait, did I say family friend? Don’t my parents live in Panama? I have a long history with CL, since he has known me since I was a child, before he moved to Canada and my parents moved to Panama. And, what happened when I moved here to Canada? Originally I was planning to go to Toronto but my mother “suggested” me I should go to Vancouver and stay at CL’s place instead. I am very thankful for what he has done for me on all these years and there was absolutely no what I won’t accept his invite to have the Thanksgiving dinner at his home. But, but… Despite I was the only non-family guest and was assured there was no need for me to bring anything, I won’t show up empty handed. Originally, I wanted to go to Fratelli’s to bring a cake or pie but, alas, it was closed (I forgot they are closed on Sundays). I thought then “I guess I will have to fall back on buying something from Save-on-Foods…”. That was until I was driving north on Commercial Drive when I recalled another nearby bakery and that fellow blogger Sherman wrote about previously: Uprising Breads Bakery.
Please do not let the picture above deceive you! It was one of those calm before the storm pictures. On the other side of the bakery, there was an area you could sit and have your goodies. It just happen nobody was in the “middle” of the shop at that time. A couple of seconds after I took this picture, there were people looking at the baked goods and queueing to pay for them. And what type of goodies we are talking about?
There were your regular suspects, i.e., pies, cookies, cakes (actually, I am not 100% certain of this one, though I am sure there were), scones, muffins, et al. On that note, some of the goodies were abnormally large for a single serving, like the scones above were easily the size of a large grapefruit! Being located near Commercial Drive, there are some “unique” ingredients and/or characteristics to the goodies found there: vegan, organic (?), et al. For the most part, I don’t mind what is being used, provided it is not poisonous/toxic to me and tastes good! And, as a guinea pig, I got for myself this:
Now, let’s fall back a little bit: How can you make chocolate cookies if the chocolate requires some form of fat – usually butter, which is an animal product? Are we stretching the boundaries here? And then, how “strong” would the flavour be? I will have to admit these were quite interesting, as it had some fibrous component that gave an unique texture to it. The best way to describe it would be shredded coconut. As for the chocolate taste, I wished it had more of it as I thought it felt short. Regardless, it is a quite good variant for chocolate cookies, specially if your favourite happens to be Oreo.
But wait! I did not go there for the cookies! I was there to get something for the Thanksgiving dinner, remember? In this case, I wanted something more characteristic of this holiday: Apple pie! Oh, wait, take that back, pumpkin pie! At $10, it is not the cheapest one around but I was certain to an extent this one would be good. However, I had to endure a couple of hours of patiently waiting for the dinner and, afterwards, dessert to find out…
Here, my slice which was served with some ice cream. And, of course, for “decoration” purposes, I grabbed that star, hehehehe. I will have to say the pie felt somewhere in-between: not too sweet, yet it failed to pack a punch. I could easily taste the pumpkin but it was somehow muted. As for other ingredients in the back, I am sure I tasted nutmeg and something similar to cinnamon; however, I can’t be certain of these, as I had some wine (Riesling, which I brought as well) and was a bit tipsy (wine + possible side effects of over-eating). Let’s just say if I get some, it will most likely be for holidays only.
Overall, the cookies were good and, although the pie felt slightly flat, I thought the goodies overall were quite, well, good. The question is: would I come back here or go to Fratelli’s? Unfortunately, Fratelli’s has the upper hand in the meantime but Uprising Breads Bakery is quite a good alternative for some other goodies.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve never seen this place!! I need to try it! I LOVE bakeries. I think I would like those chocolate vegan cookies for some reason…I do like shredded coconut. I can’t wait to try the granola. I’ve been looking for good fresh, chewy granola.
Mijune, according to the ingredients list, there is coconut in it; however, it is almost at the end of the list. Chances are, it is something else that mimics that texture. However, still it was good in its own ways!
This place has been here forever and is an area favourite. Not sure if I’m going to ever drive here specifically to get baked good; but I wouldn’t hesitate if I was nearby.
Hmmmm pie!!!
Uprising evolved from a strange little socialist baking “collective” (hence the name Uprising – a bit of a clever pun if you ask me). They used to have the worst bread imaginable – horribly dense and nearly inedible. A number of years ago, they saw the light and hired some real bakers.
Now, I find that they fall in a niche between the supermarket baked-goods aisle and medium-range bakeshops like Fratelli’s. They do a decent job with seasonal baking (pumpkin pie, hotcross buns, blueberry coffeecakes, that sort of thing) and goodies (brownies, lemon squares, tarts, etc). The prices are reasonable – but the products are not “best in show” (though the quality is quite good for the price).
Another plus is that they are a very community minded organization (staying true to their original socialist goals). They contribute baked goods to poverty-focused organizations like the Food Bank and The Quest Society. They also have a regular donation program in place called “Donation at Close” where they donate bread and baked goods to a rotating list of non-profit organizations.
They have earned my support. I shop there every couple of weeks. I don’t particularly like their bread, so I pick up bars and squares for my kids’ school snacks.
I think you like chocolate..I know you’re not a big fan of sweets…but I think if you pick a sweet you do like chocolate. Just an observation
Mijune, I like dark chocolate, which is not necessarily sweet. >75% will make me happy!
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