GLORIOUS BATARD
Industry veterans excite the locals with a superb selection of tempting treats
Batard Boulangerie Cafe Moderne has killer bread and superb savories for a slow food breakfast and lunch experience.
I love this bastard. Forgive me, but I’m not often at liberty to have potty mouth.
Backing up, the bastard is actually Batard Boulangerie Cafe Moderne and one translation of batard is bastard. I, and apparently plenty of others, love this place.
Batard can also refer to an oval loaf of bread and considering that the boulangerie section has gorgeous bread, it is a multi-layered name. I would drive across the Lion’s Gate Bridge and through the congested downtown to get my hands on the amazing batard and other loaves.
In case you’re scratching your head about the photos in the bathrooms, they’re of celebrities who, in another time, would have been called bastard children — Sophia Loren, David Bowie, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Nicholson, Eric Clapton. In the dining area, the biggest wall is crammed with a garage sale kind of art collection.
Batard is run by two industry veterans, Chris Brown and Bruno Born. In the 1990s (until 2002), Brown ran Ecco Il Pane, an Italian restaurant (sigh — it was so good) and, for a short while, Boleto on the same block of West Broadway.
Then, he went from a staff of 60 to one — himself — by selling bread to a devoted farmers market following under the name Rise Artisan Bakery. “I was doing what I loved,” he says.
At Batard, he’s responsible for the killer boulangerie and creating excitement around this Fraser Street neighbourhood. Born, who now operates Finest at Sea Bistro and two fish shops, oversees the savories. Together, they are more than the sum of their parts. It’s a slow food breakfast and lunch experience.
If it’s just coffee and a nibble you want, point to anything in the bakery display and you’ll be pleased. A galette or financier, perhaps? Or maybe a kouignamann? Haven’t heard of that? I hadn’t either and thought I’d bought a brioche. Brown explains it’s the “darling of the moment” from Brittany. He takes bread dough, laminates it like puff pastry, rolls it into a spiral, and sprinkles sugar on it to caramelize. It’s crunchy outside and moist and chewy inside.
If you opt for the chocolate cherry scone, don’t kid yourself. This is dessert masquerading as breakfast. It’s deeply, darkly chocolatey. His bread cupcakes — like a bread pudding filled with ricotta and fruit — fly off the shelf.
The chocolate cherry buns from the old Ecco Il Pane days, which people still harass him to make, won’t be available often. He uses 11 kilograms of cherries to yield about a kilo and a half of dried cherries for them. “But they are amazing,” he says.
There are, as yet, no croissants as a sheeter, which is used to laminate the dough, is a costly piece of equipment. But the bread is nothing less than spectacular.
At the deli counter, there are some fast foods like salads topped with beautiful shrimp or smoked salmon, charcuterie plates with products from Oyama Sausage, and square Parisian-style quiches ready for heating.
The beef dip, which is making a comeback, has a slow-roasted coffee-crusted beef with jus for dipping. A smoked salmon on rye was luscious.
The toast bar offers toast — really good toast — and comes with toppers like Oyama cognac liver pate or green olive tapenade. The grilled cheese sandwich is switched up a bit: it’s open face with a cheddar mousseline which rises into a crunchy souffle and is served with tomato chutney.
This isn’t a hipster enclave. It’s a nice mix of people from the neighbourhood. Animated conversations (films, Nelson Mandela, someone’s single mom who is strong and wise) made me want to join in.
I’d advise you not to get too full at Batard. That way, you’ll be able to walk into Earnest Ice Cream two doors down and order up a whisky hazelnut or salted caramel cone, or maybe a sour cherry chocolate chip.