When you're picnicking with a million-dollar view, tuna sandwiches and granola bars just aren't going to cut it. Rather than spend hours trying to execute the perfect picnic menu on your own, step away from the sandwich bags and leave the prep work to the pros.
The following restaurants and caterers whip up drool-inducing picnic baskets worthy of any top-tier setting. (Note: advance notice required.)
Provence Marinaside | 1177 Marinaside Crescent | 604-681-4144
Infuse your picnic with the flavours and textures of French cuisine. Yaletown's Provence Marinaside offers gourmet feasts for two packed in picnic baskets (available with a deposit) or disposable bags. Each basket ($80) includes still water, a baguette, tapenade, crostini, artisanal BC cheese, fruit salad, and the picnicker's choice of beverages, mains (which includes items like risotto balls, prosciutto-wrapped bocconcini and stuffed piquillo peppers), and dessert (chocolate Kahlua cake, anyone?) w:ProvenceVancouver.com/Marinaside
The Dirty Apron Cooking School & Delicatessen | 540 Beatty Street | 604-879-8588
The Dirty Apron offers two varieties of picnic basket; choosing between them comes down to how fancy you and your picnic-mate want to get. The simpler option ($50) features baguette sandwiches, seasonal salads, cookies and beverages (as well as cutlery and a reusable tote). The fancy option ($80) includes everything from the $50 level, and raises the stakes with charcuterie, cheese, crackers, dips, organic fruit and chocolate pistachio cream cheese brownies. Yogi Bear never had it so good. w: DirtyApron.com
Memphis Blues Barbeque House | Various locations
Picnics don't have to be fancy. Sometimes nothing tastes better under than clear blue skies than down-home food — and that's exactly what Memphis Blues has crammed into its hearty picnic packs ($63.95).Vegetarians, tread lightly; this particular picnic option — intended for four people — is all about the meat: barbecued meat (pulled pork, ribs, brisket, chicken) and all the fixings (cornbread, slaw, collard greens, BBQ pit beans), packed up in a sturdy box with four thirst-quenching sodas. It's bound to get messy; ask for extra napkins. w: MemphisBluesBBQ.com
Benton Brothers Fine Cheese | Various locations, including Granville Island
Rich, creamy, dense, light, strong, crumbly, aromatic — where fine cheese is concerned, there's much to contemplate with every bite. Lounge on your picnic blanket and consider the many nuances of cheese with a platter from Benton Brothers. Prices vary depending on what cheeses are ordered, as well as the addition of other tasty variables like terrines, pates, olives, cornichons, fruit preserves, dried fruit, toasted organic nuts and crackers. Whatever you order, everything is carefully laid out on a wooden tray (which must be returned the next day). Contemplate away. w: BentonsCheese.com
Truffles Fine Foods Café VanDusen Garden | 5151 Oak Street | 604-505-4961
This basket comes with a stellar location: the sprawling grounds of VanDusen Botanical Garden. $65 gets you two garden admissions, as well as sandwiches, salads, drinks, cookies, cheese, grapes and crackers, ready to go in a lovely wicker basket and accompanied by a picnic blanket (both of which must be returned to Truffles before you call it a day). In this scenario, picnic baskets need not be ordered in advance but their contents must be consumed on site — not that there's anything unappetizing about that. w: TrufflesFineFoods.com
Lusso Verde | 1523 West 8th | 604-558-1411
Spain may have taught us how to dine al fresco, but Italians have made eating outdoors a cultural specialty. South Granville's luxury Italian food and flower boutique, Lusso Verde, can transform any stretch of grass into a hilltop villa in Tuscany with its selection of fromaggi and salumi, spreads, condiments, chocolates and Italian Gassosa (the latter served in bottles far too pretty to part with). Choose what goes in the basket or describe what you're craving and let them work their magic. $100-$200. Take the basket home, or return it and get your deposit back. w: LussoVerde.com
