by Andrew Morrison | It’s been over five years since the launch of Revolver on Gastown’s western extreme. The good-looking coffee house has become an award-winning institution and a favourite among coffee lovers (Scout readers included), not to mention a social anchor and meeting place for the immediate neighbourhood. I distinctly remember walking in for the first time – a few days before opening – and feeling my jaw drop. What I beheld was early evidence of the great design relationship between Craig Stanghetta and Ricky Alvarez, and I was instantly sold. Here’s an excerpt from what I wrote about it back in the late summer of 2011, as well as 35+ photos from the week before the last of the construction dust was gone and it received its first customers:
I was positively floored yesterday by the beauty of the Craig Stanghetta-designed Revolver. The coffee fetishist’s dream is set to open later this week at 325 Cambie St. across from Meat & Bread. The space sees some 20-25 seats that look to be suspended from a high ceiling along a wall decorated with world maps made by hand (great job Ricky!) using steel and copper-coloured nails (the coffee denoted coffee-producing lands). Customers will be able to leaf through a curated selection of books by American greats (think Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc), listen to great vinyl, work wirelessly and sip coffees made by a family that takes it so seriously that it flies into the star-lit blackness beyond the nerdisphere.