Archival view showing the C.V.M. Café in its original appearance, Carberry, ca. 1900
Photo: Carberry Plains Archives, ca. 1900
- Built
- 1890
- Recognized
- 2007
- By
- Local government
The register’s text, word for word
Description
The two-storey C.V.M. Café, a long, narrow brick structure built in the late 1890s and later expanded and modified, is situated in Historic Downtown Carberry at the south end of a series of commercial facilities of similar age, construction and function. The municipal designation applies to the building and its deep lot.
Heritage value
The C.V.M. Café, a modest mixed-use brick structure adapted to serve for more than a half-century as a local eatery in Carberry, represents the kind of unpretentious dining facilities that are synonymous with many small-town main streets. The highly visible building also complements and supports one end of an intact row of pre-1900 commercial facilities that help define Carberry's historically designated business district. The cafe, established in the 1940s by, and named after, A.R. Calvert, W.H. Vopni and M.P. Menlove, began as a conventional western-style outlet, complete with a formal second-floor dining room. It later became a Chinese restaurant and coffee shop operated by the Kwan Yuen family, members of a long-standing line of local confectioners and restaurateurs. The Yuen's operation of the C.V.M. recalls an important Prairie tradition: the small-town Chinese restaurant. Nearly every small urban centre in Manitoba boasted a Chinese restaurant (and many still do), a source of mildly exotic food in an otherwise conventional North American market of dining-out cuisine.
SourceTown of Carberry By-law No. 5/2006, June 12, 2007
Character‑defining elements
Key elements that define the heritage character of the C.V.M. Café site include:
- the prominent location at the south end of a continuous row of pre-1900 commercial structures on the east side of Main Street between Third and Fourth avenues in Historic Downtown Carberry
- the building's placement, abutting the front public sidewalk and the Moon Apartment Building to the north, and extending nearly the full depth of the lot to the rear
- the building's physical, visual and historical connections to nearby designated structures
Key elements that define the structure's unpretentious exterior character include:
- the long, narrow, two-storey rectangular form, of brick construction, with a flat roofline, high front parapet and one-storey rear extensions, including a flat-roofed section and a concrete-block addition
- the front (west) facade's recessed off-centre main door and three, evenly spaced upper-storey windows
- the construction materials and modest details, including the brown-red finish brick under modern metal cladding, stepped brick side parapets, tall brick chimney, etc.
- the bold front signage displaying the name 'C.V.M. CAFE'
Key internal elements that define the building's heritage character and mixed-use functions include:
- the practical two-part layout, including the main floor's open front space with a high ceiling and rear kitchen and work area, the side stairwell to the basement and the upstairs living quarters
- the serviceable cafe finishes, fixtures and furnishings, including counters, a wood-and-glass display case, etc.
End of the register’s text
Location
24 Main Street, Carberry, Manitoba, Canada
49.86968° N, 99.35525° W
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From the Canadian Register of Historic Places, as last updated on December 12, 2025. The register’s text is shown word for word.