A neighbourhood of independent businesses, familiar faces, unexpected corners—and more than a few crows.
Mount Pleasant is more than the neighbourhood where I opened a gift shop. It is a place that became part of my life, shaped my business and, during one of the most uncertain periods any of us can remember, helped keep me going.
The Local Boom opened its physical storefront in February 2020. We barely had time to settle in before the world changed. Suddenly, everything about operating a small business—and simply moving through daily life—became uncertain.
What remained remarkably steady was the neighbourhood.
Mount Pleasant customers continued to remember us, support us and remind us that our shop had a place here. Those acts of loyalty were not abstract business numbers. They came from actual people: familiar faces, neighbours, regular customers and people who made a deliberate choice to keep supporting a small local shop.
A neighbourhood with a history of its own
Mount Pleasant has always had character. It is one of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods, shaped by working families, industry, artists, independent businesses and generations of change.
Today, heritage buildings and old corner shops sit alongside murals, restaurants, studios, cafés and businesses doing something entirely their own. It feels creative without being overly polished. Stylish, but still slightly strange. It is a part of Vancouver that has managed to retain a personality.
A little Mount Pleasant history
The neighbourhood was officially named Mount Pleasant in 1888. Brewery Creek once ran through the area toward False Creek, helping attract some of Vancouver’s earliest industries and settlements. The creek now runs underground, but traces of the neighbourhood’s industrial and working-class history remain.
The neighbourhood you experience on foot
Mount Pleasant makes the most sense when you walk through it. You notice the changing buildings, painted alleyways, little patios, old houses, murals and shops that could only exist in their particular corner of the city.
You also begin to recognize the neighbourhood’s rhythms: the morning coffee crowd, deliveries being carried through side doors, shop owners sweeping their entrances, dogs who know exactly which businesses keep treats behind the counter—and the crows watching all of it from above.
The crows deserve special mention. They are loud, intelligent, mischievous and deeply woven into the personality of East Vancouver. They travel over the neighbourhood, gather on rooftops, inspect whatever is happening below and make themselves impossible to ignore.
They are not exactly official ambassadors for Mount Pleasant—but they probably believe they are.
The places that make it feel like Mount Pleasant
A neighbourhood becomes special because of the people and places that give it texture. These are some of the independent businesses I return to and recommend—not as a definitive guide, but as part of my own experience of Mount Pleasant.
Paper Crane Coffee
A genuinely neighbourhood coffee shop on East Broadway—the kind of place that becomes part of your routine rather than simply somewhere you visit once.
The Lido
A wonderfully unpretentious East Broadway institution with live music, personality and the comfortable feeling of a true neighbourhood gathering place.
Hail Mary’s
Small, theatrical and unmistakably itself. Its wonderfully dramatic décor and playful personality represent the kind of independent spirit Mount Pleasant does so well.
El Camino’s
A longtime Main Street favourite with a lively atmosphere that feels right at home among the energy and movement of the neighbourhood.
Giusti
A newer neighbourhood Italian restaurant just off Main Street on East 6th—warm, inviting and already feeling like a natural part of Mount Pleasant.
Noor Convenience & Donair
The beloved corner shop at Fraser and Broadway where the convenience store and donair counter share one wonderfully practical space. The falafel alone deserves recognition.
Mercato di Luigi
A neighbourhood Italian market and café on East 12th for coffee, pastries, pasta, sandwiches and the pleasure of wandering among good things to eat.
The Local Boom
Our own contribution to the neighbourhood: a colourful, independent gift shop filled entirely with Canadian brands, thoughtful gifts, self-care and plenty of personality.
What connects these places is not that they all look or operate the same. In fact, the opposite is true. Each has its own point of view. They contribute something distinct, and together they create a neighbourhood that feels layered rather than manufactured.
What Mount Pleasant gave me
The pandemic changed my relationship with this neighbourhood. When you open a store, you naturally wish that the community will welcome it. What I could not have anticipated was how much that community would matter when circumstances became difficult.
Loyal customers gave The Local Boom a reason to keep moving forward. Every visit, purchase, recommendation and encouraging conversation meant something. People did not have to support a small independent gift shop during such an uncertain time—but many of them chose to. Most of our marketing is word of mouth from across the country!
I will always carry that with me. It is one of the reasons Mount Pleasant will never feel like merely an address on our website or a line printed underneath our store name.
Our little place in the neighbourhood
The Local Boom adds its own energy to Mount Pleasant. We are colourful, proudly Canadian, occasionally sassy and filled with things chosen to make people feel good.
People come in looking for birthday gifts, Vancouver keepsakes, self-care, greeting cards or something they cannot quite describe. Some are visiting the neighbourhood for the first time. Others have lived nearby for years and stop in simply to see what is new.
I like knowing that our shop has become one of the places people associate with a walk through Mount Pleasant. We may be only one storefront, but independent businesses are what give a neighbourhood its voice. Each of us adds another colour, flavour, idea or story.
Still a pleasant place
Neighbourhoods are always changing. Businesses open and close, buildings are replaced and familiar streets take on new shapes. Mount Pleasant is no exception.
But beneath that change, something recognizable remains: the independence, the creativity, the slightly unconventional personality and the belief that a good neighbourhood should contain places worth knowing.
Mount Pleasant helped The Local Boom make it through an extraordinary time. Its customers became our customers. Its crows became recurring characters. Its small businesses became neighbours, destinations and favourites.
We are proud to add our own small piece to the neighbourhood—and even prouder that Mount Pleasant has become part of who we are.
Mount Pleasant made me do it.
And I am very glad it did.
Written by Steven, owner and curator of The Local Boom Gift Shop
Mount Pleasant · Vancouver, British Columbia
