I am so glad to have learned about Thomas Lavers Cannery and Delicatessen (they don’t have a website, just twitter) from twitter and my mom, so off we went to Kensington Market to try this new spot out. I’ve never been anywhere like it. It’s like a small retail store combined with a little take out restaurant combined with a deli.
The first thing that caught my eye (it wanders quickly) was the On Tap Root Beer. I started to ask my usual questions about the ingredients they use, and was delighted to learn that their ingredients are local, (and when they can get, organic) and they really did seem to care about their quality and connections to their farmers too. I was pretty excited when I was offered a sample cup of the root beer, and it was VERY good. I also loved their shelves that were lined with their preserves and canned foods. Please note, this isn’t regular canned food, this is glass jars filled with great ingredients. I must admit, that I sampled a LOT of them – the sign did say “Try Me”, after all. I may or may not have eaten most of their onion jam, but I bought a jar to take home as well (I would have bought more than one, but that’s all they had left – I guess others love it too!). I loved the bread and butter pickles finished with horseradish too. You should just go try them all.
To my delight, there was a tall blackboard with a list of excellent sounding sandwiches. Amazingly enough, at a deli, there were multiple vegan options (yaaaaaaah!), so we ordered a vegan reuben as well as a turkey sandwich (we don’t eat meat at home, but when we go out, if the meat is organic and sourced in the way I like, then my dad and I go for it – and sometimes my little brother tries it too). I will say, that I had trouble deciding on the bread to choose, since the selection wasn’t the best (too much white flour!). I was really happy to hear about their housemade mustard, I love mustard. I tried both sandwiches and really liked them. We stood at their pasta making table in the front window to eat (no pasta was being made at the time!).
Kensington Market is much much fun to walk around and shop. There’s lots of organic, local, vegan, vegetarian, fish, meat, gluten-free and more. Thomas Lavers C and D is now another reason for me to go!
