III – Waves

Another sunny day… 2 in a row! Whoa Vancouver! Maybe this talk about a warm winter in true.

So with the sun I fly down to Waves on my longboard… HeHeHe. But definitely not a surfer café. The place is sleek! Black leather and granite tabletops with a 50” plasma displaying CNN news over a fireplace, I felt like I was in yaletown needing to check if the Dow was up or down.

I ordered a large Americano since they didn’t have anything special to their name. I have to say that now that I know what good coffee tastes like, this wasn’t anything special. It was good, but maybe like a Starbucks bitter taste that didn’t have much flavor. It was a big cup, much larger than JJs so that won some points as sometimes I like quantity over quality especially on coffee as I don’t really care too much about the taste as long as it doesn’t stink.

I was excited about the music. They were playing hip hop for the first couple of hours. Good stuff too… but a weird thing happened and it changed to some weird elevator music and then to C-isle 650 oldies... by night I requested a change again and they put on some electronic stuff. Oh well… it started out really well but then disappointment, as I realized the staff had nothing to do with the playlist, they just change the satellite channel. NOT GOOD! If the staff is about the music, people will converse with them... maybe even spread some decent music culture around... get with it all of you trendy cafes.

The place was so busy that I felt like a fly on the wall. Which was good. I got a lot of work done, and so did everyone else. Window bar was full of labtops and I got to meet another video editor sitting next to me. He was a SFU film graduate working on a wedding. Jeesh, people need SFU Film Graduates to make their wedding video exciting… get a life! (That was a joke in case you don’t know what my main source of income is).

But anyways, check out this pic. They designed the whole wall for labtops to be able to plug in… and FREE wireless internet with no password (sweet).

I ordered a HEALTHY flax seed salmon roll which were very unique but kind of smelly and I dared not talk to any of the beautiful girls that were coming in off the street from shopping at all the cool clothing stores on the block. They were kind of annoying anyways. Also annoying was a bum that walked in off the streets to ask everyone for change and another sketchy dude that was randomly loud… I guess I can’t complain, since it is main street.

After a very productive 8 hour work shift, I decided to explore the place. The girl I had asked about the music gave me a nice smile so I asked her if there was anything yummy. She said the chicken pesto sandwich so I ordered again. The bread was a bit stale… oops. But the place is really nice, clean and stylish. I would definitely come back for a coffee date, and possibly another productive work day once every so often.


At the end of the day

My bill

Large Americano 3.23
Salmon Roll with Limonata 6.48
Chicken Pesto Sandwich 6.35

Rating

Coffee C+
Service B
Atmosphere B
Music C+
free internet +1 bonus point
Open 24/7 +2 bonus points

II – Café Rustico (Main and 15th/16th)

A nice day to start my search. I wanted to set-up shop in “Bean Around the World” but at 9:30 it was just packed and with only one electrical output taken by two different people, I had to move on.
When I saw “Café Rustico”, I immediately said “get the camera”. Not because I’m Italian… in fact I do believe that most Italians go a little overboard with their Patriotism, but this place has unique Italiano Cappuccino Café feel.

10:00am

I arrived and the place was just dead… not a soul except for the two girls working. I ordered the advertised special, and set myself up in the back corner on a sweet 70s couch with my Cappuccino. Sweeeet... Eat your heart out Costanza.

Had to get the Cappuccino… no sugar right? I guessed that that is how you are supposed to drink it, and I was right. The nice oriental girl told me that you aren’t supposed to put sugar in a cappuccino. She said it was especially imported coffee from Italy and the owner, orders the coffee especially strong. A little bland actually... better buy your own coffee roaster Mario.

But the placed was so nice to work in. There was only Italian music playing… mostly classical and opera which I didn’t mind but non-distracting and easy to zone out of... so no complaints there. The one complaint I had was that the ceiling fan was much louder than the music.
In this relatively small place, 10 tables with amazing Venice-like porch outside, there were only two electrical outlets to plug into. I was able to connect to the internet for free without any password… very cool!

12:48pm

The girls were nice. One of them told me to get the Caprese because it was spicy. But they were a little too shy. As I waited, I noticed that they call the Americano coffee… “Canadiano”. Right on.


It made me ask them about the owner, and apparently he works the night shift. Sometimes he closes at 9pm and sometimes at midnight... so it might be a nice date. But I like how the owner works at his own café. It makes me want to come back and get to know him.

The food tasted really good. The panini was different and probably homemade. It was a good price and this café has the potential to get me regularly.

At the end of the day…

My Bill

Special (Cappucino, Panini, and pasta)
With a Limonata 12.00 even (I love this tax included thing)

My Rating

Coffee C+
Service B
Atmosphere A-
Music B
free internet +1 bonus point

I - JJ Bean (with guest Jeff)

12:39pm
I’ve been here for about three hours now and Jeff will come visit me soon as I told him how good the coffee is. So let's start my review other than what I've said about the problems of the JJ Bean music in the Problogue.

It’s big. It has nice high ceilings where the birds seem to like to fly around when it’s raining outside. It’s nice and bright as the walls have huge windows. The coffee bean roaster is pretty cool (see pic).

There’s chessboards and a nice selection of seating from a booth in the back to big soft chairs by the fireplace, tables, window bar looking onto the street, and lots of tables outside covered by a roof so you can sit outside when it’s raining. I really like how there is so many electrical outlets so you have no problem finding a plug in, however there is no wireless internet so if you’re are a crackbook victim, you’ll have to log on to the Bell system from Starbucks across the street that has a weak signal.

1:07pm

While forced to listen to “Blame it on the rain” (milli Vanilli?), “Baby baby” (Amy Grant) and “Never gonna get it”, I ordered a sandwich that went surprisingly weird.
Knowing now that I would now be a critic, I decided to ask the tall blond girl with huge blue eyes what she thought about the sandwiches…

“What do you think about the Chicken Pesto sandwich?” I asked.
She gave me a snobby look and told me “I have no idea.”
“Well, what do you eat when you’re here?”
“I don’t.”
Awkward pause…
“Well can you recommend anything I could have for lunch?”
“People seem to be eating the sandwiches.”

I felt like telling her to go straighten out her panties, but I remained polite figuring it was probably just that time of the month, so I just smiled and ordered the chicken pesto. She grilled it for 5 minutes and it hit the spot… cheesy, big chucks of chicken, and a powerful dill pickle, but a little small and pricy for 7.50$.


2:00pm

Jeff finally arrives. He’s in a bad mood.

Jeff's Opinion
my americano was really good, lots of flavor, strong body, simlar to the one I had at the locust lounge on king ed, and main. I already ate if I didn’t I would have one of the pesto chicken sandwiches on a chili cheese bread. looks good!!!



At the end of the day...

My Bill

Large Americano 2.85
Croissant 2.00
Large Chai Latte 4.05
Pesto Sandwich 7.50
Limonata 1.50

(taxes included in the price… cool! No Pennies!)

Rating

Coffee A+
Sevice C
Atmosphere A
Music F-