McLean’s Specialty Foods

Specialties

Over 200 cheeses * An entire wall of EVOs (extra virgin olive oil) from Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, California, NewZealand * Balsamic vinegars like you’ve never tasted… ie 50year old balsamic from Modena * Sherry Vinegar 25yr. old from Spain * Duck Pâté * Anchovy stuffed olives * Lunch Mon-​Fri i.e. Pâté Plate, Cheese Board, Ploughman’s Lunch, Bocconcini Salad. Lunch Sat-​Sun Deli items only, i.e. cheese, olives, crackers, pâté.

History

Established in 1992.

Vancouver Island’s Premier Cheese Shop and Specialty Foods Store — McLean’s Specialty Foods offfers a unique, always-​changing selection of fresh and imported delicacies and specialty food products as well as over 100 varieties of cheese from around the world.

Founded on an age-​old philosophy of solid customer service versus mere merchandising, Eric & Sandy McLean and their staff provide a shopping experience that’s second to none.

One of Vancouver Island’s largest selections of cheeses, a delicatessen featuring the finest quality products, on-​site baking and fresh soups, along with a wide assortment of Danish, British, European, and South African specialty items among their wide assortment of ethnic products and an excellent choice of gourmet oils, vinegars, olives, truffles, patés and terrines are waiting for you in Nanaimo’s Old City Quarter.

If you can’t find something you’d expect to see in a specialty foods shop, or think you can come up with an unusual request… let us know a

Meet the Business Owner

Eric McLean X.

Business Owner

You’ve probably, at some time, seen a great recipe, looked through the ingredients and then said «Well, where on earth do I get that?» This is why I started the business in the first place.

My name is Eric McLean and I started McLean’s Specialty Foods. As the name implies, we stock“specialty foods”, that is, foods which are not easily found in conventional food stores. If you like to read Gourmet, Fine Cooking, Canadian Living, or any other food publication, you will enjoy McLean’s Specialty Foods.

The very first (and only) flyer I produced borrowed strongly from a fellow Scot, Alexander McGibbon, who in 1880 took out a small ad in the Montréal Gazette as follows:

«I wish it to be distinctly understood that I keep only first class goods, and therefore, people who want bogus brands, or mixed and adulterated teas and coffees, or inferior goods of any kind, must go elsewhere for them.»

That, in my opinion, is what you call a real mission statement.