Walk five blocks south of West Fourth to West Broadway, and Kitsilano morphs into what feels like a street market in Paris or a village in Greece.
That might be a bit of a stretch but Carol Pucci certainly loves Kitislano. Pucci profiled our neighbourhood today in the Seattle Times.
Anyone who’s stood in the line that forms nightly outside the Naam natural-foods restaurant on West Fourth Avenue in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighborhood will understand how the street earned the nickname “Rainbow Road” in the 1960s.
The head shops are gone, but the Naam, a Kitsilano fixture for 40 years, still stays open round the clock, providing nourishment on a budget to students from the nearby University of British Columbia and a population of health-conscious locals.
Together they support one of the city’s most eclectic neighborhood business districts. Along the main shopping streets of West Fourth and West Broadway, Greek bakeries, Jewish bagel shops and corner produce stands thrive alongside yoga studios, natural healers and one of the city’s largest collections of independent coffeehouses.
“People come here to escape the concrete jungle of Robson and Granville,” says Kitsilano resident Stephanie Brisebois, referring to two of downtown’s most popular shopping streets.
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Last modified: April 6, 2009
To be honest, 4th and Macdonald (or any other major intersection – 4th and Yew) is akin San Francisco’s Haight and Ashbury. Full stop.
Greek villages and Parisian street markets? That’s like saying the CFL could easily merge with the NFL.