Vancouver's largest coffee shop opens on Main Street
A new Vancouver coffee shop that draws its inspiration from South Korea’s booming coffee culture is being billed as the city’s largest.
C Market Coffee’s latest outpost at 195 E 36th Ave. boasts more than 5,000 square feet of space for visitors to sip steaming brews and bite into pastries, such as Dubai Chewy Cookies and strawberry-and-whipped-cream croissants.
“While there are larger mixed-use venues that serve coffee, as a purpose-built café focused on coffee, dining and the seating experience, this is among the largest — and very likely the largest — in Vancouver,” says founder and CEO Bridgette Hyun.
The new café, which took over a ground-floor commercial space originally intended to be split in two, features a modern interior with standalone tables, long communal solo seating options, and concrete installations that can double as standing sip-and-conversation spots.
It’s a café designed to have a seat open when you arrive.
“Hospitality, to us, means creating room, physically and emotionally, for people to connect,” Hyun says.
At a time when many eateries have introduced rules around the length of stay (a standard of two hours is fairly consistent), Hyun says the larger-format coffee shop design is intended to inspire people to linger.
“We believe cafés can function as social infrastructure: places where ideas are exchanged, relationships form, and community strengthens,” she says. “Rather than focusing solely on quick turnover, we focused on customer comfort, seating variety, and spatial flow to support both to-go visits and extended gatherings.”
The new Main Street location represents growth for the local company, which already operates three other cafés in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows, not only in terms of size but also in ambition.
“Our hope is that C Market becomes more than a place to grab coffee, that it becomes a destination associated with creativity, connection, and time well spent,” she says.
The approach to sipping and savouring in a café setting is inspired by the coffee culture in Hyun’s native South Korea. She moved from Seoul to Vancouver to attend the University of British Columbia in 2003.
Sometimes referred to as the “Republic of Coffee,” Korea had an estimated 100,000 coffee shops in 2022. According to
statistics shared by Korean-culture.org
, locals there drink an average of 405 cups of coffee a year, a number that’s said to be more than double the worldwide average.
“For a country roughly one-tenth the size of British Columbia, that density of cafés is remarkable,” Hyun says. “Korean café culture is trend-driven, experiential, and highly design-conscious.
“Cafés are often spacious, architecturally distinctive environments where people gather to study, meet, date, collaborate, or simply spend time. Presentation matters, from drink aesthetics to interior design, and the overall experience carries as much weight as the coffee itself.”
That influence deeply impacted how Hyun went about creating her latest location.
Admitting she sometimes sips more than 40 cups of coffee a day from different cafés when she visits the country in search of brew inspiration, Hyun also gleans new food trends and flavours for her menus in Vancouver.
“Our drink program features carefully profiled espresso, rotating single-origin coffees roasted in-house, and signature beverages inspired by Korean café trends,” she says, pointing to drink highlights including the Melon Cloud Latte, Cereal Milk Latte and Tiramisu Latte as particular standouts.
“On the culinary side, we blend modern Korean-inspired dishes such as the Bulgogi Cheeseburger and KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) Bowl with Yangnyeom sauce with elevated brunch offerings and house-made pastries and desserts,” Hyun says.
While nowhere near to Korea’s café numbers — Vancouver has an estimated 199 coffee shops, according to the
— Hyun says this city’s appreciation for a good coffee shop is definitely on the rise.
“Café culture in the Greater Vancouver Regional District has been steadily maturing since we opened our first location in Coquitlam in 2019,” she says. “Guests are looking for more than a fast-paced coffee stop; they want a cosy atmosphere, thoughtfully crafted yet trend-forward menus, clear intention behind the brand, and communal spaces that feel inspiring to spend time in.”
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Source: vancouversun.com