Commercial Drive café to serve last cup of Joe’s after 5 decades

Joe’s Café on Commercial Drive has been serving up what is known as the best cup of cappuccino in Vancouver for nearly five decades, which is why long-time customers were saddened to hear it will be closing by the end of next month.

Joe Antunes opened the café in 1976. Antunes, a former bullfighter and welder from Portugal, turned the business into a neighbourhood institution.

But the neighbourhood started changing, and business began to slowly decline after the 1980s. Joe himself, now in his 80s, has finally decided to retire and pass the business down to his nephews.

“I think he ran out of energy, so he told us, you guys take care of it, so we’re overseeing things. And we kind of decided, it’s not making much profit, the heyday is over, it’s been on the decline, so just close the doors,” Joe’s nephew, Eddie Fernandes, said.

“Back then people could afford rent, so they all converged into this little neighborhood here, but if you look at it now, it’s just different. People don’t hang around as much.”

While it was a bittersweet decision, the family hopes the memory of Joe and Joe’s coffee will live on on Commercial Drive.

“Hopefully people don’t think about the business side, they just think about Joe,” Fernandes said.

“He was here for the community for 50 years. That’s what people remember the most, that’s what people are going to miss.”