Behind the coffee bar inside Bluebird, there is a black-and-white montage of photographs that goes from the floor to the ceiling.
“This is all friends and family just out enjoying the mountains dating back to the early 90s,” Bluebird co-owner Mandy Michals told The Squamish Chief.
Brian Michals, husband to Mandy and co-owner, pinpoints some of the folks in the montage: the couple’s daughter, several friends, and, of course, the two of them.
“It just really depicts how much fun it is to go out there,” said Mandy. “Not just being in the mountains, but being with your friends, your family.”
The new coffee bar and rental shop hopes to bring a little bit of that family and mountain magic to the Squamish community.
Having opened in October 2023 and situated on the ground floor of the Jumar building on Buckley Avenue, Bluebird is part coffee bar, with coffee from Kingha Coffee and Habit Coffee Club, and part ski and snowboard rental and tuning shop.
And while winter seems to have just hit the Sea to Sky Corridor for a little longer, they also sell, rent and service Rad Power Bikes, following a successful demo day with the e-bikes in October.
“You can come here. You can rent a really cool ski and go wreck it on the worst year ever,” Brian said with a laugh, referring to the less-than-favourable snow conditions throughout the corridor over the season.
But, more than anything, the Michals want the business to have that family feel to it.
“We want more of a welcoming kind of gathering place where we can talk about things that bring us together [whether] that'd be coffee, skiing, snowboarding,” said Brian.
Even having spent over the last decade in Squamish, the two said starting the business has helped them feel more rooted in the community. In turn, they said the community has responded wholeheartedly to their new endeavour.
“The community has been super supportive,” said Brian.
And even the mostly subpar snow season hasn’t deterred people from checking out the place, said Mandy.
“People are still coming in. There's ebbs and flows, but it's been so positive. It really reinforces how great this community is,” she said.
Already hosting community events, they’ve held movie premieres on a massive projector screen and helped with a breast cancer fundraiser. They said they certainly plan on doing more of those types of events and are always creatively thinking about hosting other events and activities.
Needless to say, they want to have fun too.
“Just continue growing within the community as much as possible, having as much fun while doing it,” said Brian.
In the long-term, Mandy said they hope they become a must-see stop in an already must-see Squamish.
“It's fantastic,” Mandy said of Squamish. “Everybody knows that, but to become a cool destination within a cool destination is just the ideal.”
Bluebird is open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. Check out more information about the business, including pricing and menu, at noclouds.ca.
New business openings are a regular beat for reporter Andrew Hughes. If you are a brand new business that would like to be considered for a story, write to [email protected].
