by Andrew Morrison | I remember being especially excited when I found out that West Pender’s cult sandwich shop Finch’s was opening their second location at the end of my block in Strathcona. My wife Michelle first turned me on to their ridiculously good sandwiches – truly mythic things made with blue-brie, pear, walnut, prosciutto, balsamic, olive oil and salt and pepper on fresh baguette – a few years previous. If you look at the beast below you can probably understand how it was a difficult thing to walk past the construction site at 501 East Georgia and not peek my head in to see how progress was coming along. I mean, c’mon…

These shots were taken exactly five years ago today when I caught co-owner Jamie Smith up to his eyeballs with the job. It would be a long time – eight months (a few days before Christmas, 2012) – until the new Finch’s Market would serve its first sandwich and pull its first espresso. To see scenes from that welcome day, click here.

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