Signature Dish: Coco Cafe’s Breakfast Bowl

A generous portion of roasted Yukon gold hash browned potatoes is mixed in with sauteed peppers, onion and maple sausage.

The dish comes together with two eggs, served any style, and pairs beautifully with a creamy, tangy hollandaise.

“It is one of our most popular dishes, I think people enjoy it because it has a little bit of everything. It has some vegetables, it has the hollandaise, it has the protein in it as well,” Dorion said. “I’ve been here six years and it’s always been one of our most popular dishes.”

Founded in 2011 by five local families who wanted to create a hub in Cedar where their children could work, Coco Cafe has become synonymous with the small community south of Nanaimo.

Aside from its food, the cafe is perhaps best known for its history of hiring people with diverse abilities and other social challenges.

Dorion calls it the cafe’s ‘mission’.

“People come to be able to socialize but they also come to support the mission and I think the mission has been a great value to the community. A lot of families that wouldn’t have the opportunity to send their children or young adults to work, have that opportunity to be able to come and work at the cafe.”

Three-quarters of the staff at Coco’s are supported members of the kitchen crew. Some work only a few hours a week, but all are supported by two line cooks, two baristas and the cafe manager.

Melanie Atwell, Coco Cafe’s general manager, told NanaimoNewsNOW the amount of joy and satisfaction she received by seeing people come to Coco’s shy and timid, before eventually leaving with a wide range of skills and new-found confidence.

“We’ve seen people come in and they start doing a two hour shift once or twice a week and really get their feet wet in employment. We see those people move into full time positions whether it be in the cafe or our catering sector, out at the farmer’s market, just really being an integral part of the business.”

The restaurant closed for around six months in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, but re-opened for take out service.

Warmer weather in the summer is also enabling patio dining and picnics at the nearby park.

Atwell said the in-cafe seating will remain closed for the foreseeable future given many team members are immunocompromised.

“We made the decision at the beginning to reopen for take out only and keep the cafe closed because it is so small, so that our staff had room to work and do their jobs. We haven’t had to change much through all the different restrictions which means our staff have had a safe, stable environment to work in.”

Accidentally coinciding with COVID-19 lockdowns, Coco Cafe launched an online store in spring 2020 offering frozen, home-cooked meals for pick up or delivery.

The family value package includes eight meals with delivery available from Chemainus to Qualicum every Wednesday and Friday.

The cafe also offers a ‘karma package’ where people can purchase a meal for someone they know, or have Coco’s route it to a family in need.

Coco Cafe is open Wednesday to Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in their location at 1840 Cedar Rd.

Their website, including online store, is available at cococafe.ca.

Signature Dish is brought to you by Island Savings – A Division of First West Credit Union, learn more at https://www.islandsavings.ca/.

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by NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Signature Dish: Coco Cafe’s Breakfast Bowl

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