With its eminently walkable feel and deep-rooted residents, Vancouver's Strathcona neighbourhood maintains a small-village appeal, galvanized by a handful of creative, independent businesses. The Garden, a licensed café and well-curated retail shop with socially responsible products and partners, doubles as a utopian gathering place for the tight-knit community.
Co-owners Anna McMillan, Rheanna Miller and Kirsten Kennedy launched the affable shop with an industrial rustic edge on September 4, 2018. Its charm lies in its simplicity and welcoming open concept with seating for 16 and a counter constructed from 100-year-old fir planks from a Fraser River shipyard.
"The vision for The Garden was to create a physical place, but also a community space where people come together and gather and feel relaxed, calm, inspired — that feeling you get in a garden," says Anna.
