'A community living room'

To find ARCHR Coffee + Bakery, look for the building with the big X on it. The café is in Unit A150 of the Exchange Building at 20161 86 Avenue, right beside the Carvolth bus exchange, and one reviewer was pleasantly surprised to find such a cute spot tucked into an industrial area.

It's there because its owners lived nearby. ARCHR is run by husband-and-wife team Sunita and Arvin Bahri, who, according to Daily Hive, saw the need for a cozy café in their own neighbourhood and decided to combine their love of coffee and baked goods.

“Our goal was to create a community living room within walking distance of our home,” the team wrote on Instagram in its opening week, as quoted by Noms Magazine.

Ten years in the neighbourhood

On the café's website, the couple say they had lived in the community for 10 years before opening, and that they were thrilled to provide something that had been missing: “a community coffee shop, with locally supported food and drinks, that are high quality, and exciting, that represents British Columbia.”

ARCHR opened on Saturday, May 27, 2023, after what Daily Hive described as months of planning, building and recipe testing. The space, by Rodrigo Munguia of Trim Studio, has brick walls, concrete, wood and leather furniture, and a feature plant wall. To mark the day, the first 30 customers through the door got a free four-ounce cookie.

Arvin has called the café “a fun passion project.” In a 2025 Q&A with the Vancouver Guardian, he said the goal was “to connect and create a sense of community with the new and growing population of Langley.” His answer for the worst part of the job: “I can't live here!”

A menu that won't sit still

“It's fun, and changes all the time!” Arvin told the Guardian, and the menu proves it. ARCHR says some items rotate with the seasons or with availability, and that Instagram usually shows what's current. The espresso is from Elysian, roasted in Vancouver, and dessert-inspired seasonal lattes rotate through. Recent ones include sticky toffee pudding and Kinder Bueno.

There's a nitro tap, recently pouring a brown butter oat latte. The bakery case holds cinnamon buns, butter, chocolate and almond croissants, viral dot cakes and gluten-free muffins, plus cookies in rotating flavours such as salted honeycomb and Maltesers. According to Arvin, many of the pastries are made from scratch in-house, and the rest come from popular spots around BC: “We aim to be as local as we can with our products!”

'You'll see everyone in here'

Asked who his customers are, Arvin kept it short: “Anyone and everyone. You'll see everyone in here!” Google reviewers back him up. ARCHR has a 4.6-star rating, and one regular makes the trip from Coquitlam because “there's always one thing (or ten) that catch my attention.”

It's also a popular spot to work or study. The catch is the crowd: weekend late mornings are the busiest stretch, and one reviewer had to wait for a table. Not every review is glowing. One visitor found the coffee too bitter for their taste.

A lighter ARCHR for PoCo

The neighbourhood living room is getting a sibling. ARCHR announced on Instagram on September 23 that ARCHR PoCo is coming to 2961 Cambridge Street in Port Coquitlam in early 2027. “Poco isn't a copy and paste location,” the team wrote, as quoted by Noms Magazine. “It's the same Archr you know and love, just a little lighter.”

Langley keeps the original. Google lists hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends, though the website doesn't post hours, so check before you go. Parking on site is free. For office orders, give 48 hours' notice at hello@archrcoffee.com. Then look for the big X.

Photos: ARCHR Coffee + Bakery.