Another coffee shop in Gastown you say? Well I’m not surprised, but I am happy The Birds and the Beets exists. A solid effort from the newcomer to town (it’s only been open a few days), with great coffee, good food (with a caveat) and really friendly staff.
Coffee
Latte: $4
A decent effort at a latte indeed. The milk was pretty much perfect, but the espresso shot wasn’t quite as strong as I like it, which meant that the latte was pretty weak. Latte art on top was great. Beans are from Bow and Arrow on Vancouver, which is reassuring, as they’re known for treating their distributors really well. There are plenty other types of coffee available, all at good prices.
Food
I want to sing praises here, because I bet the sandwiches are amazing, but they had run out of bread! So, like some sort of farm animal, I had a pork salad. The salad was tasty enough and pretty filling but the pork was the real star here. It was incredible. Perfectly cooked – tender, moist and plenty of it. I’ll be back to try it between bread for sure. I have to take some points off here because of the lack of bread.
They also brew their own ginger beer and kombucha. I saw the ginger beer being prepared and it looked excellent. I’ll be trying that soon.
Location
Gastown, just off the beaten path. A great location, nothing else to say here. I saw a guy in an alleyway with his pants down, but I suppose that’s just Gastown for you.
Venue
You know the location, so it’s exactly like you’d expect. Wood, bricks and stainless steel. I thought it looked excellent. Loads of seating and some great larger/communal tables.
Bathrooms
Small, functional and kept nice and clean.
Staff
Awesome staff! The server was really friendly, very informative and willing to help. He was very apologetic for the lack of bread and even organized a larger portion of protein and an egg for my salad to make up for that! I also spoke to a chef/food prepper who was also really friendly and told me all about his ginger beer brewing.
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