The self proclaimed purveyor of the “best cappuccino in town,” Joe’s is an ancient inhabitant of Commercial Drive. Opened about 40 years ago, Joe’s has remained unchanged. It’s a reminder of another time, when coffee was not just a drink you picked up on your way to work, but a social experience.
All kinds of people from the area frequent Joe’s, and anytime you go in, you can expect to have an interesting conversation with one of the patrons. It is not a cafe for sitting alone and scrawling in a notebook, but a cafe for conversing with real people — a welcome escape in the midst of a wireless world.
As you enter Joe’s cafe, the first thing you will notice is the prominent bull’s head mounted on the wall. The cafe’s quirky decorations combined with simple white-washed walls lend an unassuming charm to the establishment. Pool tables are available in the back, and the seating is communal. It is an easy mistake to assume that the cafe is Italian, but Joe himself is, in fact, Portuguese, explaining the Portuguese flag in the cafe.
I went to Joe’s on the recommendation of Ton (pronounced Tuh-ln), the grandfather of a friend of mine. Ton, an inquisitive, retired architect from Holland, who lived through some of Europe’s darker days, fits right in at the cafe. With him as my guide, we found a table and were almost immediately engaged in conversation by people from all walks of life.
We spoke to a polite old man in his late 80s, a couple from out of town, and a young man dressed in all Rastafarian colours. At one point, a woman (who, Ton informed me, lives on the street) offered to sell him a poem — when he didn’t have any money to give her, she gave the poem to him anyway.
I ordered a cappuccino, and while it is certainly hard to claim the best anything in a city like Vancouver, I can say that it is the best cappuccino I have had so far. The foam was perfect, and the coffee was rich and smooth. As a former barista from a certain prevalent chain that shall remain nameless, Joe’s is a breath of fresh air for me, and an experience that every Vancouverite should have.
