Cafés
A working roastery in the Wireless Way industrial park with a small tasting bar attached, so the coffee is about as fresh as it gets in Richmond. Weekends are the easiest time to visit, and most people leave with beans as well as a cup.
Ten metres is roughly how far the coffee travels from roaster to cup here. Moving Coffee works out of a unit on Wireless Way with a small tasting bar attached to the roasting operation, which is about as fresh as coffee gets in this city. Most people leave with beans as well as a drink, and that is usually the reason for the trip in the first place.
Wireless Way sits in the business park off Bridgeport Road, an area of low warehouses, courier depots and light industry that most residents only visit when they are collecting something. It is not a strolling neighborhood. There is no passing trade at all out there, which is why weekends are the easier time to come rather than a weekday lunch hour when the park is working and every second vehicle is a truck reversing into a bay.
Some of the most interesting food operations in Richmond sit in units exactly like this one, with a number on the door and nothing worth reading from the road. Bakeries, commissaries, importers and roasters all end up here for the same practical reasons: the equipment is loud, it needs venting, and warehouse rent per square foot is a fraction of a retail strip.
The trade-off is simply that you have to want to go. Nobody stumbles across a roastery in an industrial park, and everyone standing at that bar made a deliberate decision to be there.
In the East Cambie neighbourhood of Richmond.
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Other cafés and nearby businesses in the Richmond directory.
Unassuming Bridgeport cafe near the Fraser serving diner-style breakfasts and lunches alongside the coffee. A favorite of people working nearby and of cyclists riding the River Road route, with generous portions and prices to match.
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A twenty-year Vancouver Hong Kong-style cafe that finally crossed the bridge to Alexandra Road, doing the full cha chaan teng repertoire of baked pork chop rice, macaroni soup and milk tea. Open past 11pm, which suits the Golden Village crowd.
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A Taiwanese cafe on Alexandra Road, family-run since 1987, serving tea and coffee alongside a full menu of rice and noodle plates. Old-school, unhurried and open late, it predates most of the Golden Village restaurant strip around it.
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Taiwanese cafe in Continental Centre that works as both a bubble tea stop and a full sit-down meal. Rice and noodle plates, hot pots and popcorn chicken alongside a long drinks list. Open late, which makes it a default after-movie spot.
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An unusual pairing across from Richmond Centre: a coffee bar from the Fresh Press team sharing its floor with a travel agency. Good espresso and pastries in a bright modern room, with enough seating for a long laptop session.
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