Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/130547
e Corner O n any given summer afternoon, a quiet street corner in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant residential neighbourhood comes alive. There, the quaint silhouette of an old-time general store and café makes passersby do a double take. The two-storey building, with century-old half-painted shingles, wood windows and awnings, has inadvertently become the heart of this East Vancouver community. Although Le Marché St. George has no signage, it does a robust business inside as neighbours linger over conscientiously sourced espresso, shop for a 10-mile-diet dinner and browse local handmade gifts. Outside has become a safe haven to kids, who chase the backyard chickens or mingle on bicycles while eating gourmet ice cream, dwarfed by the giant sunflowers and haphazardly arranged boxes of vegetables that welcome customers to the door. The family-owned business, operated by traditional Chinese medicine doctor Pascal Roy and his artist wife, Janaki Larsen, is equal parts coffee shop, specialty-item boutique and rental space. Upstairs is a Europeanstyle short-term rental suite that is also available for pop-up events and the couple's own eclectically designed apartment. "Customers never know what they'll find when they come for coffee – a pop-up art show or olive oil tasting, or fresh products: someone brings us their lettuce on their bicycle to sell, another delivers ice cream in a car2go, while another walks her pizzas and desserts over." Step back in time Listening to the husband-and-wife team talk, it's easy to be seduced by their nostalgic vision: a world, or at least a community, where people congregate to swap their preserves with a neighbour's endive, collect their kids after school, join a pop-up dinner and even stay the night. The couple chose to create a healthier lifestyle for their new child when they purchased the building three years ago, but they had no idea June 2013 BC HOME & gardEn | 19 p18-25_Le Marche/ForagedFood.indd 19 13-05-01 3:53 PM