Moja Coffee’s new café is a neighborhood living room where the community and baristas can share espresso and daily conversation together without pretense. Owners Doug Finley and Andrew Wentzel were inspired to create a local place that offers an egalitarian, communal atmosphere for  enjoying coffee, as they had experienced in their travels through Italy and Africa. Not only a café, Moja will serve as a roasting and packaging facility—a 12 kilo Probat roaster lies at the heart of their operation, visible within the café as well as from the outdoor patio.

Located in an historic, corner building amidst the thriving arts corridor of Vancouver’s Commercial Drive, the space is characterized by industrial simplicity. The layout of the café balances the need for efficiency and organization on the production side, with the desire to foster seamless interaction between patrons and staff. A steel shelving armature provides area for retail display, while a band of wood cabinetry, accessed by rolling ladder, fulfills the pragmatic need for storage.

The new architectural elements crafted from locally sourced woods and original brick wall feel warm and familiar, grounding the light-filled, clean and crisp character of the overall space.