Local Knowledge

Commercial Drive is called Little Italy for the Italian people who made their homes here after World Wars I and II. Its bohemian spirit has been compared to Greenwich Village and Paris’ Rive Gauch. It’s as much Squamish Nation as it is United Nations. It’s one of the few places in the city where you can find more independent businesses than corporate chains. It has more yoga studios than Yaletown and grassroots activism on par with the Downtown East Side. It’s one of two neighbourhoods in Canada where the Olympic Torch had to be rerouted because spectators couldn’t agree on whether to cheer or boo.

Commercial Drive, like the colourful people who call it home, has little use for labels. It’s too diverse, too full of quirky contradictions. And though it’s not for everyone – particularly those who feel at home in homogeny or long for the comfort of the Big Box – The Drive has the feeling of a self-contained universe: one that thrives on creativity, yet respects history in a young city like Vancouver.

It’s somewhere you can ditch your car for days and, within blocks, find the ingredients for la dolce vita – food, wine, art, music and, of course, coffee. It’s the kind of place you can look forward to hearing a funny story or new language waiting to pay for groceries. But perhaps the biggest draw for The Drive is its diversity – and the simple fact that, on a sunny day, you could be anywhere in the world.