Walking down Lazaro Cardenas, towards Bucerias Town Square if you’re coming from the South, you might chance across a colorful sign, of a lady in a chef’s hat, holding some baking; a sign to Sweet Things gourmet bakery. If you don’t see the sign you’ll miss it. It’s right next to the Bucerias Art Walk but it has no store front; only that sign and some overhanging trees and gardens… very secretive.

The seating area is a combination of both outdoor and indoor, an undercover set of tables and an outdoor set, shade being provided by umbrellas. The outdoor area backs on to a literal private garden, where visitors to the cafe can enjoy the greenery or watch the household rooster hopping back and forth on the concrete fence. We were even lucky enough to catch a friendly lizard sunning itself on the adjacent fence top.

The only thing that makes Sweet Things un-private, (though not in a bad way) is it’s rampant popularity. Head inside on most days of the week from breakfast to lunch time and you might just be lucky to get a table.

You’ll find the place full of locals and tourists, many of which I’m sure have decided to come after uttering the words “We have a FAVOURITE little breakfast place nearby…” to their willing guests.

The reason I used all the slashes in my post title was because I really didn’t know what to call this place. It has a gourmet bakery, yes. It’s a cafe, you can buy coffe there, yes. It’s a restaurant, you can buy full meals there, yes. And all of those individual parts have equal levels of awesomeness.

What I mean is: Whether you get a home made organic brownie from the bakery, some of the delectable banana nut waffles for breakfast, or a club sandwich for lunch, Sweet Things is sure to impress. It’s the kind of place where you just know that each meal has that little touch of homemade-ness about it… that each meal got prepared with just a touch of that magical ingredient called care.

The wait staff are friendly, the prices are cheap, and after your meal you’re free to linger in the shade, and enjoy the garden ambience with a good book or a coffee. OR not to mention, if you haven’t before, you can head off to the Bucerias Art Walk next door to round off the morning in the most perfectly relaxing way.

Sweet Things is a local treasure, fullstop.

Technorati Tags: Bucerias, Bucerias Restaurants

Cutting straight to the point on this one, if you’re looking for a place for lunch or dinner in Bucerias, Adriano’s has it’s good and it’s bad.

The restaurant is certainly visually stimulating. It’s bright orange interior and plethora of decorations lining the walls, from plates to sombreros to Mexican artwork makes it an entertaining atmosphere from which to enjoy your meal, and certainly a unique experience. As you wait for your food you can observe and discuss the various pieces as well as of course the view of Bucerias beach out the window.

The restaurant has the common drink specials like 2 for 1 Margarita’s and the ever popular 5 Corona for 80 pesos, making it an easy start to the evening.

The menu at Adriano’s is common yet vast, a little more vast than a couple of the other spots on this strip (see our posts on El Brujo and Mezzogiorno from the same strip). You can choose from all the Mexican favorites, as well as steak, seafood, and a variety of appetizers.

Service wise (it’s always very subjective and must vary so greatly regardless of the place) while it wasn’t poor, we got the subtle feel that (and maybe fair enough) our waiter lost a lot of his friendliness and attentiveness toward us after we actually came inside the restaurant. But overall, it was nothing to complain about.

Having eaten at most of the restaurants on Avenida Del Pacifico, the unfortunate thing about Adriano’s is that it’s quite expensive relative to it’s neighbors, maybe the most expensive on the strip. I don’t mean expensive by western standards, just expensive for the area.

Food wise, we sampled the Filet Mignon, the Mexican Pork Cutlets, and the BBQ Ribs. The verdict was: Filet Mignon with creamy mushroom sauce was a delight; Mexican Pork Cutlets, tasty but only saved by stealing the BBQ sauce from our friend’s ribs to put on them, too plain on their own; and BBQ Ribs small but tasty and BBQ sauce, not too bad.

Re-reading what I’ve written here I can’t put my finger on exactly why I’m unable to be more excited about Adriano’s. Nevertheless, I can’t say anything particularly bad about it.

Adriano’s is the kind of place you have to go at least once because of it’s uniqueness, and after that, you might come to love it, or you might decide that once was enough.

If you end up checking out Adriano’s, let us know what you thought!

