Cookie and Lemonade at Tractor

We were Looking for a nice, quiet, place downtown to have a late evening meeting, and boy is it tricky. If the eateries nearby Burrard Skytrain Station weren't noisy with the buzz of conversation, they were noisy with music. There's a 24/7 Tim Hortons where Bread Garden (and later BG Cafe) used to be and honestly that was a pretty decent choice except some of us wanted "real food". So we wandered into Tractor.

It's about 7:30 pm on a Tuesday evening, and it's pretty much dead. Which means you've got the whole place to yourself -- hurrah! And for the next two hours, we have our peace and quiet and privacy for a little writers' meeting.

The place itself is bright and white -- which means if it isn't clean, you'll spot it right away. Since we were the only ones there, they were kind enough to turn down the music a bit for our meeting. The high ceiling gives this place a suddenly-bigger-than-I-thought experience despite what you might think from the doorway as a pedestrian walking by.

For just a snack, I opted for their housemade lemonade and a gluten-free cookie. (It's 7.30pm and the place is dead quiet -- did I dare opt for food that was prepared for the long-gone dinner rush? Would it have been fair to rate them based on that?)

Blueberry Mint Lemonade ($3)

• One of three options.
• For $3 you get what looks like a Starbucks venti-sized glass basically filled to the brim with chilled lemonade. No cheating with ice as a filler either.
• Not too sharp like a lemonade. Not minty enough (for my taste, anyway) to qualify for the word "mint" in the name.

Gluten-Free Cookie ($2.50)

• Had so many adjectives I honestly can't remember them all except chocolate and pistachio.
• Wow was this a decent cookie. Size is OK for a "gourmet cookie".
• Chocolate and pistachio both came through. And they'd better because the thing looked dense with nuts.
• Felt a bit fudgy-chewy. Not much of a cookie-crumb mess here. Can I give bonus points for that?
• If you want a firmer cookie, throw it in the fridge. Still not much of a crumbly mess but it will be firmer and have good crunch.
• Each pack has two thin cookies, adding up to a single thick cookie.
• Gluten-free. So no flour? Look at it closely and you'll realize it's more like a chocolate bar dense with nuts, rather than a cookie.

It's "cafeteria style" so you buy at the counter and someone cleans up after you leave. In between, there's no table service. If you don't need to be waited on hand and foot, this is actually good for downtown because you get to sit down and not have to tip. (Is that cheating?)