Around the southern end of Main Street in Vancouver, you’ll come across the Punjabi Market. Around the northern end of Main Street, you’ll be surrounded by Chinatown. In the middle, stretching from Mount Pleasant to the Queen Elizabeth Park area, is a neighborhood that is getting increasingly trendy. You’ll find all sorts of interesting eateries, like Burgoo, as well as a never-ending supply of coffee shops.
If you’re the kind of person who is addicted to caffeine, then this is a fantastic neighborhood for you. There is literally a latte and cappuccino shop on just about every corner.It would be impossible for me to highlight each and every one, so I thought I’d start with the southern end of Mount Pleasant.
Here are a few places that you might want to check out if you’re looking for something a little better than fast food coffee. I hear that the iced coffee at McDonald’s is pretty bad.
Bean Around the World (website)
3598 Main Street, 604-875-9199
This place has some of the better drip coffee in town. There are a few scant outdoor chairs and tables for those of you who enjoy drinking their coffee while soaking in a little sun. It’s located sort of half-way between the two busier parts of Main Street, so there aren’t as many people-watching opportunities other than the folks coming to Bean Around the World to share a cuppa joe with you.
The Grind and Gallery
4124 Main Street, 604-874-1588
A perennial student hangout, The Grind is one of the few coffee houses this stretch of Main Street that is open all around the clock. The only other 24 hour coffee shop that I know about on Main is Waves, but that’s closer to Main and Broadway. The Grind has decent coffee and an assortment of pastries, but easily its biggest appeal are the long hours. Perfect for studying and the student camaraderie may help you increase brainpower and improve memory.
Salt Spring Coffee (website)
4295 Main Street, 604-875-9727
One of the greatest ways to avoid burnout as a work-at-home professional is to partake in a change of scenery. Salt Spring is distinctly West Coast Canadian and they even refer to an Americano as a Canadiano. In fact, that’s the drink that you see at the top of this post: an iced Canadiano with a shot of vanilla and a splash of milk. If you’re into the organic stuff, they’ve got you covered as well (the micro roaster is located on Salt Spring Island). And yes, there is free Wi-Fi.
Re-Entry Espresso (website)
4363 Main Street, 604-872-0844
As its name implies, Re-Entry does not serve any drip coffee whatsoever. They only do espresso-based drinks, so come here for your fill of lattes, mochas, and macchiatos. It’s not the biggest place in the world, but the booths are comfortable and the staff are among the friendliest I’ve encountered. You’ve got to try some of their fresh-baked cookies if you happen to catch them coming out of the oven too. Free Wi-Fi makes this a great place to temporarily relocate your office in the middle of the day.
All of these places are within walking distance for me, I didn’t know you live in my neighbourhood!
BTW – I also reviewed Burgoo Bistro, it’s such a great place! I loved it.
Quite an improvement over the Subway that once occupied that space, eh?
How far apart are all of these places? That is a lot of coffee shops for what is likely a relatively small area.
Aside from Bean Around the World, the other three are located within about two blocks of one another.
Down on Robson Street in Vancouver there are two Starbucks diagonally across the street from each other. The funny thing is both are always busy. If they can pull that off, then a couple blocks of separation really isn’t that close in Caffeine addicted Vancouver. In fact, it probably isn’t close enough.
Broadway has three and a Blenz, if I’m not mistaken, on the same intersection.
Only in Vancouver…could you pull that off…
That’s crazy!!! Why don’t they just put a long counter from one end of the street to the other and serve coffee all the way up and down the street….
Im not a coffee lover but that coffee looks yummy.
I need to try out some of these places, I’m getting pretty sick of Waves. The coffee at Waves is anything but amazing.. I usually stick to specialty drinks (frappes, etc.) when I go to Waves/Starbucks as it’s the one type of drink you can’t really screw up and tastes good.
I haven’t found an ‘awesome’ drip coffee place in vancouver yet. Starbucks is disgusting at the best of times, the only coffee I drink religiously is timmies (I have a soft spot for canadian-ized coffee :P). I’ll have to try out a couple of these places this week, I need to get out of the house, I am finding it harder and harder to work from here. I could definitely use a change of scenery.
You are right about the McDonalds coffee – stay away unless you are desperate. I havent been since I quit the day job a few years back…