On a warm Friday afternoon, Atlas Café begins to hum with activity. A bartender preps her station and servers bustle between tables, adjusting cutlery.
Just around the corner, the Sid Williams Theatre has a show on tonight, which means a pre-theatre crowd is likely to start streaming in for dinner.
The woman behind the Atlas Cafe
Sandra Viney, one of the café’s founders, walks in and greets a regular at the bar before taking a peach-coloured cocktail from the bartender. It’s a non-alcoholic elderflower concoction; the main ingredient is sourced from a staff member’s farm on Salt Spring Island.
Around here Viney’s known as “Pants” because she runs the show, and has for 30 years—with a unique management style she says is the key to the restaurant’s longevity.
She explains, “There is no hierarchy. We are all one, and everyone within the wheel is important for the whole.” Viney sees the Atlas team as a family, adding, “Being seen leads to being valued, and a place of belonging.”
Three decades of downtown dining success
This philosophy has served Atlas Café well. Earlier this year, the downtown institution marked 30 years in business, no small feat in a town where dining trends come and go. “My heart nearly exploded,” Viney shares, recalling the celebration that included staff and loyal customers.
Viney grew up in Australia, where she met Trent McIntyre, now her business partner and co-owner. At the time he was enrolled in a hospitality program. The two soon started travelling the world together—a journey that would shape the foundation of Atlas.
“We wrote down all our favourite foods from our travels,” she says. “We were all over the map and so I thought, ‘Maybe call it Atlas?’” McIntyre’s favourite cuisine was Italian, Viney delighted in Middle Eastern, and they both loved Mexican.
These flavours now feature heavily on the Atlas menu, though with their own unique flair. “We do our own versions—we’re not traditionalists,” she says.
From Dutch coffeehouse to culinary destination
When their travels brought them to the Comox Valley, Viney and McIntyre had a vision of opening a European-style café in the foothills of Mount Washington, surrounded by local farms that could supply fresh seasonal ingredients.
In 1995, Atlas Café opened its doors in the same location where it stands today. Its first incarnation was a Dutch-inspired coffeehouse with backgammon boards, a pool table, and a menu shaped by Viney’s veganism, featuring plant-based options, fresh fruit shakes, and juices such as spinach, pear, ginger, and lemon.
But Courtenay wasn’t ready for late-night juices and vegan wraps. “At first we stayed open until midnight,” she says. “It took us a year to realize there was nothing open after 8 p.m., so we had to adjust.” The adjustment included adding steak to the menu, which quickly turned Atlas into a popular date-night destination.
Bringing in the next generation
Eventually, Viney and McIntyre persuaded their nephews, Slone and Zane Romano, to join the business as co-owners and co-head chefs.
Both came from Vancouver hospitality backgrounds, Zane from Nuba, known for its focus on Lebanese and Middle Eastern dishes, and Slone from The Chickadee Room, a cocktail bar in the city’s Chinatown. The Romano brothers “love to work with that Middle Eastern profile, the international spices and flavours,” Viney explains.
Having the co-owners in the kitchen is a major factor in Atlas’ success, she thinks. “They set the tone for quality and consistency.”
International flavours meet local ingredients
They also believe in variety. Atlas’ offerings range from falafels and tacos filled with sockeye and cod to spaghetti vongole and a Mediterranean platter. There’s a daily fresh sheet that showcases ingredients from local farms used in innovative ways (for example, “Shamrock Farms sweet soy tare with roasted turnip-top and ginger chimichurri, scallion, and toasted sesame”).
The ever-evolving menu is “an opportunity to really get creative,” Viney notes. One menu item, though, has never budged. “The chicken focaccia is the OG,” she says proudly.
Community food security
Her passion for food extends beyond being a restaurateur. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many services shut down and vulnerable individuals lost access to meals, Viney was part of a small group of business owners and community leaders who responded.
“With food programs where people normally gathered—such as the food bank and soup kitchen-style social meal providers—shutting their doors, vulnerable people didn’t know where to turn,” she recalls.
Working with LUSH Valley Food Action Society, a local non-profit focused on food security, Viney and other business owners and community leaders supported the distribution of the Good Food Box, an affordable, large grocery bag of locally grown veggies, fruit and eggs sourced from nearly 40 Comox Valley farms.
Viney’s spirit of community is woven into the fabric of Atlas Café. “The most radical activism we can do is lean into community and support our very own,” says Viney, who sees the café as more than just a place to eat. “It always comes back to the table, the place where we can connect.”
