A childhood spent in her family's Vancouver café planted a dream for Fiona Kei. More than 30 years later, she has brought that dream to Ladner Village with THRE3 CO., a new neighbourhood café built around connection, comfort and community.
By Robert Skinner | Delta City News | September 05, 2026
You can Subscribe for Free To Delta City News: Click Here!
Some businesses begin with a market study or an available storefront. For Fiona Kei, the story behind THRE3 CO. reaches back more than 30 years — to afternoons spent in her family's Vancouver café watching her father make coffee and getting to know the customers.
Now, that early experience has come full circle in Ladner Village.
Fiona founded THRE3 CO. in 2026 as a neighbourhood café built around three things: coffee, food and connection. But behind the new Ladner business is a much older family story.
In 1995, Fiona's family opened a café on Granville Street in Vancouver called Green Zebra. As a youngster, she spent afternoons there after school, helping out, watching her father prepare coffee and observing the small details that turn a café into a gathering place.
At the time, she says she didn't realize how much those experiences would stay with her.
Looking back today, Fiona sees them as the beginning of a dream that eventually became THRE3 CO.
Inside THRE3 CO. in Ladner Village, where founder Fiona Kei has created a café around the ideas of connection, comfort and community.
Beginning in 2023, Fiona says she spent considerable time visiting cafés around Ladner.
She found many beautiful spaces but continued looking for something she felt was missing: a place where people could genuinely settle in, relax and stay awhile without feeling rushed.
Eventually, she decided to create it herself.
THRE3 CO. combines influences from Asian café culture and modern Western coffee culture, bringing together specialty coffee, signature drinks, pastries and comfort food in a contemporary neighbourhood setting.
The menu includes espresso-based drinks, matcha, croffles, toast, pastries and other café offerings, but Fiona's concept goes beyond what is served across the counter.
She wanted to create a place where mornings begin, friends meet, people work, families gather and someone can simply take a quiet break from the day.
Even the name THRE3 CO. is personal.
For Fiona, the number three represents her birthday, her three children and memories shared by her family growing up in Vancouver.
It also represents the three values she has placed at the centre of the business:
Connection. Comfort. Community.
Those ideas carry through to the design of the café.
One of its most distinctive interior features is a large tree. Fiona says it represents growth and serves as a reminder that worthwhile things require time, patience and care before they fully bloom.
It's a fitting symbol for a business idea that took decades to find its way from a childhood spent in her family's café to a new home in Ladner Village.
PAY IT FORWARD ☕️ Buy a Coffee. Share a Little Kindness.
Independent cafés occupy an interesting place in a community.
People may initially walk through the door for coffee or something to eat, but the businesses that endure often become informal meeting places — somewhere to meet a friend, conduct a little business, catch up with a neighbour or simply sit for a while.
That appears to be the role Fiona wants THRE3 CO. to play.
Her objective isn't simply to sell another cup of coffee. She wants customers to associate the café with a feeling of warmth, comfort and familiarity — somewhere they want to return to.
For a new business, whether that vision succeeds will ultimately be decided by customers over time. But Fiona has clearly thought carefully about the kind of business she wants THRE3 CO. to become.
And in a village built in large part around independent businesses and personal relationships, that makes THRE3 CO. an interesting new addition to Ladner's evolving business community.
Ladner Village has long depended on independent businesses to create the character that distinguishes it from a conventional shopping centre.
A new independently operated café adds another gathering place to the village while bringing a fresh concept influenced by Fiona's family history and both Asian and Western café traditions.
THRE3 CO. also represents something important in local economic development: an entrepreneur choosing to invest in Ladner Village and attempting to create something specifically designed around the community she serves.
The impact of a neighbourhood café can extend well beyond coffee and food.
Businesses like THRE3 CO. contribute to pedestrian activity, create reasons for people to spend time in the village and can help neighbouring retailers by bringing additional visitors into the commercial district.
For Fiona, however, the ambition is even simpler: create a place where people feel comfortable enough to slow down, connect and come back.
After a dream that can be traced to her family's café in 1995, THRE3 CO. is now Fiona Kei's opportunity to build that place in Ladner.
Business: THRE3 CO.
Founder: Fiona Kei
Established: 2026
Location: Ladner Village, Delta, BC
Address: 5058 48th Ave.
Category: Café / Food & Beverage
Specialties: Specialty coffee, matcha, signature drinks, croffles, pastries, toast and comfort food
Core Values: Connection, Comfort, Community
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thre3_co/
Delta City News is building a growing collection of Business Profiles celebrating the entrepreneurs, professionals and organizations that help shape our local economy and community.
Know a business with a story worth telling? Contact Delta City News and tell us about it.
Robert Skinner - Publisher
Delta City News — Licensed Partner of the WBN News Network
Robert is a Ladner-based business systems developer and Publisher of Delta City News. Connect with Robert on: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rlskinner/
You can Subscribe for Free To Delta City News: Click Here!
Also Please Note: We're Looking For Citizen Journalists
If you have a passion for your community in any category, food, sports, lifestyle and would like to help tell your Delta's stories, we'd love to hear from you. Part-time contributor opportunities are available, and ChatGPT-assisted journalism training is provided if desired for qualified applicants.
Apply To Be A News Contributor Here
#Delta City News #Delta BC #Ladner Village #Local Business #Business Profile #THRE3 CO. #Coffee #Cafe #Food and Drink #Community