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Smoking Gun of Chilliwack just named best new coffee shop in Vancouver

Chilliwack café and roastery in District 1881 won 3 Snobby Awards from Vancouver Coffee Snob
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Brandon Litun owner of Smoking Gun Coffee Roasters outside his café and roastery on Jan. 4, 2022. (Jennifer Feinberg/ Chilliwack Progress) Brandon Litun, owner of Smoking Gun Coffee Roasters outside his café and roastery on Jan. 4, 2022. (Jennifer Feinberg/ Chilliwack Progress)

Smoking Gun Coffee Roasters of Chilliwack was named the best new coffee shop in Vancouver.

Yes, best of Vancouver, in Chilliwack!

Smoking Gun, just east of Five Corners in District 1881, took the top spot in the 2021 Snobby Awards for Best New Coffee Shop.

“Yeah they’re in Chilliwack, and yeah it takes several days to drive there from Vancouver, plus you’re definitely going to need a boat to get past Whatcom road. But it’s so worth the trip,” according to Tom Fitzgerald, who writes the Vancouver Coffee Snob blog. “It’s a bloody awesome coffee shop and you should add it to your list of must-visits.”

The Chilliwack roastery and café garnered the highest number of votes for the best coffee shop that opened in 2021, among the more than 7,000 votes cast in the online contest.

“It’s been a true honour to watch Brandon, the owner of Smoking Gun, grow this business from a small popup-esque couple of venues, to this full brick-and-mortar shopfront (literally, it’s made of bricks),” wrote Fitzgerald.

The owner opened the doors to the coffee shop in Chilliwack’s new District 1881 in September 2021.

The annual awards from the Vancouver Coffee Snob blog, also saw Smoking Gun slide into fourth place in the Top 10 Best Roasters category, and seventh for the Best Coffee Shop overall.

Smoking Gun owner Brandon Litun was feeling the love this week. Asked why he thought they did so well in the awards, he said there’s “no magic” formula in his “small but mighty” coffee shop with roasting on-site. He credited the coffee community for showing up, and his awesome staff.

“We do our best with every batch of coffee, which is roasted in small batches,” Litun said. “We are throwing our vibes into it.”

Making the top 10 of roasters, alongside with his heroes, is “nothing short of a dream come true, let alone 4th place,” he added.

The VancouverCoffeeSnob.com asked readers who love all things coffee to weigh in with their votes on Dec. 13. The results were announced last week over several days starting on Dec. 27.

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Brendan Litun, owner of Smoking Gun Coffee Roasters, preparing a coffee order on Jan. 4, 2022. (Jennifer Feinberg/ Chilliwack Progress)


Jennifer Feinberg

About the Author: Jennifer Feinberg

I have been a Chilliwack Progress reporter for 20+ years, covering the arts, city hall, as well as Indigenous, and climate change stories.
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