Wednesday was another great day in Vancouver and what better activity than a bike around the Stanley Park Seawall and lunch from Cardero Bottega. The Seawall was still quite crowded mid-way through August. Check out our full ride on Video at YouTube here. After riding back through the park we took the new bike lane that is now finished on Alberni and runs from the park to Cardero. It will be even better when the new crosswalk lights are up and running at Alberni and Robson. We headed down Cardero almost to Nelson to check out the ‘New York Style deli in the heart of the West End’ that we keep reading about.

The Cardero Bottega space is quite small but offers both made-to-order sandwiches and the sale of cheese and deli meats and other mainly Mediterranean staples such as oils, vinegars, pastas, pickles, olives, sauces and more. It was also very clean. The husband and wife team (Tim and Nathalie) that own and operate the Bottega are friendly and fast and mentioned that the recent newspaper coverage has kept them very busy. Of the eight cold and two hot sandwiches I chose the Monte Twisto which included Turkey, Swiss, prosciutto cotto (cooked) with mustard and a lemon pepper mayo. The ingredients were very fresh and delicious and I am not sure what type of bun the sandwich was made on but it was extremely soft and very fresh as well. The sandwich was huge and a great lunch for $7.

Jeff chose the Hot Corned Beef sandwich. The meat was steamed and placed on the freshest rye bread we have ever seen in this city (and being from Winnipeg we know all about Rye bread) with the choice of Grainy or Dijon mustard. The meat used was J. Beethoven corned beef from Cultus Lake, BC and is a family recipe straight from Brooklyn. This sandwich was large and full of flavor and for $8.50 well worth it when compared to the equally large and tasty corned beef sandwich that Jeff had last year at the Carnegie Deli in New York City which he paid $16 US for. The side portion of sweet and sour baby pickles was an added bonus.
In addition to the locally sourced corned beef, we found out that each morning Tim walks the two blocks from his home (they do not own a car) to the Boulangerie Cho Pain located on Davie street to collect his made to order, fresh every day, bread and buns including the Russian Rye that is specially made for his store. The bread is not pre-sliced as each slice is freshly cut at the time the sandwich order is placed.
Although there is only one small bench for seating inside the deli, there are two benches outside and the park with several picnic benches at Lord Roberts’s school just up the block make a great lunch spot. If you do stop by for a bite and decided to stock up on some of their great products, they also sell made in BC reusable ‘Betty Bags’ to get all of your purchases home. The Cardero Bottega is definitely on our list of great lunches and we will eventually try all of the 10 sandwich options. If we keep finding such great places to eat in Vancouver we will never have to cook, which is fine by me.

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