Bam Bam: Fried Chicken, Donuts and Future Nostalgia in Downtown Vancouver

In Downtown Vancouver, Bam Bam brings together fried chicken, housemade donuts, cinnamon rolls and coffee in a bright, colourful space built around nostalgia. Created by the team behind Nemesis Coffee, it is the kind of place where you can grab a chicken sandwich before a hockey game, stop in for a donut and a matcha, or sink into one of the silver couches and stay awhile.

An Underdog Name for a Coffee Family

To understand Bam Bam, you have to go back to Nemesis, the specialty coffee company led by founder and CEO Jess Reno. “A lot of our owners come from smaller neighbourhoods in the East End,” explains Tim Tumbagahan, general manager, who you may also recognize from the Nemesis café in Gastown. “We don’t come from a lot of money.”

That starting point helped shape Bam Bam. The name comes from old Americana slang for an underdog in boxing, a fitting reference for a team that sees its story as one of starting small and building slowly.

The project is led by Reno alongside director of operations Albert Tang, and takes much of what the group has learned through Nemesis into a completely different register. There is still the same attention to detail, but here the focus shifts toward fried chicken sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, donuts and cinnamon rolls.

“We’re taking the same amount of effort that we put into everything that we’ve done in the past,” says Tim.

Childhood Flavours, Turned Up

Nostalgia runs through the menu.

The team looked to familiar flavours from childhood and found ways to bring them into Bam Bam without making them feel overly precious. The strawberry chocolate milk might be the clearest example. It brings together the two classic Nesquik flavours in one glass, inspired by the kind of thing many of us mixed together as kids.

In the kitchen, executive chef Mielye Mitchell leads the savoury side of the menu, while executive pastry chef Kevin Lucas oversees the sweets. Fried chicken and donuts are at the heart of it all. If it is your first visit, the easiest move is the Bam Bam combo, which gives you a little bit of everything: a chicken sandwich, a donut, a drink and a side of potato sticks.

Most of the donut flavours have been around since opening, with one or two changing when the pastry team feels like trying something new. They are displayed on small stands behind the counter, making it particularly difficult to leave with just one.

We also really liked the matcha. Enough that we came back for it.

Future Nostalgia

The team uses the words “future nostalgia” to describe Bam Bam, and the idea makes sense as soon as you walk in. After years of cafés leaning into restrained Japanese and Scandinavian minimalism, Bam Bam goes in the opposite direction. The space, designed with McKinley Studios, is colourful, playful and deliberately maximalist.

There is an entirely orange washroom, silver couches, a metal bar, speakers suspended above the seating and large-scale works by artist Filipp Jenikae facing each other across the room.

One section of the space is washed in pale blue and dedicated to clothing, giving it an almost shop-within-a-shop feeling.

“We’re sort of just trying to overload the senses,” Tim says laughing.

And yet the room never feels stiff. The couches, low seating and friendly team keep it relaxed. It is easy to stop in quickly, but just as easy to lose an hour there.

Fried Chicken Before the Game

Bam Bam’s Downtown location makes it especially easy to work into a day in the neighbourhood. Rogers Arena, BC Place and several theatres are all nearby.

The project also extends beyond food.

Bam Bam’s first clothing collection was co-designed by Reno and Kali Gill-Desjardins and features the bulldog that has become part of the brand’s visual identity. While brands such as Kith and Maison Kitsuné moved from fashion into food, Bam Bam is taking the reverse route, starting with restaurants and coffee and slowly making its way into retail.

Come for the fried chicken sandwich. Add a donut. Order the strawberry chocolate milk if nostalgia gets the better of you, or the matcha if it doesn’t.

Bam Bam is playful, generous and a little over the top, exactly as intended.

Written by Fabie Lubin
Photography by Scott Usheroff (Craving Curator)

Updated on October 28, 2026

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