Commercial Street Cafe
If you like the hustle and bustle of Commercial Drive but prefer to shave your legs and wash your armpits, you may have taken a stroll south to it’s refined sibling, Commercial Street. If you have you may have noticed Commercial Street Cafe, arguably the best neighbourhood style coffee shop in the area.
Coffee
Latte 12oz – $4.25
Beans: Timbertrain
I’ll be honest, I was expecting the coffee to be sub par, because I’m so jaded by crappy local coffee shops, but I’m really happy to say that the coffee created here is actually rather great. OK the latte art is a bit dodgy, but it was creamy and well balanced, with the Timbertrain beans flavour offering a punch, with no bitter aftertaste. Pretty impressive.
Filter Coffee 12oz – $2.75
Not a bad effort here too. It was strong but balanced, getting really quite interesting as it cooled with some licorice and caramel flavours showing up.
In addition to coffee they have various juices and tea’s (such as the London Fog pictured below).
Food
Quinoa Waffles – $12.50
Holy expensive waffles, Batman! To be honest, I was hoping for a bigger portion than I was given, but what did come out was very tasty. Plus it’s made with Quinoa flour, so if you’re like 99% of the stupid hippies in the area that claim to be Celiac (newsflash: 99% of you are not Celiac, you’re just idiots) you can eat these safe in the warmth of your echo chamber of bullsh*t. Did you know that excess gluten causes Donald Trump to become president? I like gluten, I’ll have yours if you don’t want it.
Sausage Breakfast Muffin – $5.48
A decent enough effort, with some tasty sausage and egg stuff going on inside it, but it’s in need of some sort of sauce in my opinion. Perhaps a gluten free tomato chutney or a gluten free mayo. Also the plate it was served on was gluten free, which was a nice touch. Note that the buns have delicious tasty gluten in them.
Staff
The staff were warm, welcoming and knowledgeable about their food and drinks. I threw a little self deprecating sarcasm around when I ordered, resulting in Mrs VancouverCoffeeSnob getting some sympathetic looks from them… can’t win them all I guess.
Venue
Visually, Commercial Street Cafe looks like a slightly more polished version of a local neighbourhood coffee shop, only with way more seating. The venue is more like two venues, as they’ve knocked through to the room next door and set that up as a seating area. It’s light, airy and has huge windows that open when it’s warm, but the place can get a bit messy when they’re busy in my experience.
Location
Well, I live around the corner, so it’s pretty convenient for me, but if you’re driving over you’ll find loads of free, on street parking in the area, a bus stop around the corner, on Victoria Drive and Nanaimo SkyTrain station a short walk away. If you’re bringing along your dogs then you can stop off at Trout Lake park where you can fail to stop your in-laws ridiculous golden doodle from jumping into the stagnant water and then shaking it all over you… DAMN IT Biggles I thought we were buddies! Ahem, sorry, I got a little side tracked there.
Bathrooms
Not bad, but can get a little messy and definitely could use a little TLC for some grimy buildup in areas. There’s only one, so you may end up waiting if it gets busy.
Conclusion
If you want a quiet little oasis, far from the chaos of the busy cafe areas, then Commercial Street Cafe is probably a worthwhile visit for a weekend. If you want man buns and pour overs this is not the place for you. Unless you’re the guy we saw there with a man bun, in which case go nuts. Visit for the decent coffee, stay for the sympathetic staff and leave when you want some gluten.
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