“It’s pretty different. I don’t know how to put it into words really. It’s definitely an alternative to franchise coffee shops,” says Carlin “Bob” Froese, owner of Bob and Mike’s Far Out Coffee Post.
The Post, as regular customers refer to it, is a fixture of Vancouver’s tight-knit Hastings-Sunrise community. “Far out” could refer both to its post-ironic, unconventional vibe, and its location on Dundas Street, about a 7-minute walk from the more populated East Hastings strip.
Carlin and his former business partner, Mike, used to be in a band together called Pride Tiger.
“Our first song was called ‘Far Out’ because we thought it was a funny term that people don’t really use anymore. So, when we were trying to come up with a name for this place, we used ‘Far Out’ because we didn’t want to seem pretentious or too serious about what we were doing,” says Carlin.
Part-diner, part-pit-stop, part-seriously-good-espresso, the Far Out Coffee Post is certainly not your average coffee shop. Three vintage arcade games line the second room’s back wall, while a jukebox stands in the corner waiting to be played, and breakfast burritos sizzle on the grill.