Technorati Tags: Bucerias, Bucerias Restaurants

To our surprise, even at uber commercial chain marts like Mega and Walmart, the book section is solely titles in Spanish. Even the ritzy Liverpool mall in downtown PV, built solely for tourists strolling across from their cruise boats, do you think you can find books in English? No hay nada!

It was exciting then to learn after a little internet search (and thanks to this blog) that in fact our own town of Bucerias in fact had it’s own English bookstore, appropriately named Gringo’s Bookstore. In fact, it still seems to be one of the few English bookstores in PV, another (bigger) being at Plaza Caracol, inside the Soriana complex about 5 minutes south of Sam’s Wal-Mart on the bus down town.

On a typically perfect bright and clear Friday morning, Elysia and I made our way down to 7-A Calle Morelos (off Lazaro Cardenas) in Bucerias centro to experience this local gem for ourselves.

What at first seems like a relatively small selection of books turns out to be potential hours of hunting, as you experience the simple pleasure of scanning the shelves not knowing exactly what you might find, or what you might take home. On the densely packed shelves you can find used titles of both fiction and non fiction (seemingly more of the former) organized alphabetically on the authors name, in many cases regardless of their subject or content, making your search that little more interesting.

More enticing still is the mysterious aroma of baked goods (maybe a nice Banana Bread, I thought) coming from the store’s backrooms. I put a mental post it note on that one for further inspection later.

You also notice that none of the books have prices. The bookstore charges 50% of the publishers price, and gives you the option to return the book for a store credit of 25% of the purchase price that you can use to purchase your next set of books.

After you pay for your books you learn that the smell of baked goods is emanating from the store’s own coffee shop, where you can pick up anything from a chai frappe to a home made slice of numerous kind.

But the experience of Gringo’s Bookstore is yet not complete, in fact, perhaps the most special part is saved for last. Attached to the bookstore is a quiet patio and garden setting. Here you can sit down with your newly acquired treasure, in an open room that (on this divine winter day) feels like perfect room temperate, neither too warm nor too cold even by a degree. You can sip your latte and turn the pages of your book as the combination of sunlight and the gentlest of breezes carresses your skin, the owner’s 2 cats half heartedly play fight around your legs, and the odd tourist saunters in and out without making too much of a stir.

Gringo’s is one place that you immediately know isn’t just a shop… it’s an experience. You won’t spend much money, you won’t expend much energy, and you’ll certainly leave a happier and more relaxed person than when you arrived.

Technorati Tags: bookstores, Bucerias

1. Easy Access

The great part about the Bucerias Beach is that you have easy access to it almost regardless of where you’re staying or living. Most of the good stuff at Bucerias happens on the beach side of the highway passing through, so there’s never more than a 10 minute walk to the shore from where ever you are. Even from the highway itself, the beach is only 2 blocks. As you’re driving through you can even see the water from your car, that’s how close it is.

2. Quiet

Being 45 minutes from downtown Vallarta (by bus) there are far less people at Bucerias to bother you. Most times of the day you can enjoy the beach almost like its your own (besides weekends). You’ll see less merchants selling stuff from the sand, less rowdy tourists, and less chaos in general. Furthermore, alot of the land back from the sand at Bucerias is timeshare properties rather than hotels, meaning when you walk past, you’re passing 6 people in a house, not hundreds on their balconies at a hotel… makes things quieter and a little more private.

3. Clean, Quality Beach

Less touched by tourists, the beach at Bucerias is cleaner and nicer than elsewhere in Vallarta. There’s a good width of sand meaning there’s plenty of room to find a spot to sunbake or sit and read. The sea can be less rough here too as there’s less big rocks out in the water, influencing the waves. Speaking of waves, the beach at Bucerias isn’t a surf beach either, meaning no surfers, just those enjoying the ocean in more relaxing ways.

4. Plenty of Activity

Whether you want a good meal or a cocktail in the sun, there’s a strip of bars and restaurants along part of the beach that’ll see you more than satisfied. You can sit under a bungalow on the sand, or elevated up higher on a balcony to enjoy the rolling waves and the sunset. On the weekends you can check out the markets right near the shore, or the festivities at the Bucerias town square.

If you’re coming to Bucerias for the beach, congratulate yourself on a decision well made. And if you remember, come back here and let us know how you found it!

Technorati Tags: Bucerias, Puerto Vallarta