I'm sitting in Our Town, at Kingsway and Broadway, and I'm totally impressed with this place. They have almost everything going for them.
The coffee is really good, they use Cuppa Joe. It's not quite as good as Illy but better than Milano that Soma uses. I'm having one of the best Americanos I've had outside of Locus..
The Wifi is great, unlike Soma's which has been flakey lately.
Food is good. There are 10 different types of Panini, lots of different breakfast foods, and verrrry attractive baked goods.
Staff is very friendly
Environment is great. It's spacious - unlike Bean for example, a variety of couches, lounge chairs, and working tables. Power outlets are fairly available.
Lots of extra touches. Sundays are "video" afternoons and evenings. This Sunday they are playing Neverland at 2pm, and Fellowship at 5pm. Live musicians on the weekends.
Parking is a problem, but I haven't yet checked out the back.
It's great to see another awesome addition to the ever improving vancouver coffee house scene. Our Town joins recently discovered Wicked Cafe on the regular morning circuit. Next up: the new JJ Bean shop at Main and 14th.
Dave,
kind of an odd question but you seem to be the prodigal coffee pundit of our city. I am an economist with provincial government that has been asked by a colleauge in TO to do a bit of research into the coffee shop industry in Vancouver since he has considered us by default that most highly caffienated city, with our triple illy espresso orders when in town for a conference. He has 2 small children and is wanting to start a cafe & play type coffee shop targeting family's. Anyway, my question to you is; are there any such shops in town here that you can think of that cater to that market, if not, is there somewhere I can get information (a vancouver coffee shop directory) that you can think of? Any help would be greatly appreciated. BTW, the skeptic in me wants to write him back and tell him to give up as it would seem to be quite a bad business move. Low turnover and high liability would not be overly conducive to a successful venture in my oppinion. Thanks in advance.
Tyler
I think that's an interesting idea, and I think there may be a market. Cafe deux Soleil on Commercial is a vegan restaurant with a kids play area and they seem to do well.
The Vancouver Ukulele Circle likes it too. We've started meeting there on the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30pm. All uke-friendly people are welcome to come play or sing along. There's more info about us at http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vanukes.
Just happened upon this blog and question and thought I'd mention Kokopelli Cafe at 28th and Dunbar. Run by a mom for moms/kids/families, excellent sandwiches and coffee, great kids play area w/books, even kids-height sinks in the bathrooms. My wife loves taking our 3 year old.
It's one of the few coffee spots that is specfically family-oriented (the only one I know, actually) and they're starting to do quite well....