Energetic, colourful environment
Located off the busy Broadway strip at Main Street, Rhizome is a welcoming, colourful oasis. The bright café boasts an ever-changing collection of art by local talent on the burnt orange walls and Tibetan prayer flags hang from corner to corner. There’s space for about 60 people at wooden tables in this comfortable café, which has an old-fashioned feel thanks to its home in an antique building. Creaky wood floors and neighbourly service are part of the atmosphere. At the front of the room, there’s a space by the windows that can accommodate about 20 people and can be closed off from the main dining area and used for meetings or classes.

Creating community connections
A rhizome is a root system that some plants use to spread themselves about. The plants send up shoots, which may appear to be individual sprouts, but they are in fact all connected. Similarly, Rhizome Café helps us realize that we are all connected by bringing people together to support common causes. The café teams up with socially progressive organizations and community groups to host events, forums, film screenings, workshops and live musical performances with a focus on socially progressive issues.

Hearty, Healthy Comfort Food
The menu at Rhizome features healthy, satisfying comfort food. The café specializes in soups and sandwiches with deluxe options like grilled basil turkey with caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms and melted cheese. Homemade soups are a hit, and the “Lentils are Everything” stew is a particularly big seller with its unique selling point: You “pay as you feel” for the dish. Hearty mains include the miso rice bowl, spicy Thai curry and tomato baked polenta, and the café appeases the starving artist crowd with macaroni and cheese and rice and beans. Weekend brunch is a real treat at Rhizome with dishes like “Salmon Eggs Rhizomedict,” featuring wild B.C. salmon, a homemade biscuit and special squash sauce. Organic and local ingredients are used whenever possible.