Vancouver Pilgrimage – Edwin’s Café

Address: Matteo’s Gelato, 2615 Mary Hill Rd, Port Coquitlam BC V3C 3A9

In episodes 2.06 and 2.09 we see filming of two key scenes take place at City Hall, Port Coquitlam. Later in each episode Edwin visits the same café. In reality Matteo’s Gelato is just two streets away from City Hall, so it makes logistical sense to film there on both occasions. The film crew did make an effort to make the two places look different – with mixed success.

Episode 2.06 is the only one of these two episodes that has an outside shot.

There is a behind the scenes shot from the outside too.

The noticeboard that Raelle and Tally discuss is not there in real life.

When Edwin first visits the café there are no curtains at the window, so we can see the army surveillance truck parked across the street. The is the view they would have had of the café.

In 2.06 there were no curtains at the windows. In 2.09 there were curtains. It niggled me as to which was ‘real’. There are curtains. Really.

Inside the café Tally, Edwin and Raelle are sitting at the second booth from the end wall.

The same booth used by Edwin and Scylla in 2.09.

The booths are no longer there and have been replaced by tables.

I may not have been able to sit in their actual booth, but I could have the table at the right spot and look out the window and imagine an army surveillance truck parked across the road.

The serving area was filmed quite creatively, to give different looks.

The TV is fake, it is not really there. It is possible that, with the extra shelving, that an actual TV was placed there, but it is definitely in the ‘coffee’ area.

The noticeboards are giving the prices of the various gelatos and coffees. Yes, they did do tea as well, so I was happy to sit there and eat gelato and drink a pot of tea.

If you look at the end wall, you can see two different colour schemes. When they filmed Edwin, Scylla and Quinn there is 2.09, they tried to film it differently and focused on the blue area rather than the red area.

The curtains and the gelato serving area are exactly as we see in this screengrab. But when I visited the lights behind the counter were switched on, even though it was bright sunshine. On screen the lights were switched off, to de-emphasise that area, so the focus was on the filming. Intelligent use of lighting was a real feature of several filming shoots.

When you order a gelato, you get a choice of a waffle cone or a cup, with a small plastic spoon. I chose the waffle cone. We didn’t get the choice of a glass and metal spoon, like Scylla had.