GET OUT THE MAP

Where to begin? There were so many neat little places to explore…

End of the Line

So it came down to the kidlets (as so many things do). We had planned a gentle hike/walk on the north shore up in Lynn Valley, so it was an easy sell to stop in at the End of the Line General Store to refuel. Popular with locals and tourists, it was filled with an incredibly wide variety of grocery items, gifts, penny candy, coffee, greeting cards, snacks, ice cream - a true buffet of choice! We all enjoyed poking around the different parts of the store and our purchases (penny candy for kidlets, hot tasty beverages for me) were a hit.

Le Marche St. George

Next stop? Something a little more urban,  Le Marche St. George, in a very popular Main Street neighbourhood. It was much smaller than the End of the Line, but oh so pretty and quaint. It had a kind of locally grown/rustic French vibe (is that possible in Vancouver?) that I thought was lovely. They sold locally sourced food and grocery items, a delicious looking menu of snacks, coffee and treats, plus a selection of gift items that were gorgeous. It was welcoming, relaxing, yet beautiful and fancy.Very west side.

The Mighty Oak

I heard about my next stop both from the newspaper article as well as from a good friend's recommendation. The Mighty Oak was tucked away in a residential area on a pretty tree lined street (two pluses in my book). This time I left the kids at home (no, no. Not home alone. It's an expression. They were all in school!) and I'm glad I did. This place is very wee and beautiful. Stocking many self-branded products, local foods, and serving hot bevs and treats, I was impressed with the design and detail of the shop. And I especially enjoyed my mocha in a highly leisurely fashion (not usually possibly with 1-3 kidlets in tow).

Finch's Market
501 East Georgia St.

One of the shops a little closer to home was Finch's Market Cafe (related to the downtown Finch's) in Strathcona. I fell in love with this one just walking up to the door (big windows! heritage building!). And the design is right up my alley - from the vintage signs on the red brick walls, to the rustic produce and grocery displays and the beautiful ceiling height wooden ladder. And the food? The coffee? Wow. Needless to say I was a repeat customer and now consider it a staple in my cafe-ing rotation. Though, I must admit, it was much more cafe and less grocery store than I had imagined for my own future business.

Union Market

But then one fine autumn day I went for a run. Just out my front door and randomly chose to head west. Before you know it I had entered Strathcona and stumbled (not literally, thankfully. been there done that don't want to repeat.) across Union Street and followed it to the popular Union Market. Ahhhhh, THIS was more what I was thinking. Mostly shelves of groceries, fruit & veg, baked goods but with a smattering of cafe with homemade goodies and drinks. It even had a lovely covered outdoor sitting area, a neighbourhood notice board and was on a bike route. If I had been less sweaty I'd have walked up to the owner and sat down for a chat.


Hey, there's an idea -  talk to the owners of these excellent places and find out their stories!
A solid plan, for another day, when I was clean and in more regular clothing, and smelling better.

LOVE IS ALL AROUND

As I was inside the idea tornado, decidedly ignoring the whole money issue, that thing happened to me.

You know the one. 
You buy a new car and you see 20 of them on the road the next day. You hear a song for the first time and then it's constantly played on the radio no matter what station.

I had this community grocery cafe shop idea and BOOM, I started to stumble upon them all.over.the.place.

Le Marche St. George

A few days after our exciting mom-evening a friend passed along a magazine, "Edible Vancouver", with a well written article about a few of the more successful neighbourhood shops. Le Marche St. George and The Mighty Oak were two that stood out for me. More cafe-like than grocery, but small, community minded and awesome.

Union Market

One local paper's article "Corner Stores Think Outside the Box", stated that "the corner stores that remain are thriving as they adapt to changing communities" and brought my attention to the Union Food Market in Strathcona.

Another local paper published an article, "Our Favourite Small Grocers" which stated "Grocery stores are morphing into catalysts for community togetherness" and "Some grocers have a mission to find community for themselves; some want to spread an organic and healthy lifestyle; and some are advocates for local and sustainable goods." 


BINGO.


They listed more than 15 different neighbourhood shops and there it was - brick and mortar. Other peoples brick and mortar, but still. A place to begin. 

Next up, road trip!

SO RAISE YOUR GLASS

From Photobucket - not our actual food!

There may have been liquor.


There may have been cheese,
and bread,
and salt,
and carby-sugar products.

Some of those might have been consumed while ideas flew around the room like a hundred excitable and fairly hungry bats.

But I'm certain those had little to do with the enthusiasm, interest, and ideas that this group of women explored that night. Highly intelligent women, women from all walks of life, with broad experiences and interests and viewpoints. And it was that positivity that really helped cement this idea as something that could potentially succeed.


A couple of them were especially excited because they'd had a similar idea, especially for our particular neighbourhood. It is just screaming out for a good cup of ethically sourced coffee, a good locally baked loaf of bread, a good penny candy jar, a good 'vibe', a good sense of community. I wasn't surprised that someone else had thought of all these concepts before (these were awesome women after all!); I was thrilled by it, supported by it, inspired by it.

But how does someone go from AWESOME-EST IDEA EVER, to brick and mortar storefront?

With a crap-load of effort, and MONEY.

Did I mention money?
Ya, money. It's a bit of a kicker that one.

BICYCLE, BICYCLE

What now?????????

It’s all fine and good to have an idea, but where do I go with it now?

Pinterest of course. 

Idea central.

