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[darkstar965]

Well, alrighty ol_ironstomach. I'll see your Ontario and up you one Vancouver Island.

Based on nothing in particular, I'm guessing most Americans never make it to Vancouver Island. Partly this is due to confusion so, to get us all on the same page straightaway with apologies to those for whom this will be boring, there are at least 3 Vancouvers which confuse the issue:

- Vancouver City, BC, in Canada. Perhaps best known for the Olympics in 2010 and rioting hockey fans sometime later, big city on the mainland. Many Americans have been here.

- Vancouver, Washington. Totally dissed and in the shadow of big Canadian Vancouver (above). When asked at a local Starbucks for what this Vancouver is known, was told just "Fort Vancouver." Actually a pretty interesting Fort as forts go. Father of Oregon. 19th century tensions between the Brits and Yanks. But, my favorite fact for cocktails: HQ of the Hudson Bay Company, maker of very cool blankets. Can read up on all that if the mood strikes here.

- Vancouver Island, BC. (VI) Left of Canada's west coast (home to the first Vancouver above), accessible only by pretty cool ferries and absolutely best known for Victoria at its southeast corner. This post is about THIS Vancouver because, especially when discussing parts of the England-sized Island other than Victoria, there's very little online. So take that, yelp!

1st of a few entries will focus purely on the small city (town) of Port Alberni and its outpost of a Vancouver Island coffee shop chain called "Serious Coffee" that seems to hold its own fairly well with both Tim Hortons and Starbucks on VI. As you'll see from that link, Serious is indeed fairly serious. Island roasted beans. They don't know what a pourover is but they do know what a French Press is. Not sure they'll actually make you one but that had a pretty good (aka better than Starbucks) Guatemalan brewed when we were in. Maybe a bit trending toward burnt but, as I say, better than Starbuck's standard brew (not the Clover stuff, Don). The folks working at Serious are nice, friendly. Free wifi. Everything anyone could want venue wise.

And that's all I have to say about Serious and Port Alberni, which is now covered much better by donrockwell.con than by yelp.

More to follow. Stay tuned.

[darkstar965]

Quick addition to the above since seems the tech leash is very short on editing ones posts.

On the topic of coffee in the central Vancouver Island town of Port Alberni*, can now offer a bit more help:

- Steamers down in the Quay. Some locals who seem like they know their coffee may send you here. Don't do it. Trust me.
- Canvas Coffee. Hands down your best bet. On the street that leads down to the Quay. Just opened last year and owned by a pediatrician who also paints. His and others' art on the walls. Much better than average joe brewed on a very cool US made machine (all steel with wood handles) I shamefully didn't recognize. WifFi works. As good as it gets in Port Alberni, a town most important as being a way point on the way to or from much, much cooler spots about which I'll post shortly.

* yeah, yeah, I fully realize the odds that anyone will ever search donrockwell.com for a coffee recc here are microscopically small but I look at it differently. when 'people' out there knock dr.com for being 'just a dc area' food site, it's the crazy obscure threads like this one, with useful content and no silly high schoolish ratings and rantings, that prove 'em wrong.