The Vancouver Indy Coffee Scene

Back, way back in the winter 2006, I checked out a café called Soma on Main Street, I enjoyed the café and the space, along with the magazines available to read. If you like it enough you could purchase a new copy.

The Outside of Soma Cafe

I liked this café and it had some decent night hours too. . . Well fast forward a year and Soma has made quite the change, almost an extreme makeover for those who enjoyed their old space.

New Diggs

The café is now located just off Main on East 8th and feels very much more upscale – almost posh in comparison.
I was there with a friend and once she arrived we ordered at the bar and our drinks were brought to our table by one of the servers.

Although the space has changed the coffee is still provided by 49th Parallel Roasters and almost everything they had on the menu is still available at the new location.

Espresso by day, wine by night

It will be interesting to see if they can pull off coffee house by day and wine bar by night. They seem to want to accomplish both (I feel a Winnipeg flash back coming on. . .)

Bar Italia, of Winnipeg, and centre of the little Italy, was able to pull off the coffee crowd by day and the bar crowd by night. They also had a large patio which helped with the bar scene through the summer months.

But it felt a little weird to walk into the café late at night with a laptop, or adversely to enjoy a pint during the day.

I would find this split personality the only hurdle that Soma would have to over come to reach the echelon of top cafes in Vancouver. But then maybe it is not trying to do neither.

Free wireless is available for you laptop fans and the password changes daily, just ask your server for the code.

Faces and Places

Where this Blog was written: Soma Cafe
Drink ordered: One shot Americano
Discount of own to-go cup: 10 cents
Barista Knowledge: Solid skill
Barista Friendliness: Good service
Café website : gone 404
Google Map Location: is no more