For years, Duchess Cocktails (the flagship brand of Coupe Beverages) existed only on shelves—at BC Liquor Stores, independent shops and even its zero-proof duplicate, DuchessDry, in grocery aisles. After North Vancouver-raised CEO and founder Olivia Lovenmark-Hay (also one of our 2025 Women of the Year winners) grew the ready-to-drink cocktail brand into a profitable product line, she’s finally carved out a physical home for it: a café and tasting room built into the East Van factory where the bottled drinks are made.
“We’ve been wanting to do a tasting room for a really long time,” she says of transforming a former door factory into a café and event space fronting their East Van production facility. Self-funded and largely built by Lovenmark-Hay and her husband, the new room allows customers to “really shop the entire range” of Duchess products—from its 12 percent bottled cocktails (Cosmopolitan, Espresso Martini and Sangria among them) to its spirit-free offering, DuchessDry.
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There are “just three at the moment,” she says of the one-for-one non-alcoholic line-up—Lemon Drop, Cosmo and Margarita—“but we will always look to mirror the non-alc to the alc, so that you can have that one-for-one experience.”
The walls are drenched in millennial pink paint and animal print details show up in the decor—like the leopard print on a trio of decorative skateboards hanging on the walls, or the tiger-striped rug underneath a coffee table. Arched doorways separate the café space from its retail room, where customers can snag four-packs of the bottled beverages, along with cans of the brand’s newest offering: Duchess Spritz.
“Our concept is come get a coffee, get your favourite baked good, your sandwich,” says Lovenmark-Hay, “then come shop Duchess.”
The retail is set up so café-goers can mix and match items however they want: purchasing single cans, assembling their own four-pack or snagging a pre-packaged set from the company’s full lineup.
The catch: your bill, whether including coffee orders, tasting service and pastries, will stay gratuity-free.
Duchess Café is open daily at 1249 Adanac St.
