Vancouver’s iconic Naam Restaurant up for sale

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One of Vancouver’s oldest and most iconic vegetarian restaurants is up for sale, listed online as a “future redevelopment property.”

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The Naam Restaurant, along with the land and building on West 4th Ave. — which includes a two-bedroom suite above the restaurant — is listed for sale at just under $8 million.

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The Naam opened in 1968 and was originally a popular meeting place for antiwar advocates, environmentalists and other counterculture groups. Located in the heart of what was then known as “Rainbow Road,” it has served vegetarian meals for over 50 years.

“The old story goes that Greenpeace actually started in a corner of the Naam,” said Jacob Beauregard, weekend manager at the Naam. He said the group reportedly planned its first campaign in the restaurant.

“I think around where table 19 might be right now,” he said.

Marie Bohlen, an American illustrator living in Vancouver, suggested what was to become Geenpeace’s first campaign in February of 1970. She proposed sailing a boat north to a U.S. nuclear test site in Alaska.

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Beauregard said the current owners, who have run the Naam since the early ’70s, were now in their 70s themselves and looking to retire.

“From what I understand their children are doing completely different things, professionally,” Beauregard said. “Nobody’s really wanting to take (the restaurant) on.”

Beauregard, who has worked at the Naam since around 2015, said staff have been anxious and sad after learning in late August that the restaurant was being put up for sale. Many have worked at the restaurant for years, including one woman who is now in her 70s.

“They know the place really well,” Beauregard said. “They, quite frankly, deserve a lot of respect. And they’re anxious about having to start at a new place where they don’t get the respect that they’re used to.”

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“The Naam has given me a lot of opportunities in life,” Beauregard added. “I’m about to graduate and I would have never started school without the Naam.”

The real estate listing advertises the property as a “future redevelopment property” but also highlights the “high profile” restaurant on the ground floor, which the listing claims earns over $1.5 million annually.

Beauregard said he didn’t know what would happen if the restaurant had to move but said he felt the Naam has “a certain recipe for success” that set it apart from other vegetarian restaurants.

“We still make everything from scratch,” he said. “We really focus on quality sourcing.”

He said the building itself was a big part of the restaurant’s success, too.

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“Some of this furniture has been here since the draft dodgers built it,” he said. “This building’s got old glassware, it’s very unique.”

According to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, the building housing the Naam was built in 1920. The building’s exterior has remained largely unchanged since it was first built.

A dry goods shop was the first tenant of the building, followed by a bakery in the 1930s. A laundromat opened in the 1950s, followed by Love Cafe until 1968, when the Naam opened.

The Naam is the only remaining original natural foods business from the 1960s in Kitsilano, according to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation.

It does not take reservations, instead operating on a first-come-first-serve basis.

ngriffiths@postmedia.com

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