We visited some of the neighbourhood's gems and one of the most inspiring was the H.A.V.E cafe. A cafe by store front but the back was full of hope, it's a culinary training school that provides foodservice job training and work opportunities to those who experience barriers to employment. H.A.V.E.‘s students are youth and adults facing mental and physical disabilities, poverty, addiction and homelessness. It was so admiring to see an established chef like Amber, who worked in some of the finest restaurants and hotels in Vancouver to give her time to run this program with the success rate of over 500+ students in the past 5 years. They are planning on their second location in North Vancouver by this summer. Amber blessed us with her tasty tomatoe soup and grilled cheese sandwich during our short visit. Not often do we like to say "this is the best __we've ever had" but we might have to pull that card with her tomatoe soup. It's been her seceret weapon for the past 20 years. We wish the H.A.V.E. cafe a world of luck! 

                                                                                                                                                                                              

Next stop, Vancouver Urban Winery, known for their tap wines and amazing atmosphere. They keg wines from mostly the Okanagan and a few occasional overseas wineries who requires this method. We really like the idea of tapping wines to help eliminate waste especially for a restaurant business where they run through wine like water. Of course they stick in their lane and they don't mess with the oak aged wines that are not meant to breath. These guys are also known for their long table dinners, impressive parties and weddings.

Find them: 55 Dunlevy Ave.

From: Sunday - Friday, 10:00am - 6:00pm.

                                                                                                                                                                                              

On to one of the neighbourhood's favourite cafe, Railtown Cafe. Great little spot but they make mean hand crafted sandwiches, soul warming soups and quality mouth watering baked goods. They specialize in suvee method of cooking with their meats. Cooking it in water with the meat enclosed in a bag at a certain temperature, you can do all sorts of infusing when you season it in the bag which is extra special. The result? Perfect everytime. There's no guess work with what they do but damn they do it well. 

Find them: 397 Railway St.

From: Monday - Friday, 9:00am - 7:00pm.

                                                                                                                                                                                              

We ended the tour with a bang by showing a unit at The Edge, one of our loft properties in Gastown boarderline Railtown.