Welcome to Naked Cafe!

Naked has been around for about 30 years, and is one of the only remaining small locally-owned music venues and cafes in Edmonton. We’ve always been a place for anyone to come by and enjoy some music by local artists, just read or study, or join the conversation up at the coffee bar. We host musical artists all the time, and have our regular Thursday Open Stage, every week starting at 7pm.

Note: For the last year or so our front door has been locked (as is the case with several businesses on the block. We are open during our regular hours on the contact page – just knock and we’ll let you in.

What’s it like at Naked?

One of the things that I love about the cafe is that we’re all the same within it’s walls.

(That’s technically true anywhere, but very formally within them).

When you’re inside Naked, you can hang out and read, use your laptop, or drink coffee and do your homework.

You can also join in many lively conversations at the coffee bar. We discuss any topic that comes up, usually “issues of the day” etc. like people always talk about.  Sometimes conversations get heated and sometimes hilarious but always respectful.  Plus, with such a diverse crowd, we all have lots of questions to ask and things to learn if we want.

By “we’re all the same” I mean that as a “neighborhood cafe” we get to know our regulars, and it doesn’t matter if someone is a doctor, worker, ambulance driver, cabbie, unemployed, musician, etc. You never know who you’ll be sitting by.

The other night I was sitting there and chatting and all the stools at the counter were full. My husband and I, a doctor, a dancer, one of our regulars who’s transitioning, a road worker, some of our friends from Maskwacis, and a construction worker or two.

A lot of the “Naked Family” that have been around from the beginning remember when we were first evicted from Jasper Avenue by developers to make room for the “Entertainment District”. We weren’t the “kind” of people they wanted downtown.

Fish Griwkowsky did a great article on it back then. In a way, it was a symptom of the “downtown culture” of Edmonton, which has never really been about promoting locally owned small business.

This is a kind of business that you won’t see forever, so it’s a good time to introduce yourself at an open stage Thursday!

You can check the article out here.

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