A barista makes a latte at River Maiden Coffee’s previous location. The popular Vancouver coffee shop will open a drive-thru location on MacArthur Boulevard while it continues its search for a permanent home. The Columbian files
River Maiden Artisan Coffee dies hard.
The cafe, known as much for coffee as for Vancouver pride and a penchant for 1980s culture, announced this week that it will open a drive-thru location on MacArthur Boulevard while it looks for a new, permanent home.
The new location is a stone’s throw from its previous home at 602 N. Devine Road, where it had operated since December 2005. Cafe owners Melissa Layman and Aaron Flies couldn’t agree with landlords on a new, 10-year lease before it expired at the end of June.
Layman and Flies said Friday they were happy to be close to where their regulars knew to find them.
“It feels like we’re coming back home again after being displaced,” Layman said. “This feels really good.”
The new location opens Monday and comes with a few changes. For now it is exclusively a drive-thru, but Layman said they hope to add outdoor seating sometime soon. Hours are abbreviated, as well: 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends.
“This is just going to help us get going,” Layman said.
River Maiden had expected to lay off its seven employees while on hiatus, but Layman said they’ve all been hired back now after two weeks off.
Layman and Flies are still looking to land a permanent spot. They said they have found some opportunities in west Vancouver, where they would like to stay, but nothing official.
Wherever they land, Layman said they will keep dishing out the ’80s nostalgia. The pair announced the new location with a picture of Patrick Swayze’s character from the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing” that read “Nobody puts River Maiden in a corner.”
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