Come enjoy a delicious meal at Prado Cafe. Come relax on their terrace beneath the sun. They are open late all week and are readily reachable by car. They are found in a surrounding characterized with parks.
When Sammy Piccolo took over as the owner and operator of Prado Cafe, he had a simple mission. “They had good coffee, but their training wasn't all that great,” he recalls. “So we had to come in and teach everyone how to make coffee properly, and to focus on the taste. We wanted to make sure people knew that Prado put coffee first.”
And since Sammy took over in 2011, Prado has “put coffee first” with great success, offering tasty espresso drinks, and locally roasted coffee (not to mention a diverse assortment of pastries) at three separate Vancouver locations.
“It was always a place I'd enjoyed,” Sammy recalls, “but this was a chance to take something I really, really liked, and make it into something I loved.”
Prado on Commercial Drive typically offers a quiet and calm atmosphere, which is perfect for those looking to get a bit of work done while sipping on a decadent coffee. Whenever I go to Prado, I can’t help but indulge myself in one of their delicious cappuccinos.
Sleek, minimalist, bright and cool, Prado was a bit of an anomaly when it opened on the Drive. But the brothers behind hugely successful local chain Caffè Artigiano clearly have the chops to try something a little different on the strip better known for bongo drums and big plates of pasta. Passionately brewing beans from their family’s roaster, 49th Parallel, and baking all goodies in-house, this is serene sipping for the Drive’s hipster set.
When you stroll by Prado’s big, floor-to-ceiling windows as you’re cruising the Drive, the scene staring back at you will no doubt be mostly filled with the backside of Macbooks. This is a good indication that the minimalist but lovely café serving 49th Parallel coffee is a great bet for your remote office. It’s mostly treats on offer with your hot beverage of choice, so perhaps consider something else for the lunch hour, but for a morning or afternoon session, there’s no cooler spot on Commercial.