I started searching for images of grocery stores, coffee shops,cafes, corner stores, food display, front windows… Pretty much anything I could think of to feed my new obsession. It was heady stuff, let me tell you.

And because I’m still a 10 year old girl way deep down, I also pulled out a notebook (cause stationary is still as awesome as it was then) and started writing down my thoughts.

One night at dinner I casually mentioned my idea to the kidlets… and it BLEW UP. It was awesome and funny and endearing; their enthusiasm for this scheme of mine. They quickly came up with ideas for names*, what we could sell**, how we could organize it***, how they’d work there after school, that they could help with deliveries using their bikes! 

*Drips & Chips, Happy Eats, The Peckish Bird, Got Food? - email me if you want to hire them as advertisers
**Penny candy, ice cream, Archie comics - exactly what you might think would top a kids list of purchases
***good bathrooms were surprisingly important to a 4, 8 & 9 year old


It was fantastic. And they really didn’t want to stop talking about it. Many nights, as dinner was ending, they’d sweetly ask if they could go and get ‘the notebook’ and ‘talk about Mummy’s store’. How cute is that?

But it was still such a crazy new huge ridiculous exciting idea for me that I didn’t talk about it with anyone else. Part of me didn’t want anyone to squash my dreams as being wacko, or tell me that it was impossible. So it was just me, Pinterest and my kids sharing a dream.

Until a ‘girl’s night’ with some of my mom-friends. The idea bubbled up, I can't remember how… and BAM – total enthusiasm and support. 

It. was. awesome.

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

It was one of those turning point times in life, where you can see a big curve in the road and have absolutely no idea what’s coming. My youngest was just over a year from entering Kindergarten, and I was starting to imagine what life could be like with all 3 kids in full-time school. 

What the hell was I going to do with my life?

The Kidlets

I knew that I couldn’t just putter my time away, that I would need purpose to my days (some income would be nice too, right?). And I wanted to be someone my kids could see as an active participant in the world. Not ‘just their mom’. And I ultimately wanted a ‘thing’ of my own, something to engage my mind and my creativity. I had spent 10 years working on my homelife…now it was time to find ‘my’ life.

The kicker being that I’d been a stay-at-home mom/wife for 10 years, longer than I had been in the workforce pre-kids! So what was going to be next for me? I thought about all kinds of stuff* – dog walker, nanny, fitness instructor, office administrator; my mind went all over the place and nothing stuck.

*see previous comment regarding my university degree. In Biology. Ya. Not super helpful at this point.

But in that spring of 2013 a whole bunch of ideas kinda percolated together in my mind until one day it became THE idea. An idea that wouldn’t disappear, wouldn’t let go of my brain.

Fabriken - so cute, right?

I wanted to own and run a small, local corner store/coffee shop that could become a centrepoint for the neghbourhood, a focus for the community, a place to get a cup of coffee and buy some emergency milk.

Boom.

A LONG, LONG TIME AGO

I’d have to say this story began a long time ago, when I was just finishing up my university degree. *

* which, of course, has no relation to my current career/job/life – heads up future grads, don’t be surprised where life takes you.

Finch's Market

And it began with coffee. It really did. Back in the mid-90’s I was studying in a teensy town on the west coast of Vancouver Island, it was1.5 hrs down a rough, gravel logging road so supplies were limited. My ‘mostly hot chocolate with a splash of drip coffee’ eventually became all coffee and I was hooked. Completely and utterly. A love affair was born.

Or you could say it began with stumbling upon small shops around the lower mainland, the island and the sunshine coast. I loved their neighbourly, warm, inviting feel. I extra-liked the ones with wood floors, vintage signs, wicker baskets, old photos, you know what I mean… right?

And you could definitely say it began at school. When we were picking a school for our wee 5 year old we decided on the smaller school a little farther from our house. And what I discovered there was a terrific group of parents – grounded, funny, a mixed bag of great people. And so many ‘doers’ who wanted to make the school community this positive, caring place for all families.

I got myself involved and never looked back. I loved feeling a part of something, of creating this community where people felt included and accepted, with lots of humour and positivity.

And then one night, a bunch of mom’s were having a ‘girl’s night’ when this idea bubbled up. I’m not even sure anymore where exactly from… maybe we simply wanted more convenient coffee? Maybe one of the ladies was wishing the local store wasn’t so sketchy? Maybe I mentioned my obsession with Pinterest? I don’t really remember.

I know I had been thinking for a little while about a few things – the fact that fresh coffee was MILES AND MILES away from school. That at 9:02am, with your kids carefully handed off to an earnest teacher, there we were this rag tag bunch of parents CRAVING a hot coffee with no where to go. It was a tragedy.

And that the only store within a ten-minute walk was a less-than inviting corner shop with bars on the windows that were covered in old posters and lottery info. Not to mention that their selection of goods was really, really basic. And sometimes not the most fresh.

And then there was the idea of creating a new place for our community, a place where parents and families could gather – a hub for this small east side neck of the woods, tucked between the highway and the PNE, a pocket of hard working families and a strong community spirit.

So one day I drove past said corner store and thought – hey, what about that place?

LET'S GET IT STARTED

Starting, beginning, initiating, going for it, hell’s ya let’s do this thing. 

That’s what this blog is about. 

Obviously I’m starting a blog – ha – but I’m also starting a business. Or want to. I’m dreaming about it. And I want to share and document this adventure. So, voila!* 

*this will be the last time you hear a French word out of me, I know zero French.