Nanaimo bar
Sweet
The Nanaimo bar suits anyone who wants a classic Canadian square with their coffee, and in North Vancouver BjornBar Bakery in Edgemont Village makes it among more than 30 dessert bars. Expect it to be rich, since food geographer Lenore Newman notes how much butter and sugar the bars take.
Photo Craig Dugas · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
The name
Nanaimo bar
The bar takes its name from the city of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.
English
Nanaimo's own name is an anglicized spelling and pronunciation of Snuneymuxw, and the Hudson's Bay Company renamed its Colvile Town settlement Nanaimo in 1858.
Source
A Nanaimo bar needs no oven. Custard icing sits on a crumb base with coconut and nuts in it, and a layer of chocolate goes on top. Bakers swap the icing for peanut butter or mocha, and BjornBar's fall menu in October 2026 lists a pumpkin Nanaimo bar. Wikipedia notes that the name appears in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.
The earliest recipe anyone has found sits in the 1952 Women's Auxiliary to the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook. It prints three near-identical versions under the names Chocolate Square and Chocolate Slice. For her 2014 paper, Lenore Newman searched 48 cookbooks and the Vancouver Sun's Edith Adams recipe column, and she found nothing like it from before 1952. On 11 April 1953 the Sun printed the recipe as London Fog Bars and noted that people also called them Nanaimo bars. Later that year the 14th Edith Adams cookbook used the Nanaimo name alone.
Newman credits Vancouver caterer Susan Mendelson with keeping the bar popular after the 1950s. She founded The Lazy Gourmet in 1979 and built its catering around the bars. Her Expo 86 cookbook carried three recipes for them. In 1986 Mayor Graeme Roberts and Harbour Park Mall ran a four-week contest for the ultimate Nanaimo bar recipe, and almost 100 versions came in. Joyce Hardcastle of Nanaimo won it with unsalted butter as her trick.
The Nanaimo Museum stands on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, and Wikipedia says the city's name is an anglicized form of Snuneymuxw. The Horseshoe Bay ferry lands at Departure Bay in Nanaimo, and Newman noted in 2014 that BC Ferries still sold the bars. Closer to home, BjornBar keeps its Nanaimo bar beside lemon meringue and odder flavours in Edgemont Village. Honey Doughnuts & Goodies in Deep Cove bakes a gluten-free coconut chocolate one.
Worth knowing
- Preorder a box of bars from BjornBar Bakery online at least 48 hours ahead if you're feeding a group.
- Ask for the gluten-free coconut chocolate Nanaimo bar at Honey Doughnuts & Goodies in Deep Cove.
- Cut a Nanaimo bar into small squares to share, because the bars are rich.
Quick answers about Nanaimo bar
Where did the Nanaimo bar come from?
The earliest known Nanaimo bar recipe appears in the 1952 Women's Auxiliary to the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook, and food geographer Lenore Newman credits the auxiliary's women with the bar. The Vancouver Sun's Edith Adams column first printed the Nanaimo name in April 1953.
Where can you buy a Nanaimo bar in North Vancouver?
BjornBar Bakery in Edgemont Village makes Nanaimo bars among more than 30 dessert bars. Honey Doughnuts & Goodies in Deep Cove sells a gluten-free coconut chocolate Nanaimo bar.
Who won the official Nanaimo bar recipe contest?
Joyce Hardcastle of Nanaimo won the contest for the ultimate Nanaimo bar recipe that Mayor Graeme Roberts and Harbour Park Mall ran in 1986, according to the City of Nanaimo.
How do you order Nanaimo bar?
Order one square with a coffee, or buy a box to share. Ask what's in the middle layer, since bakers swap the custard icing for flavours like peanut butter or mocha.
When is Nanaimo bar in season?
Nanaimo bar: Bakeries sell it all year, and BjornBar Bakery in Edgemont Village lists a pumpkin Nanaimo bar on the fall menu its site showed in October 2026.