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49th Parallel Coffee Roasters
(604) 420-4900
Address: 2152 West 4th Avenue (map)
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Pastries Without Parallel
a Quick Bite

By Mark Freeman
Eat Vancouver writer

Since I arrived in Vancouver, I’ve been trying to find a decent coffee shop in my area where I could write but have been consistently disappointed with the overpriced, generic cafe food in the coffee shops along 4th. But after discovering 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters, I haven’t had to go anywhere else again. They have great coffee, a regular for 1.69, and even better espresso, a double for 2.25, but it’s the pastries that keep pulling me back every week.

Most of the pastries are supplied by Thomas Haas Fine Chocolates & Patisserie in North Vancouver and then baked on site. They cost from around 2.00 to 3.50 and buying only one seems like a waste so I usually grab another for the walk home, in addition to the two I have with my double espresso. I was originally advised to visit 49th to have the pan au chocolat, which a friend assured me was better than any he’d ever had in Paris, and he wasn’t lying. Beyond that there’s the quark cheese danish, a fluffy pastry wrapped around creamy cheese and moist raisins. I don’t even like raisins and I get it every time I go. The brioche has a light outer layer with a denser, sweet bready inside, almost like a doughnut but without the grease. And there’s more! Any one of them is worth breaking the ridiculous New Year’s resolutions you lied to yourself about keeping.