Commercial Drive is known for two things: the long storied history of its Italian community, and coffee.
Brian Turko remembers a time when the two were one in the same. No one dared to compete with the Italian coffee bars that dotted the neighbourhood. And, certainly not anyone like him – a Canadian of Ukrainian descent.
Born and raised in East Van, Turko opened Turk’s, the first non-Italian coffee shop on the drive in 1997, securing the space from a landlord who chose him because, “you’re the only guy who has the knackers to open on this street.”
“Commercial Drive is the birthplace of Canadian coffee,” says Turko, now the owner and head roaster of Milano Coffee. “Back then, you either had good espresso, or you didn’t. And on Commerical Drive, you better be good.”
But, Turko’s secret weapon was in fact, an Italian. Francesco Curatolo, a world master roaster and blender who learned from the Musetti Brothers, the founding fathers of Italian espresso, made Turko his protégé.
The partnership between the two would not only blur cultural lines and challenge the neighbourhood’s status quo, it would hone Turko’s signature style of blends, some of which contain up to 13 different kids of beans.
“Every country has their own way of doing stuff,” Turko explains. “But, this is not North American espresso, this is Italian espresso.”
Coffee dates back to 10th century Ethiopia amidst a handful of tales as to the origins of its discovery. By the end of the 16th century however, the beverage made from the seeds of the flowering coffea plant had reached the Middle East, parts of Africa, and Europe.
In much of Canada, where Tim Horton’s has dominated the market for decades, espresso is a relatively new game. But, in Vancouver, it’s been flourishing for decades, thanks to the influence of the Italian community. Today, West Coast coffee purveyors like JJ Bean and 49th Parallel and are now household brands, while the many old-school Italian coffee bars that could be intimidating to outsiders and often welcome only to men, have largely disappeared.
At the corner of East 2nd and Commercial Drive, Jordan and Anita Allan sit at a small table inside Continental Coffee, the business their family has run for 37 years.
Fresh from Italy in the early ‘60s, Anita’s father, Theo Grippo, originally set up shop in the old Latin Quarter location a few blocks north. In 1979, Anita took the reins enabling her father to retire.
“It was difficult,” she says of the early days. “Because women didn’t do things like that in those days. However, I had good support […] from my family.”
It was in the early ‘90s that her son Jordan says he saw a shift in the way people purchased coffee. Instead of buying beans wholesale and percolating at home, people began to venture out for coffee.
Jordan chuckles at the memory of the coffee served back then, compared to the more technical and scientific methods employed now, a movement he says was born from the introduction of latte art.
“The West Coast has great coffee knowledge, and consumers are interested,” Jordan says. “Vancouver people are looking for independent roasters and sourcing out quality coffees in an educated market.”
It’s exactly what Turko imagined all those years ago when he was laughed off the block at the notion that patrons would come, and sit and enjoy passionately crafted, quality coffee.
And, he’s poised in an energetic way to watch these traditions carry on as he says, this generation brings it full circle.
“What is today? What is the future? People are just discovering espresso for the first time, let’s face it,” he says. “A lot of these guys here, when I opened, were just born. And, what this generation I believe, wants is authenticism.”
If this generation has learned anything, it’s that if you want an authentic cup of coffee, you go to the Italians who have left their mark all over Commerical Drive.
