The revival of Cambie Village

Good morning! 

Something has to be said for the small adventures. You don’t need a full week to get away and do something different, and this summer has proved that for me. For me, 2025 has been the Summer of Weekend Trips.

I did an overnight bike trip to and from Victoria back in June, later this month I’ll be doing a short two-night trip to Kamloops to see my Grandma over the Labour Day long weekend, and I’ve got a wedding on the Island that I’ll be going to later in September for a night or two.

And just this weekend, I spent half a day on a boat far away from the city. None of this is to say you shouldn’t take your full two weeks (or, hopefully, more if you have them) of vacation time. You just shouldn’t wait for your next week off to go on a little adventure.

In today’s newsletter, we’ve got a delightful story about how a stretch of Cambie Street went from parking lots and gas stations to a bustling space with great food and the feel of an urban village.

— Dustin Godfrey, freelancer

PS - If you find this newsletter valuable, please consider forwarding it to your friends. New to the Lookout? Sign-up for free. 

WEATHER

Monday: 28 🌡️ 19 | ☀️

Tuesday: 25 🌡️ 16 | ☀️

Wednesday: 24 🌡️ 14 | ☀️

THE LOOKOUT RECOMMENDS

Good coffee downtown: I’ve been spending a lot of time downtown for work lately, and I’ve been bouncing between a few different coffee shops in the area around Howe and Smithe — and there are several of them. I often work from the Waves, on that corner because they have later hours, but I usually go to Pane E Formaggio when I have the option. Good coffee, friendly staff and tasty pastries!

A good sandwich (also downtown): Being downtown a lot, I usually try to bring my own lunch, but I have gotten lunch at a few different places down there. One of the best was at another of the cafes in the area around Howe and Smithe — Railtown Cafe. I got their chicken club sandwich, and definitely recommend it!

A peaceful park (also also downtown): Downtown can be a lot — it certainly isn’t a natural haunt for me. But there’s a little space in the Robson Square area that is kind of delightful. When you go up the stairs towards the courthouse from Robson Square, there’s a little pathway that’s covered by a tree canopy. And because you’re above all the traffic, it feels a little secluded from all the hustle and bustle downtown.

Get out of downtown and look up: Once you’ve got your sandwich and coffee and you’ve spent some time in the park, our last recommendation today is to get as far away from downtown as you can and to look up — specifically at night. The Perseid meteor shower is on, and it’s a show to behold!

— Recommendations by Dustin Godfrey

NEIGHBOURHOOD

The revival of Cambie Village

Story written by Stephen Smysnuik. Read this story online here.

Keenan Hood was looking for a new home. 

Hood and his business partners – who run the lauded cocktail institution Keefer Bar in Chinatown – knew they wanted to open a new space, but were agonizing over which neighbourhood to set up in.

“We love [Chinatown] and love all the businesses around there,” Hood said, adding that they were initially looking for a space in Gastown. “But it just feels dark at times. We're like, man, do we really want a second spot like this?”

Then, they found an opportunity in the Atlas Building. The former home of Biercraft and, before that, long-time neighbourhood staple, Tomato, the building is in the heart of Cambie Village, at 3305 Cambie St. on the corner of West 17th Avenue.  

The team was hesitant at first – the space required extensive renovations – but they soon realized that this quiet, blossoming pocket of the city would be the ideal vibe shift for them. Families are everywhere, and the pedestrians seem to move a little slower. The neighbouring streets are lush with giant trees, and the sun seems to hit differently. Plus, in that location, they wouldn’t have to move their patio furniture in at night, Hood said.  

“I was just like, man, this is gonna be a refreshing place to be,” Hood said.

June on Cambie, as it would eventually be called, is the latest and trendiest addition to Vancouver’s vibrant culinary and cocktail scene. It’s also the final link in the new revitalization of this little stretch of Cambie Village between 16th and 19th – a change kick-started by Elio Volpe and Miso Taco last fall.

Almost out of nowhere, this neighbourhood is becoming one of the most dynamic places in all of Vancouver.

“It's a resurgence,” Cambie Village Business Improvement Association (BIA) executive director Rania Hatz told Vancity Lookout. The BIA has been instrumental in developing the area's commercial identity and cultivating its unique community feel and charm.

While Cambie Village technically runs from King Edward down to 7th Avenue, the heart of the Village – what gives it that village feel  – is this stretch between 16th and 19th. Despite Google’s best efforts to rename it for no particular reason, this section of Cambie Street is in some ways the best representation of what the city has to offer in terms of creativity, vibe, and local business. 

