little nest

i've lamented many times that there should be restaurants or coffee shops that cater specifically to parents with little kids. parents could meet up with friends, get to eat out, while their children play in the play area. so far, mcdonalds is our only option and that's not even really for toddlers. well, my friends, alyssa and james, found a place off of commercial (in vancouver) that has figured this out and james had heard they had a great breakfast menu but thought it might be strange to go there with no kids. so i've been meaning to blog about this for a week now but last weekend, tim, ben, and i slept over at james and alyssa's house in vancouver so that we could wake up in the morning and try out this restaurant: little nest.

in my mind, i'd imagined climbing structures that the kids are climbing, sliding, and playing on but actually, it's a little wooden play kitchen, old school toys, lots of books to read, a mini-picnic table, wooden fruits and vegetables, etc. (in retrospect, there would be some liability issues around having climbing things probably, right?) we got to the restaurant early enough that we got a great table next to the play area and ben went to work in the kitchen.

turns out that just because this place has a kid's area doesn't mean they're not serving up crazy good food. everything is as local and organic as possible and much fancier than my usual taste. i ordered the "brioche french toast with figs, pear, and cinnamon". i was a little nervous - like, have i even SEEN a fig before? probably not. it shows up looking...fancy. whipped cream with pistachios on top and a little round dish that looked like olive oil on the side. well, turns out that was not olive oil - it was pear syrup. this dish was AMAZING, amazing, amazing. figs are tasty and so are pears and whipped cream with pistachios. so much food. alyssa ordered the same thing and couldn't finish it. while we ate, we enjoyed chatting with NO kid interruptions because ben didn't give us a second look while we were there. he played contentedly until we were finished eating.

best dining experience with child since ben was born, by far. thanks for finding this place j&a and letting us sleepover so we could go there with you! (wish we had photos but my camera was in WR at the time...next time)