Maria's European Deli

Shaughnessy Street carries the city's older commercial core, the heritage strip that served as downtown when Port Coquitlam grew up around the CPR roundhouse. Independent food shops fit that streetscape well. A European-style delicatessen typically stocks the items a household cannot grab at a conventional checkout: cured meats and sausages, imported cheeses, breads, preserves and pantry goods chosen by someone who knows where they came from.

Maria's European Deli holds down a spot at 2541 Shaughnessy Street, in the Central neighborhood where City Hall and Prairie Avenue anchor the downtown. Port Coquitlam counts about 62,500 residents, and while most groceries flow through large banner stores, shops like this one serve shoppers who want something the big shelves do not carry, or who simply prefer buying food from a counter with a person behind it.

National chains and franchises are deliberately excluded, which is why a shop like this belongs here at all. For anyone living within a short walk or drive of the old downtown, an independent deli is a handy place to fill the gaps a supermarket misses, and a familiar counter often becomes part of a weekly round. The Traboulay PoCo Trail loops the city along riverbanks and greenbelts, and a counter stop pairs well with errands done on foot.