Introducing… ECCO IL PANE

Vancouver's Original Artisian Bakery is now available at Vincenzo’s. We are proud to be the first retailer in the Ontario region to offer you this wonderful product.

Ecco il Pane means “Here is the bread” in Italian, and in 1992 that’s exactly what Pamela Gaudreault, President and Founder, proclaimed to The City of Vancouver. Ecco il Pane was the city’s first bakery to embrace the artisan bread renaissance sweeping across North America and instantly gained recognition for producing breads of amazing quality where none had existed before. Working out of a small, shared facility in the Kitsilano neighbourhood, Gaudreault baked round-the-clock, making artisan breads from recipes indigenous to various regions of Italy. Using the long-established baking methods of hand shaping each loaf, allowing time for slow fermentation and baking on a natural stone deck oven, Ecco il Pane nurtured the Old World baking tradition, a tradition of not rushing things.

The overwhelming response to their warm, crusty breads quickly proved the shared production space inadequate and Ecco il Pane found a new 4,000 square foot home in the light industrial district of Vancouver’s False Creek. The use of the front portion of the new building as a small retail café allowed for the showcasing of Ecco il Pane’s famous breads as well as sweet dolci, panini sandwiches, biscotti, soups and coffees. The remaining space was used by their artisan bakers, who kept busy baking for the growing group of the city’s finest restaurants, hotels, caterers and supermarkets.

Ecco il Pane now supplies their famous artisan loaves to restaurants and supermarkets throughout the Pacific Northwest. Ecco il Pane Home Bakes™, loaves that are 60% baked and flash frozen, have allowed for this continued growth in distribution, to such an extent that in late 2002 the retail café was closed and the bakery upgraded to a production-only facility.

Today, Ecco il Pane continues to keep up with the demand for their artisan breads, servicing the local market and distributing, by Home Bake shipment, out of the city. It seems that the call for Ecco il Pane’s artisan breads extends beyond borders, and they are more than happy to answer - here is the bread!