Some sit and watch TV while others gather in groups, chatting and knitting. The atmosphere is cozy and convivial - a sharp contrast to the chill outside.
Tables are set up for the Sunday night feast and in the back, Gianfranco Latrofa is whipping up homemade lasagna and gnocchi.
"It's like a family now," he says in an interview with the NOW. "We just sit at a big long table like this and have a family dinner together."
But this isn't your typical Sunday night family dinner - it's Nerd HQ's Dinner and Death event.
Nerd HQ, a group that started on Meetup.com, gathers at La Fontana Caffe twice a week. It is the descendant of other groups that formed to watch particular shows together, eventually shutting down after each show ran its course.
The café has hosted nerd groups on Friday nights for seven or eight years, Latrofa says, but it wasn't until a year ago that Nerd HQ formed.
"We usually had a group that focused on one kind of fandom - first, it was Battlestar. The group before Nerd HQ started was the Browncoats (fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly series)," he says. "The group was still going strong, it's just the organizer thought there was no more Browncoat stuff left to continue."
The Nerd HQ group came together when fellow organizer, Andrea Westaway, suggested they do something more all encompassing rather than focus on a particular show.
"Now it's kind of grown into a multi-headed beast," she says.
For Westaway, the group helped her connect with likeminded people in a new city.
"I haven't lived in town very long, so meeting people was what Meetup was for me," she explains. "So, when I came to the group and then the group died, I was like, I wonder how many people like myself are looking for people to meet? Because Vancouver isn't a particularly easy city to meet people just, you know, on the street. But if you come to Meetups like this, you'll find someone that has something in common with you."
Now, the group meets on Friday nights to watch sci-fi shows and movies, play board games and sing karaoke. They also make geek crafts on some Sunday afternoons - from knitting to bleached T-shirts - and have Nerds in Public outings to movies and other events.
And on Sunday evenings, members can pay $10 for a home cooked meal, and watch scary movies and TV shows with their friends.
Westaway's daily grind was completely changed by the group, she says.
"I went from literally going to work and coming home, going to work and coming home, when I first moved down here to, after I first starting going to Meetup, having such a vibrant social life," Westaway says. "I can't even imagine those old days any more. I have such a great group of friends."
While organizing the events is easy, she says, it can be hard to find content to watch every week, especially when TV seasons end.
The group watches Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Game of Thrones, Dr. Who and other popular series.
And when those end? They pull out sci fi and horror movies, including B movies, Westaway says.
"You should've seen how many people we had for Sharknado," she adds. "It was amazing."
According to fellow organizer Samantha Reeves, it was one of their most popular events.
"We had like 45 people show up for Sharknado day," she says.
Game of Thrones nights are also well attended, Reeves adds.
"It's fun too, because we'll get a group of people and we'll all sing the theme song to Game of Thrones as it's coming on," she says, humming along with Westaway.
The group attracts new members through www.meetup.com and keeps in touch with current members on Facebook, often sharing information about different shows and interests during the rest of the week, Reeves says.
"It's a continuation of the actual night events themselves," she explains.
Reeves prefers the inclusive nature of the Nerd HQ group, which was formed in October 2012, she says.
"I just like the fact that we encompass everything," Reeves says. "There are lots of different little groups and we like working with all of them and being open to everybody."
One of the best aspects of Nerd HQ, according to Latrofa, is seeing members who might not thrive in other social settings find a place for themselves.
"Some of our group are super shy, socially awkward a little bit, and then they come here and it's like a different world because they can talk to anybody in this world," he says. "We have people who would never say a peep in public and then they're singing karaoke here."
