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Matriarch of  beloved DTES diners soldiers on 

Grace Chen has established an iconic reputation in the Downtown Eastside by leading Save on Meats and the Ovaltine Cafe through personal and professional adversity

April 3, 2025

Grace Chen and the Ovaltine Cafe are a testament to resilience and relationships. Through an escalating overdose crisis, the upheaval of COVID-19, an arson fire and the loss of her mother last year, Chen — alongside her daughter and the staff she calls “family”— have kept the doors open. 

In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, where businesses disappear far more often than they emerge, Chen’s unwavering commitment stands out, much like the café’s neon lights. Regular customers marvel at her dedication: keeping prices low, looking out for her staff and holding onto a piece of the neighbourhood’s history. 

But beneath that strength lies a story of sacrifice, endurance and a deep love of community. 

In January, Megaphone sat down with Chen to understand what keeps her going — and how she defines success in a place where survival is its own kind of victory. 

For more than 25 years, Chen has established an iconic reputation in this Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, first taking over the Save-On-Meats diner at 43 W. Hastings St. in 1999, despite her limited English.  

Chen holds a university degree from Beijing, where she’s from, with a major in psychology. Her first language is Mandarin. As with many new Canadians, English language struggles prevented her from continuing her academic studies. 

When she first arrived from Beijing, she felt aimless for a short time, but her mother encouraged her. She was not suited to an ordinary job, her mother told her. She was a leader. 

The Save On Meats diner was just the opportunity she was waiting for — it was looking for a new owner and Chen was ready to step in. 

But there was a catch. Chen needed to learn English — and how to cook. 

“When people said, ‘No mayo,’ I didn’t know what they meant,” Chen laughed.  

Chen ran the diner until 2009, and in 2014, purchased the Ovaltine, which had been a neighbourhood fixture since the 1940s. Its retro vibe is appealing to locals, historians, and film and TV crews, with the café being the site of numerous productions, including The X-Files, Supernatural and I Robot. 

As soon as she was old enough, Chen’s daughter Rachel joined her at the café. The mother-daughter duo became legendary for serving large portions of wholesome food at the lowest possible price. As Rachel told Megaphone in 2015, it was years before Chen raised her prices by even 50 cents. 

Low prices remain a core value. Chen says she raised some prices last month — by $1. The classic cheeseburger is now $11. So is the cheese omelette. To maintain these prices, Chen has to shop carefully, often three times a week, tracking down the best deals.  

Chen’s compassion goes further than low prices. It extends to the people she serves. She says she likes to listen to her customers’ stories. It helps her learn English, while helping her customers feel seen and heard. Chen rarely takes a day off. Rachel says her mom worries that her regular customers would not eat that day if she was gone. 

Café serves up compassion 

After 25 years at 251 E. Hastings St., Chen finds the neighbourhood’s decline disheartening. Today, nine years after B.C. declared a public health emergency over the opioid crisis, and with homelessness on the rise, the challenges feel more relentless than ever. 

“We hope everything gets better,” said Chen. “There’s more homeless, more dirt in the alley, break-ins in the garbage [bins] and garbage everywhere.”  

Opening the restaurant is a daily challenge, as people frequently shelter in the doorway. 

“When we open the door, [people sheltering] say, ‘We’ll move, we’ll move.’ Most people do, but some people [who are not from the neighbourhood] say, ‘For what?’ and I say, ‘This is the Ovaltine!’ And they say, ‘We don’t care.’” 

In May 2023, an arson fire broke out at the back of the Ovaltine Cafe. Although Chen’s daughter later shared in a news interview that they didn’t feel specifically targeted, the damage was extensive. The café closed for seven months, reopening just in time for Christmas. 

That year, Chen travelled to China to visit her ailing mother, who passed away shortly after. During her visit, Chen’s mom offered her support. 

“She knew I wanted to reopen,” Chen recalled. 

Chen’s mother had been a key part of the café’s beginnings, and in her final days, played a crucial role in its revival. 

When asked whether she ever felt the fire could have been the end of the Ovaltine, Chen says it never crossed her mind.  

“A lot of customers ask me that,” she said. “But I was just thinking, OK, we really quickly need to re-open, because a lot of people were relying on the restaurant to open.” 

Another key figure in the Ovaltine’s survival is Kristin Larson, a former staff member who stepped up after the fire to help raise funds for the rebuild. She created a GoFundMe page that raised more than $19,000 for the cause. 

While Chen’s daughter Rachel has stepped back from her role as an active co-owner, she continues to pitch in whenever needed. 

Another constant presence at the café is Matthew, who has been part of the wait staff for nine years. 

Chen prioritizes taking care of her staff and the community over herself. She says she often doesn’t take home a wage, and relies on family for personal necessities.  

Having passed age 60, Chen remains tenacious and courageous, prioritizing her staff and community over herself. When asked about the government’s role in addressing the challenges of the Downtown Eastside, she says simply that they need to do better. She thinks about the tenants, who live in SROs above the café. They have no kitchens and not enough money to eat at the Ovaltine. (She feeds them anyway). Even a modest increase in welfare and disability rates, Chen said, would mean additional customers and more people for her to support and listen to. Better treatment options for substance use disorder would also mean more people would be able to eat healthy food instead of using toxic drugs.  

In the meantime, Chen has other ideas for the future, including Ovaltine merchandise, catering and even a restaurant school. As she said in a TV interview on the reopening of the Ovaltine Cafe, her vision for her restaurant is “Stronger! Bigger! Better!”   

James Witwicki is a prolific writer and has been published numerous times in the magazine and Voices of the Street, and works as a copy editor for Megaphone magazine as part of The Shift peer newsroom. 

Published in Megaphone magazine on April 4, 2025