We love food! Some of our favourite gifts for the holidays involve delish things to eat or drink. We have found a lot more friends and family favouring edible items as gifts whether food, spirits or accessories that compliment cooking, baking or creating delish refreshments at home. In East Van, there are so many amazing options to choose from. On a recent trip to The Drive, we found a great selection of panetonne in Bosa Foods, Fratelli’s Bakery and Donald’s Market. There are quite a few flavour variations now, but last year we were gifted one and the last bit became french toast. If you haven’t tried this, we do recommend giving it a try. We’ve set out some suggestions for easy to find edible gifting this holiday season below. Whether it’s a hostess gift, thank you or maybe create your own basket from things you know the person would like, there are many great options close at hand in East Van.
Gift Baskets
There are many shops locally that will create custom gift baskets for you with a food related theme. The include LaGrotta delFrommagio, Bosa Foods, Gourmet Warehouse and Second Nature Home to name just a few.
Cooking Classes
Looking to gift an experience? Gourmet Warehouse always has a great line up of demonstration cooking classes. They usually run for 3 hours often on the weekends, sometimes in the evening during the week. The Italian Cultural Centre also features hands on cooking classes. Most classes you get to eat what you make afterwards.
Craft Beer
No way we could just skip over craft beer as a gift for the beer lover. So many great breweries to choose from each with their own unique offering, but pretty much all offer growlers. If you prefer to give the gift of a brewery tour, our friends at Vancouver Brewery Tours have that covered.
Spirits
Looking to gift some locally made spirits, we are pretty fond of Odd Society Spirits 1725 Powell Street with a great selection of locally made spirits including East Van Vodka, Wallflower Gin, Cassis, Bittersweet Vermouth and Oaken Wallflower Gin. During the holidays, we love to serve their cassis with prosecco. It’s an easy cocktail when entertaining. There’s also Resurrection Spirits at 1672 Franklin Street. Down side is they are only open Thursday to Saturday from 6:00 pm to 12:00 am whereas Odd Society Spirits has easier hours for popping in and picking a bottle or two. Odd Society is open Thursday to Sunday 1:00 pm to 11:00 pm save for Sunday evening which they wrap it up at 7:00 pm.
Pies
I mean who doesn’t love a delicious pie? Andrea and Stephanie French of The Pie Shoppe at 1875 Powell Street make seriously delicious pie. If you need to bring dessert for Christmas dinner or get together and want to wow family or friends, this is where you pick up your pie.
ILiveInEastVan.com 
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