Featuring my favourite spaces and places in my beloved neighbourhood – Vancouver’s beautiful, wacky, wonderful West End.
Our local greasy spoon diner Joe’s Grill is like our Cheers – where everybody knows our name (well, actually, they call Josh and I “The Happy Couple”) and they’re always glad we came. We’ve been regulars there for about four years now, I think (it’s so hard to keep track!), and over that time Joe’s has taken up a very special place in our hearts. It’s like our church, or our community centre, our sacred weekly ritual (and on a good week, more than once!). They even have Keaton’s birth announcement taped to the wall above the kitchen service counter, for heaven’s sakes.
At Joe’s, the food is great (Avocado & Tomato Benny, anyone? And Josh swears by the Egg Burrito), the coffee is good and plentiful, the hot sauce is the best, the cooks are smiley and nice, and the servers? Gad, they are the best. The absolute best in town. We exchange Christmas cards and candies, and they all chipped in to buy us a baby present when Keaton was born. We went there on Keaton’s first birthday (how could we not?), and they served him a special bowl of birthday blueberries. When we went on Halloween (again, how could we not?), they had a pair of Halloween socks, ready to give Keaton.
We have seriously never had a bad experience there, which is unusual in the world of cafes and diners. We’ve never had to wait an inordinately long time for a table, even during busy times, never had a snippy server, and never had a food order go wrong.
It’s the Joe’s Grill magic, I tell you.
Glowbug Girl 