Edible Notables: Atlas Cafe
Food connects us—to each other, to the land, to our memories. A shared love of cuisine and the art of dining is certainly what united Trent McIntyre and Sandra Viney, who opened Atlas Café in Courtenay in 1995.
Both of them spent years in the hospitality industry, working around the world. After completing a hotel and hospitality management course in Saskatoon, Trent hopped on a plane to work overseas, opening his first café in Australia in 1988. Sandra, meanwhile, who is originally from Australia, worked in hospitality as she travelled the world. These travelling experiences are ultimately what became the foundation for the name of the café they would open on Vancouver Island. “One night we wrote down all our favourite meals over the course of our travels and decided to call our café ‘Atlas’ after seeing we had an international theme and were all over the map!” explains Sandra.
In 1993, they travelled across the beautiful province of British Columbia in search for the perfect town to open this new café. They were avid snowboarders, so their ideal location would be somewhere at the base of a mountain, where they could offer fresh cuisine with an international flair while using local ingredients. When they visited the Comox Valley, they saw Mount Washington looming in the background and discovered that downtown Courtenay had a need for a café offering specialty coffees, freshly squeezed juices and a menu full of scratch-made, fresh meals. It was clear that this was the location they’d been looking for.
Atlas Café opened their doors two years later and has been locally owned and operated since. In 2017, they invited their nephews Slone and Zane Romano to join them as business partners. The pair now collectively run the resturant’s kitchen department, where they strive to have a menu showcasing local produce and products. “When we first considered the Comox Valley, we were thrilled to see the number of local farmers and purveyors the Comox Valley had for us to showcase on our menus, and we value these relationships to this very day,” says Sandra. The local support doesn’t end with the culinary menu, either—the drinks menu is filled with local offerings from breweries, distilleries, wineries, cideries and kombucha makers.
Having been open for 26 years, Sandra and Trent have seen a lot happen in the restaurant industry, but the pandemic made their business pivot in ways it hadn’t before. “Like all restaurants, we have had to endure limiting our days of operations due to staff shortages,” says Sandra. But they consider their staff to be family, with many long-term employees. “We are so very honoured by their continued loyalty, dedication, resilience and adaptability over the course of the pandemic.” A positive aspect of the pandemic was that they had to update their website for takeout, which has become a critical branch of their business to keep them afloat during dining restrictions.
Whether you’re dining in or opting for takeout, you can be sure that the food has been created with care—and if you had a favourite on the menu when they first opened, there’s a chance it’s still offered, with many fan favourites having stuck around on the menu for over two decades. Their chef also creates a nightly featured “Fresh Sheet” to showcase seasonal ingredients from local farmers. “The dedication and passion that is behind creating our dishes truly is our living art,” says Sandra.
Atlas Café has a long history, but it also has a long future ahead of it, serving its community and celebrating our local farmers, food growers and harvesters. “It is so heartwarming that over time our guests become friends, and then in turn become family,” says Sandra. “It is the people who are my favourite part of running this business, and as a united front, we take great care in offering warm, friendly and flavourful experiences for our guests.”
The Edible Notables Series is proudly sponsored by Beacon Law Centre.
