Discovering Coffee Hideaways Part I - Gene
Main Street is known for its mix of eclectic and local shops and galleries, and Gene, located on the corner of Kingsway and Main, is no exception.
Gene has quite a simple, no non-sense design: bare blue painted floors, school stack-able chairs, and plain wooden bench tables. Shaped in a triangle, two of the three walls are full of windows, allowing sunlight to fill the coffee shop. It’s quite a cool, casual, and inspiring place to grab a drink and write a blog post.
Their coffee is all fairtrade and organic, something quite common in Vancouver coffee shops now. I ordered a simple mocha this time (no, I didn’t customize my Starbucks usual 2 pump hazelnut, 2 pump white chocolate white mocha this time) and it was quite an authentic mocha. It was quite bitter, but knowing it was a REAL mocha was nice. They served it in a ceramic cup topped with a heart-like latte art. Like The Boulevard at UBC, they mastered the perfect temperature, not too hot but not cold at all.
A glimpse of downtown, at street-level, and beautiful flowers to look at. What’s not to like? It’s a great location, a block away from Broadway on Main and Kingsway with easy access to many electric trolleys and the 99 B-Line. Too bad it’s far away from my house, but this coffee shop is definitely worth while visiting.
PS: I love how I’m posting this in the middle of a lecture.
