The new corner store and cafe from Gooseneck Hospitality (see also Bufala, Bells & Whistles, Lucky Taco) is now open and abuzz on the southeast corner of 12th and Carolina.

We made a first pass at the brand new ‘Oh Carolina’ over the weekend and found it as jumping as can be under the current Covid restrictions — plenty of bums in seats on both the front and side patios. After a Timbertrain bean cappuccino I found an easy winner on the short menu of sandwiches (pastrami on rye with sauerkraut and extra mustard) and had room left over to tuck into my wife’s red sauced rigatoni topped with a jiggly spoon of burrata. It was all as good as I expected it to be, and not a little charming too with its fresh local veggies, cooler scores (Mexican Coke!) and quality retail picks (Brets potato chips from France!).

If this is the first you’re hearing about it, we first reported on it back in March and more recently at the beginning of June:

As a nod to its cross street they’re calling it Oh Carolina, and the more I’ve gotten to know about it the more I’ve become jealous that it isn’t around the corner from my house. Any neighbourhood would be lucky to have a project like this in its midst. It’s a good idea at the right time and in the right place. Many of our neighbourhoods can count at least one long defunct or under-utilized corner store among their blocks, and it’s always a fine and hopeful thing to see new life and renewed purpose breathed into their old and under-appreciated bones.

Take a look inside and out…

Oh Carolina

Neighbourhood: East Vancouver

580 East 12th Ave.

(Closed)

WEBSITE