The 1940s-era single-screen Park Theatre shares a wall with the tasteful, female-centric sex shop Honey Gifts. Down the block, there’s the long-standing independent toy shop, Kaboodles. Across the street, there’s Video Cat, one of the very few independent video rental shops left in the country. 

But where the real energy is on this strip is with the food. Yes, there’s Elio and June, which have been rightly hyped up for their quality and for bringing in a clientele from other parts of the Lower Mainland. But there are the hidden gems as well, including Baja Racing Sports Bar, a delightfully corny Mexican restaurant complete with live music on weekends. There’s Rain or Shine Ice Cream, which is always busy and basically an institution at this point. There’s traditional Asian fare like Cafe Gloucester and Thai Away alongside Millennialized Asian fusion in Potluck Hawker Eatery.

“I think it’s thriving here,” Justin Cheung, founder and head chef of Hawker, said. “It's everything I can imagine.”

Cheung hears from quite a few of his chef acquaintances throughout Vancouver who have plans – or at the very least dreams – to open their own spots in the area.

Others, like Diego Delgado, just happened to stumble onto the area. He’d initially opened Miso Taco, which fuses Mexican and Japanese cuisine, on Union Street back in 2023. As the lease came up, Diego says it was “pure luck” that the space on Cambie,  the former Keno Cafe and then, briefly, the Black Walnut, had just become available.

“I wanted to create a restaurant where it's exciting for everybody, but that’s also inclusive, where everybody feels welcome, with delicious food, fun ambience, and great drinks,” Delgado said. “With this new location, it was the opportunity for me to actually create the embodiment of what I had in my head, of what Miso Taco represented.”

Miso Taco fills a gap that the area had been missing for years — a vibrant bar-restaurant that offers the kind of divergent, outside-the-box menu offerings Vancouver’s becoming increasingly known for, while also being family-friendly in both vibe and price point.

Delgado admits that he was “a little bit scared” going into the area initially. Multiple closures on the strip before and during COVID, including Biercraft, Keno Cafe (known for its stand-up comedy and flamenco dancing), Pronto (the vibey cocktail bar) and its sister sandwich shop, temporarily halted whatever momentum the neighbourhood had. It was a bit of a red flag. Despite that, he says he “couldn’t be happier” with how business has been going. 

Hatz of the BIA says this strip of Cambie Village has always been a vibrant place, if a little unknown, even during the hard times. 

“I think anybody who's in the know has always known about it here,” Hatz said. “But it's also smaller [...] more off the beaten track.”

The flip side to this idyllic community feel is neighbourhood tension as the area evolves. June, for example, almost never opened. “The neighbourhood blew up,” Hood said.

THE VANCOUVER NUMBER

315

A proposal for the 2300 block of Main Street could see a 25-storey tower of student housing with this many units built, the vast majority of them one-bedroom units. Just one unit has three bedrooms, while 27 are two-bedroom units. Read more. [Daily Hive]

THE AGENDA

🚫 The African Descent Festival was cancelled less than an hour before it was set to begin. The festival had been set to take place in English Bay over the weekend, but the Vancouver Park Board announced a day prior that it was unsanctioned, citing safety and financial obligations stemming from previous years. Organizers of the festival called the permit denial “inequitable and unjust.” The park board also offered to move the festival to a different location. Read more. [CTV]

🦠 Lost Lagoon’s annual algae bloom has been particularly bad this year, according to nearby residents, with one neighbour calling the smell and sight “disgusting.” And the park board says it has received more complaints about it this year than any other year. Read more. [CBC]

👮 The VPD should have reported an October 2024 incident, in which a man lost consciousness and began bleeding heavily from the head, to the Independent Investigations Office, the IIO determined in a report. Officers claimed the man, who was diagnosed with “significant trauma” experienced a “minor” brain bleed. [CTV]

🏗️ In case you missed our story last week, Vancouver may be set to welcome many new Olympic Village-like developments, as the city looks at turning industrial land into new neighbourhoods. Read more. 

