Flourist Opens in East Vancouver

A few months back, Flourist (formerly Grain according to this VIA article) announced they were opening a brick and mortar coffee shop/flour mill. I’d bet money that we don’t have that combination anywhere closeby.

A couple of weeks ago they opened their doors go the public and let me tell you, it’s a feast for the eyes.

Tell me about what my eyes can eat, VCS

OK first off, that’s a really weird way of putting it.

Second, you really need to see this in person, as my terrible photography will not do it justice, but here goes.

The whole place is a calming sea of neutral wood colours. According to their designer, Craig Stranghetta, they wanted the space to “feel like standing in a wheatfield on a perfect sunny day”.

The venue is huge, at 2800 sqft. There are 48 seats in the place, with loads of room intentionally left for strollers.

That’s right, the polarizing subject of kids has come up.

I spoke to Janna Bishop, the CEO of Flourist who said that the intentional design is because their key demographic is young families. “These are the people that have been buying our flours and grains for the last few years”, she said.

I’m the first person to say “urgh, strollers” but I actually really like how they’ve designed the place. The spaces between tables are huge, there is an area in the back specifically reserved for “stroller parking” and the booths are set up for squirmy rugrats to have plenty of room to put their sticky digits everywhere.

Shut up about toddlers and tell me about the coffee at Flourist

Flourist have opted for 49th Parallel as their roaster of choice. They’re using the Old School Espresso blend for their espresso.

For milk, they have regular old cow juice, as well as a selection of nut and grain milks.

Filter coffee is not available at the time of writing but should be on the bar in a week or two, as they get their equipment ready.

All of their espresso drinks are served from a new, shiny La Marzocco Linea PB.

OK, good so far, now tell me about what I can put in my pie hole

As you might have guessed, there’s a wide selection of breads available. In fact, you can also buy the flour they use to make the breads, freshly milled on their shelves.