One of Chinatown’s most notorious corners has quietly swapped last call for fresh pan dulce and cortados.
Loreto, an all-day Mexican brunch and bakery, is officially open at 219 Union Street.
It took over the former La Cerveceria corner unit, one of the tougher spots on this stretch of Union Street that has seen multiple food businesses try their luck.
The team opened the doors in early June and has been easing into a full all-day rhythm since.
We first wrote about Loreto when the corner was still papered over and the renovation was just getting going, so seeing it fully open is its own small milestone.
Loreto is a collaboration involving The Mexican, the long-running Granville Street antojitos y cantina founded by Claudia Romo and Cecilia Dander back in 2011, and Amoka Coffee and Bites, the West End cafe.
The concept leans Mexican from open to close, named for the seaside town of Loreto in Baja California Sur.
Mornings run on a brunch menu built around pancakes, a loaded Loreto skillet, huevos, and other breakfast plates, with a kids menu to match.
The espresso bar covers the usual cortado, flat white, latte, cappuccino, and mocha, plus house signatures like a matcha mocha and a dulce de leche drink, and a short list of smoothies.
A bakery counter rounds it out with freshly baked goods made in house.
On its own account, Loreto frames the whole thing around slowing down and savouring something real, with honest ingredients as the throughline.
Later in the day the menu shifts toward tacos, with al pastor and suadero anchoring the Loreto Taco Trap, alongside burritos, hot dogs, and a few bigger plates.
The space is the other half of the story.
Loreto worked with Moss Coast Design on an interior wrapped in blue and white Puebla tile carried up from Mexico, with rattan pendant lights, trailing plants, and long communal wood tables.
It reads warm and unhurried, the kind of room built for a slow morning rather than a quick takeout stop.
That patient mood is the whole pitch, and it is a real shift for a corner most people used to walk straight past.
For a neighbourhood still rebuilding its daytime food options, a polished Mexican cafe that runs brunch, coffee, baking, and tacos under one roof gives Chinatown a reason to linger.
Loreto joins other recently opened Vancouver food spots like Pho Anh Vu Kingsway, Dave’s Hot Chicken, and Alfa Tea Robson.
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: 219 Union Street, Vancouver, BC