Outside Vancouver

👷 BC lost 16,300 jobs in July, nearly half of them in construction. Education and health care were also contributors to the job losses, which raised the unemployment rate from 5.6% up to 5.9%. Read more. [CTV]

🟩 The BC Greens leadership race is on, and the party has three contenders for the top spot. The candidates include Jonathan Kerr, Emily Lowan and Adam Bremner-Akins, and CBC has put together a summary of who they are and what they’re running on. Read more. [CBC]

EVENT GUIDE

A History of Motown | Firehall Arts Centre | Until Aug. 17 | Krystle Dos Santos performs hits from the Motown era | Tickets $40+

Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts 2025 | Various venues across Vancouver & Surrey | Until Aug. 17 | South Asian theatre, dance, workshops, comedy, and photo exhibits | Tickets

Warehouse Sale with tentree, Fable and Monos | 1275 Venables Street, Vancouver | Aug. 14 at 10 am | Sustainable clothing, homeware, and travel gear sale, up to 60% off | Free

WNBA Canada Game | Rogers Arena, Vancouver | Aug. 15 at 7 pm | Professional women’s basketball game featuring Seattle Storm | Tickets $41+

Light Up Chinatown! 2025 | 500-block Columbia Street, Vancouver | Aug. 16 at 11 am | Free outdoor festival with performances, food, lights, and lanterns | Free

Burnaby Lake Run 2025 | Burnaby Lake Regional Park | Aug. 25, 7 am | Go for a run and raise money for the Burnaby Hospital Foundation | Entry is $39

The Tumbling Paddies | 80 Pacific Boulevard | Aug. 17, 4 pm | A fun-filled event celebrating all things Irish | Tickets $52

East Van Cider Fest | The Wise, 1882 Adanac St | Aug. 21, 7 pm | Over 25 cideries and ready-to-drink cocktail producers under one roof | Tickets $30

Concord Burnaby Lake Run 2025 | Burnaby Lake Regional Park | Aug. 25, 7 am | Go for a run and raise money for the Burnaby Hospital Foundation | Entry is $39

Mamma Mia! - A Drag Musical | The Birdhouse, 44 W 4th Ave | Aug. 29, 6 pm | ABBA's best hits, sunshine and a big ol queer sing along | Tickets $27

Bike the Night 2025 | David Lam Park, 1300 Pacific Boulevard | Sept. 13, 5 pm | A leisurely 10-kilometre route along the iconic Vancouver seawall with a fun pre-ride celebration | Free

Aca-Stravaganza! | Queen Elizabeth Theatre | Sept. 27, 7:30 pm | An unforgettable concert led by Deke Sharon (Pitch Perfect and The Sing-Off) and the award-winning Lions Gate Chorus. | Tickets $60+

NEW VANCOUVER JOBS

Discover your dream job in Vancouver:

• Child Passenger Safety Program Educator/Instructor, BCAA

• PR and Communications Manager - Vancouver, Dean Group

• Residence Worker, Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion

• Schools Outreach Instructor, Water First

• Coordinator Programs and Events - Indigenous Relations, Insurance Corporation of British Columbia

GOOD NEWS MONDAY

A couple divers took a camera underwater just off the coast of Vancouver Island to look for giant octopus — and they certainly found one that was interested in more than being the subject of the camera. The octopus was a budding filmmaker, grabbing their camera and shooting a short three-minute film with it before turning it off and giving one of the divers a “hug.” [CBC]

DEEP-DIVE

"A second COVID": How unclear FIFA restrictions are hurting Vancouver’s annual events

When Dominic Lai stepped out of a rideshare in front of Chinatown Plaza he was on the phone. The patio of the boutique coffee shop Annabelle’s was packed, and I’d narrowly been able to grab a table for us to meet. 

When Lai joined me, he said that was one of many media interviews he’d already done that day, with more coming up. News had broken the night before that his organization was cancelling their premier event, the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival in False Creek, for 2026. 

The reason? The FIFA World Cup. Vancouver is set to host seven matches at B.C. Place Stadium between June 13 and July 7, 2026.

Dragon Boat BC – where Lai is the operations and marketing director, among other titles – runs races and events all over the Lower Mainland and around the province. The False Creek race is the organization’s biggest event, drawing over 130,000 people for the paddling competition and free festival near Science World. It also accounts for 35-40 per cent of the Dragon Boat BC’s yearly operations and revenue budget. 

But for 2026, what would have been the 39th edition of the event, the city told Lai and Dragon Boat BC that it would not grant them permits due to restrictions imposed by FIFA. 

“This represents a second COVID for us in terms of impact,” Lai said.

Read our entire exclusive story

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• TransLink’s collectible trading cards were a big hit. [CTV]

• A mural honouring Lapu Lapu festival tragedy victims was unveiled. [Daily Hive]

• A Filipino-inspired cafe has popped up. [Vancouver is Awesome]

• Some of Metro Vancouver’s best thrift stores are here. [Daily Hive]

• This man may be the most loyal pizza delivery driver. [Vancouver Sun]

VANCOUVER NEWS QUIZ

PHOTO OF THE DAY

An incredible sunrise view of Vancouver.