The fourth location of Prado opens tomorrow in the old Cafe Bica address around the corner from Granville Island. That’s 1809 Fir Street off W. 2nd Avenue, which puts it snugly in what (one assumes) a focus group of area business improvement managers have decided to call the “Armoury District”, no doubt to the resounding, reptilian applause of property development marketers (yay, the area’s very own East Village). Owner Sammy Piccolo took possession of the 1,000+ sqft space two weeks ago on February 15th, so it’s been an extremely tight turnaround. The 26 seater includes a kitchen that will bring a range of new additions to the Prado food line-up, including more vegan options, soups, sandwiches, French pastries, cakes and pies. The interior is pretty basic stuff with nods to the company’s recognizable design DNA: plenty of wood, Tudor/ecclesiastically grilled windows on the walls, omnipresent 49th Parallel Coffee branding, et cetera. This is a superb location with plenty of traffic coming to and from Granville Island, so I trust an established brand like Prado will do well in it. Bica had it good here for a very long time. The shots below were taken several days ago. Expect it to be prettier when it’s unveiled tomorrow. Take a look…

EXPLORE THIS NEIGHBOURHOOD