Travel and Leisure

Slideshow: Vancouver's Commercial Drive captures city's diversity

By Kiratiana Freelon

7:22 AM on 02/25/2010

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Cafe deux Soleil (Photo by Kiratiana Freelon)

Commercial drive, or the "Drive", offers tourists a multicultural extravaganza, with the people, shops and restaurants and bakeries to match. The area is just a 10 minute skytrain ride away from downtown. The Italian immigrants who arrived after World War II left a legacy of great coffee shops--there are more than 15 coffee shops along the 16 block strip. Since then, the area has attracted Portuguese, Vietamese, Ethiopians and Caribbeans. The influence of artists and hippies can be seen throught the numerous vegetarian restaurants and independent craft shops that dot the strip. Leave yourself a half a day to eat, drink and shop along this authentic strip.

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A Small World (2120 Commercial Drive) - Stop in A Small World to check out the ethnic wares from around the world and talk to Trinidadian Kevin Noble. The shop recently hosted a fundraiser for Haiti and often times offers Djembe drum classes.

(Photo courtesy of Kiratiana Freelon)
Cafe Deux Soleil (1393 Commercial Drive) - The Vegetarian options are aplenty on Commercial drive, but Cafe deux Soleil offers the best food and the best entertainment. The Restaurant hosts an open mic night on Thursdays and poetry slams on Monday night.

(Photo courtesy of Kiratiana Freelon)
Joe's Cafe (1150 Commercial Drive) - Within six blocks, there are more than 10 Italian Coffee shops. To compete, Joe's Cafe sports a colorful sign.

(Photo courtesy of Kiratiana Freelon)
Commercial Drive - The residents of Commercial drive are very wordly and giving. This shop, Ten Thousands Villages only sells fair trade items.

(Photo courtesy of Kiratiana Freelon)
The Wonderbucks trading company encourages people to Think Globally and Shop Locally. McDonald's was forced off of the main drag years ago and Starbucks is the only global chain that is present on Commercial drive.

(Photo courtesy of Kiratiana Freelon)
Libra Room (1600 Commercial Drive) - People flock to Libra Room on the strip because of the food and jazz music seven nights a week. An ancient law prevents people from dancing in any of the establishments along the drive.

(Photo courtesy of Kiratiana Freelon)
NuNu (1855 Commercial Drive) - A black hair shop is a rare sighting in Vancouver. NuNu's hair salon is considered to be the best black hair shop in Vancouver.

(Photo courtesy of Kiratiana Freelon)
Fruit Shop - Residents of Commercial drive are committed to high quality food. In addition to ethnic restaurants, and vegetarian restaurants, fruit and vegetable stands dot the strip.

(Photo courtesy of Kiratiana Freelon)
Wall of Shows: Ambush marketers often use Commercial Drive to pub upcoming shows to a worldly and open audience. One of the posters in this image pubs the upcoming Questlove DJ set.

(Photo courtesy of Kiratiana Freelon)
Memphis Barbecue (1608 Commericial Drive) - Vancouver has two barbecue restaurants and one of them is on Commercial drive.

(Photo courtesy of Kiratiana Freelon)