Cafes
Cafe Neon
Cafe Neon was designed to be a hub for the Junction Triangle community. It was that concept, in fact, that gave Café Neon its name. "Neon," owner Niki Tsourounakis tells me, "is derived from a word in Greek that means 'meeting place.'"
"That's what I want this place to become," she continues. "Something comfortable; somewhere people can hang out without feeling rushed."
Needless to say, Cafe Neon invites its customers to use its free WiFi and leaves its outlets uncovered. "I think it's working," Niki says of her measures to create a relaxed vibe. "Some people have almost run out on the bill," she says. "They'll say, 'Sorry, I felt like I was at home and totally forgot about paying!'"
"So in a weird way," Niki continues, "that's a good sign."
Cafe Neon opened about two months ago in a street-level loft space on Wallace near Lansdowne. Niki takes me next door to the adjacent vacant space to show me what the spot looked like when she first got her hands on the property. "It was just like this — there was nothing here," Niki says, glancing at the concrete floors. Indeed, all the space needs is a little puddle of motor oil and it would be akin to a vapid industrial garage.
Niki has managed to transform the space with custom shelving, eclectic furniture (including a communal table made from a bowling alley lane), a barn door serving as wall art, and a fantastic layered mural done by local artist Jeff Garcia.
Though the concept for Café Neon began as that of a coffee shop, Niki admits that for her, it has always been about the food, particularly because she comes from a family of restaurateurs. At the moment the shop offers sandwiches, salads, and baked goods along with its coffee, but Niki says the food roster will be expanding in a huge way.
"We just got our liquor license," she says. "And I'm hoping to start brunch service soon, as well as dinner." The dinner service, she tells me, will be sit down, making Café Neon less a café than a restaurant.
But it's very much still a café when I pop by, so I scan the list of coffee (a Granville Island blend) and loose-leaf teas (from Metropolitan Teas) and decide to go with an allongé ($2.75). It's strong, full-bodied and lightly bitter (though Niki warned me it might be beforehand), but certainly overshadowed by the chocolate chunk cookie ($1.75) I grab on my way out. It's substantial and chewy with that 'homemade' taste. And if it's any indication, I think we can expect more good things coming from Café Neon's kitchen.
Photos by Jesse Milns
Discussion
15 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
I wish I lived closer to this place.
On our first, and only, visit here, we (mom, dad, toddler) were initially pleasantly surprised that they were open, had a reasonable board of food on top of cafe fare and were actually licensed.
However things went quickly downhill from there.
We ordered a latte, an americano and a simple pastry basket to share.
The coffees came quickly but 10 minutes later and no pastry basket.
You surely just need to pick a few, cut 'em up, put them in a basket and bring them to the table.
After fruitlessly trying to get the attention of our harried server (they were quite busy - only one server on the floor) I decided I'd ask to see how the pastries were coming on my return from using their ATM at the back (they currently only accept cash, not the best customer service decision to start with, especially when they charge two bucks per transaction at the machine AND are saving money per transaction by not accepting debit or credit of any kind - "the owner of this establishment, Cafe Neon, charges $2 per transaction", hmmm...but I digress).
As it turns out, our server and I met up at the ATM and I asked how the pastries were coming.
She replied icily with "they're in the line, as you can see we're very busy here".
She then, crazily, asked me "would you like me to cancel your order?".
I had a hungry toddler and I surmised it shouldn't be much longer now for one small little pastry basket so I replied, cheekily, "no, are you baking them fresh?".
To which the server replied "What would you like me to do?"
Not caring to engage any further in this silly and reckless game of "the customer is never right" I brushed past this now nearly combative woman and said, incredulously, "just order it!".
Well, the pastry basket arrived to our table maybe a couple minutes later, and was dumped unceremoniously at our table with intent by said server.
A few minutes later, the bill was literally thrown at my partner, again with no discussion. Wow.
Sorry. But it shouldn't take even a busy little coffee shop / resto close to 15 minutes to pick a few mediocre pastries from the pantry, cut them in half and bring them to our table.
Clearly there's dysfunction along the line in this place as the orders just go in and there seems to be no division of labour between server and kitchen to handle these types of basic requests - felt like a brewing "not my department" kind of thing coming from our server.
Basic word to the wise - don't lay your problems on your customers - particularly shiny new faces like ours who would have gladly returned had we been treated with simple respect and decorum. Now we'll just spread the bad news; I'm sure management will approve.
We will never return and will now post this same complaint directly to the fine folks at Cafe Neon as well as anywhere else we can. In a city this big and with such exemplary options available everywhere for anything this type of attitude is akin to commercial suicide.
Horrible experience.
Naive and self-important service overshadowed our entire, potentially, good experience.
LAME.
Looking forward to seeing what they do with a dinner service.
My apologies for the experience you had. Definitely not what Cafe Neon is about.
My explanation of what happened won't change your experience, but perhaps give you a reason to try us again.
We actually did bake your item fresh from when you ordered it, and have taken it off the menu because of the time issue.
We wanted to wow people with our hot, fresh pastries, but quickly realized most people want food more quickly than that.
So once again we apologize you were caught up in this experience as your first visit to the cafe. Hope you'll be back. I can take full credit for not informing the server about the change.
Ask for me (Niki) and I will gladly take care of your next visit.
Peace and respect - mike
The coffee is very good and the sandwiches are really inspired.
Sometimes there can be a bit of a wait but it is well worth it.
If you have the opportunity try the bread pudding - it is to die for.
Ryan
I read these reviews quite often actually. They let me know what is happening and every day we try to make the cafe a little bit better based on our customer's feedback.
I do agree, our staffing situation has been extremely difficult, ever since the beginning. Having served for more than 17 years, the industry is something I know very well. (So you can imagine my frustration when good service doesn't come through consistently.)
Rest assured, I can honestly say our staff today is one I am proud of.
They work extremely hard and if you've ever pulled espresso's and served hungry people in a rush for 8 hours straight, you would understand it is not an easy job.
They are doing their best.
As for the "tax" situation, I can take the blame for that. For the longest time, I didn't realize our new and fancy POS was not adding tax to things. When I went to fix this, I didn't want to shock our customers so I actually lowered the base price on our items so it wouldn't hurt too much. (Hence the 25 cent hike not equaling 13 percent.)
Her attitude was probably due to the fact that you were giving her exact change, if not less.
In case you are unfamiliar with the service industry, especially in independently owned establishments, servers, baristas and bartenders often work for their tips.
I hope you don't take offense to this post. I find it only fair to explain.
I am more than happy to answer any other questions/comments you might have.
If you all have a moment, watch the documentary "I Like Killing Flies" unrelated but a great restaurant documentary!
And damn funny.