JJ Bean walked away from the little shack beside the CBC because downtown foot traffic no longer made sense.
A Mount Pleasant roaster just bet that it does.
Honest to Pete Coffee Roasters soft opened the shack at 740 Hamilton Street on August 31, 22 months after JJ Bean closed it in November 2024.
I went down anonymously in early September for a simple iced latte.
The shack is TINY, and the format is the one it always ran: order at the open front window, pick up at the side window with the ledge.
“It’s finally happening!” the roaster posted the day before opening, announcing a 7am start with “our famous Retrospresso blend and Lessospresso decaf as well as all your favourite pastries, and now, we have breakfast sandwiches AND lunch sandwiches grilled on the panini press.”
The same post asked customers to “bring a little bit of patience while we figure out our flow.”
The board tells you who is running it now.
Retrospresso and the decaf Lessospresso are the espresso, there is a nitro cold brew called Cool Fuel, and the cheddar shallot scone is made with whole grain Marquis wheat from Treasure Life Farm in Creston, BC.
Sandwiches are the new part: two egg muffins, a Montreal smoked meat focaccia, a chicken pesto focaccia and a ham and provolone baguette.
An 8 oz latte is $4.95, and bags of beans hang on the wall from a half pound up to five.
The shack itself is the story.
JJ Bean opened it as a pop-up for the 2010 Olympics and ran it for about 15 years as the daily stop for CBC staff and the office towers around Hamilton Street.
It closed on November 1, 2024, with JJ Bean pointing to thinner downtown foot traffic and remote work as the reasons it no longer made sense.
The building then sat empty for the better part of two years.
Honest to Pete is not a chain.
It is a Vancouver roaster started by a coffee obsessive named Peter, with one roastery and shop at 2109 Alberta Street in Mount Pleasant and beans on the shelves of independent grocers around the city.
Their pitch is air roasting, which they say pulls a smoother, cleaner cup than a drum.
The team first teased the shack in late May with a “watch this space” photo out front, and spent June cleaning and painting it.
Three months and one summer later, the window opened at 7am on a Monday.
It is a small bet by a small roaster on a corner a bigger company gave up on, and I ACTUALLY hope the office crowd shows up for it.
Honest to Pete Downtown joins other recently opened Vancouver spots including Meetrice Noodle on Kingsway, Hen in Mount Pleasant and Dao Field on Kingsway.
For more new and upcoming food spots in Metro Vancouver, take a peek at our tracker here, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
Address: 740 Hamilton Street, Vancouver, BC (CBC Plaza, the former JJ Bean shack)
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