Update: The Tangent Café closed in the summer of 2023 after a decade of operation. I’m keeping this story up as a time capsule of East Van life, a snapshot of why this place was so great.
Yet another reason why living on Commercial Drive is great: every Sunday afternoon from 4-7pm, the Tangent Café hosts live jazz. And it’s amazing!
We discovered this by accident last summer, as we walked into Tangent Café for a craft beer, only to find that a local gypsy jazz band “Van Django” was beginning their set. Django Reinhardt and craft beer? What’s not to love?
We came back the following week and enjoyed a completely different local jazz trio, equally as good. There was a handful of others there; we had the place practically to ourselves.
This past Sunday we dropped by for the jazz and craft beer, but the place was packed with people all ages and backgrounds, the majority of whom local Commercial Drive residents. Apparently news is spreading around the neighbourhood…
If you haven’t been to the Tangent Café yet, and you’re a craft beer fan, I highly recommend checking it out. They’ve got a carefully curated craft beer menu, about 12 on tap at any time, a nice selection from local breweries to breweries from Oregon and eastern Canada. Triple IPAs, saisons, porters, stouts, pilsners – they always have nice diversity. The menu offers diner style food, as well as some Malaysian dishes. The Mee Goreng is particularly tasty, as is the Roti Canai. But the Sunday Jazz? That’s the icing on the cake. It’s just one more reason why I rarely find myself leaving Commercial Drive these days…
