When the cocktail company bought a former door factory on Adanac Street, the owners promised the street-facing half would one day be a cafe.
Duchess Cafe opened September 3 at 1249 Adanac Street in East Vancouver, in exactly that half of the building.
The back of it is where Duchess Cocktails and the rest of the Coupe Beverages line are actually made.
It is the brand’s first permanent space open to the public, after seven years of reaching people through bottles, pop-ups and events.
Olivia Lovenmark-Hay founded Duchess in 2019 and launched it in late 2020. The bottled cocktails are now sold across Canada, and the company says its Cosmopolitan is the best-selling one in the province.
Parent company Coupe Beverages built its first factory near Frances Street and Clark Drive in 2022, outgrew it by mid-2024, and moved into the Adanac building in early 2025.
“We’re so excited to finally welcome our community into a space that feels completely Duchess,” says Lovenmark-Hay, who designed the room.
“We’ve spent the past eight months considering every detail, from the layout, paint colours, and lighting to the custom cups and menu.”
What that looks like is the brand’s signature pink, custom banquette seating, touches of animal print, and areas set aside for retail and community events.
The menu is a full espresso bar with pastries and sandwiches, alongside Duchess products and branded merchandise.
Two suppliers are doing the food and coffee, and both are small.
Ex-Animo, a local roaster and pastry wholesaler run by a husband-and-wife team, is supplying the coffee and pastries.
Whisked Away, a local company founded by a mother-daughter duo, is making bespoke cookies including a custom Duchess cookie.
The room is not the brand’s first time in front of people, just its first permanent one.
Duchess ran a pop-up at Holt Renfrew Vancouver last summer and has kept a steady presence at events around the city for years.
Then there is the part that separates this from most cafe openings.
Duchess Cafe runs on a no-tipping model, with staff paid what the company calls a fair living wage.
That is still rare enough in Vancouver hospitality to be the reason some people try the room first.
The location is a deliberate one too.
The cafe sits just off Clark Drive on the Adanac bike route, which is one of the busiest cycling corridors in the city and not a street with much to stop for.
Hours are 7:30am to 4pm on weekdays and 8am to 4:30pm on weekends.
Duchess Cafe joins other recently opened Vancouver spots including Dao Field Kingsway, Hen, and Meetrice Kingsway.
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Address: 1249 Adanac St, Vancouver, BC (East Vancouver, off Clark Drive)
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