When I lived in Kitsilano 20 years ago, I used to drop into the grocery store on the corner of Arbutus and 6th. Even back then it was ahead of its time with organic produce and hard-to-find items. But just like The End of the Line and the Corner Store in North Vancouver have transformed from grocery stores to neighbourhood cafes, so has the Arbutus Grocery store – now Arbutus Coffee.
I was there on Sunday when Ros Coulson, manager, was given a Places that Matter plaque from the Vancouver Heritage Foundation. Ros says most of her customers are regulars that come from a four-block radius. Some come every day.
The food is great. Specials of the day were a split pea soup, balsamic and quinoa salad, a cheddar and zucchini quiche or a grilled panini with artichoke hearts, asparagus and roasted peppers. Likely because it was late in the day the regulars were polishing off the blueberry pie, a decadent looking German chocolate cake, and maybe the best looking carrot cake I’ve ever seen.
The store was built by Thomas Fletcher Frazer in 1907 with a boom town front. Thomas also owned the California-style bungalow next door at 2084 W. 6th —(shown in the archival photo).
The store is part of Kitsilano’s Delamont Park neighbourhood, and what’s surprising is that it’s still there. The store and houses all along W. 5th and 6th were intended to be fodder for a freeway planned for the Burrard-Arbutus connector.
During the 1960s Arbutus Grocery catered to a lively group of artists. Figurative painter Frank Molnar paid $65 a month for his two-bedroom apartment across the street at 2205 W. 6th. Artist Jack Akroyd had a corner apartment, while another tenant, Elek Imredy had already carved out a solid reputation as a sculptor. Poets John Newlove, bill bissett and Judith Copithorne all lived there at one point. Judith was one of three women who modeled for Imredy’s Girl in a Wetsuit sculpture that sits on a rock in Stanley Park.
Arbutus Coffee and the houses that surround it are still owned by the city. Many are now over a century old. May they be there for the next one.
For more information on the Places that Matter Plaque Project visit the Vancouver Heritage Foundation.
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