The team behind Nemesis and Dope Bakehouse is getting ready to open a new downtown project. Bam Bam, a fried chicken, donuts, coffee, and cocktail spot from founder Jess Reno and crew, is set to open April 1 at 160 West Georgia Street.

Fried chicken has never really been a single thing in Vancouver. The city’s best versions have come from all over the map: Japanese karaage in izakayas, Korean double-fried crunch, Nashville hot sandwiches, late-night strip mall boxes, and the occasional chef-driven riff showing up on a tasting menu. Plenty of good birds already in circulation.

Bam Bam enters that conversation from a different corner of the room. Reno and the Nemesis group built their reputation on cafés that take design, hospitality, and detail seriously. Here they’re applying that same mindset to a set of comfort foods that most people recognise instantly.

Reno describes the idea as “future nostalgia.” The shorthand version: the food people grew up with. Fried chicken. Donuts. Sandwiches. Coffee. Straightforward territory, with a bit of personality layered in.

Chicken sandwiches will include versions like Classic Rosemary and Hot Sweet. Popcorn chicken will also be on offer (always welcome), paired with house sauces like smoked gherkin and cucumber dill ranch.

Donuts will be made in-house and rotated daily, alongside pastry rolls in flavours such as Honey Sea Salt, Garlic Knot, and Meyer Lemon. Hard to argue with any of that.

The drink side looks playful in the best way. Cocktails include Apple Pie & Rye, Strawberry Shiso Negroni, Pecan Pie Old Fashioned, and a Hot Honey Margarita. Coffee drinks and café specials run alongside that list.

The 2,800 square foot room was designed with McKinley Studios and pulls from a mix of North American cultural references. Baseball locker rooms, record shops stacked with speakers, varsity graphics. Reno’s projects tend to pay attention to identity and detail, and early glimpses suggest the same approach here. Expect cherry veneer panels, stainless counters, and chrome seating shaped after mid-century silhouettes.

As described in today’s Press Release: A communal table with a green banquette anchors the middle of the room beneath a sculptural chandelier by A-N-D Lighting, with artwork by Filipp Jenikae. There will also be a retail component, which tends to show up in Reno projects. This one includes a clothing line developed with Kali Gill-Desjardins, drawing from vintage varsity gear and a bulldog graphic that appears throughout the Bam Bam identity.

Reno leads the project alongside VP of operations Albert Tang and longtime Nemesis Gastown general manager Tim Tumbagahan. The kitchen includes Nemesis executive chef Mielye Mitchell, executive sous chef Lina Serrano, head chef Rachel Harms, Gabby Ablanida, and Dope Bakehouse executive pastry chef Kevin Lucas. A number of these names have been around the Nemesis orbit for a while, which speaks to something Reno has consistently done well: building teams and keeping them.