Creative Spaces

With rents as they are in this city, some businesses are adapting in different ways. (Sorry, just had to start off with a dangling modifier). For example, my friend (gasp) Jeremy Riley opened up a tattoo parlour on the second floor of the Lee Building called Tattoo Union. Its only fitting that Jeremy is back in Mount Pleasant as he got his start at Funhouse on E. Broadway, which was for a short while above another cool shop, Teenage Rampage.

Down the hill is a tiny restaurant called The Narrow. Interestingly, this is on the route of Walk Number Two, but if you're not paying attention you'd walk right past it. Indeed, perhaps the only clue is a subtle black logo on a piece of rusted sheet metal next to a dorr where you sometimes see smokers gathered. The moody, windowless room is a true speak easy, hidden behind an art gallery next to a busy intersection in a post-industrial landscape. Also on the aforementioned walking route at Fraser and Kingsway you'll find Les Faux Bourgeois tucked away on a side street next to an odd triangle of grass created as Kingsway slices diagonally. I haven't been as it just opened, but it looks cute.

Solder and Sons

In Railtown a long extinct diner has finally been transformed into a one room cafe appropriately named Two Chefs and a Table. True to its name it centres around a large communal table, a la Salt. Interestingly, this was the chosen location Pepper, for the companion restaurant to Salt, which in its own right boasts one of the most adventurous dining experiences in the city. As sommelier Kurtis Kolt says of Blood Alley, "it works as a good bullshit filter".

The masters of location, Komakino, who drift from place to place around downtown, have taken root in an anonymous basement in Chinatown. Then of course there is one of the most obscure and delicate places of all; a little hairdresser called Nicole opened a little salon called Moustache and Darling a few years ago. One chair, some magical items scattered about, and custom made wallpaper by Julie Morstad.

Further east, next to another unique shop for fixies called Super Champion, is one of the most adorable places in Vancouver. Solder and Sons is a cafe that takes its name from the fact that the propieter will rewire your gear, and has contact microhpnes among other things for sale in his shop. One wall is filled with books, while next to the 'bar' is a sampling of local zines and audio from Run Down Sun. Order a coffee and a muffin, close your eyes and pick a book, and do some aggressive chilling out. If you're lucky, Neu will be playing on the stereo and the book you picked is the Bilocation catalogue put out earlier this year by L.E.S. Gallery. It feels like Mile End.