JACKED UP COFFEE
1973 and 1975 Citroën H Van
Jack Provan’s six-foot-two frame barely clears the back of his retrofitted Citroën H van-turned coffee truck — something he realized only after driving to Montreal in a snowstorm to scope out the vehicle he found on Kijiji. “The head clearance is just enough,” Provan says. “I think it’s six-foot-two-and-a-half inches.” For the van’s other dimensions, Provan blocked off the exact available working space in his basement apartment “in three different colours of masking tape” to perfect the flow of customers and placement of his equipment.
After a five-month renovation process, Provan pulled his first official espresso on Canada Day 2015, but struggled to find enough foot traffic. That winter, Jacked Up Coffee was invited to participate in the Yorkville Village Holiday Market, and Provan ended up with a somewhat permanent home for his truck in a laneway off Yorkville Ave. owned by retail development group First Capital.
The vehicle has made something of a handyman out of Provan. He recalls a time the truck was moved in order to place artificial grass on the surface underneath. “The brakes jammed up,” he says. “I had to get under the truck and pry open the brakes with my bare hands.” But Jacked Up Coffee’s success — and his partnership with First Capital — prompted Provan to refurbish another nearly identical vehicle, which began operating in June outside of West Elm in Liberty Village.
Provan is searching for a selling location for this second vehicle that’s better protected from the elements once cold weather arrives.