Experience the best from Vancouver, BC

Story No.61 thru' the lens of my coffee amigo Ievgen

What a way to jumpstart this New Year 2024! I took a brief pause for the past 3-4 weeks during holidays wondering what direction I should take for ‘Cafelogues & Coffee Kintsugi’ here on Substack.

After a brief of contemplation, I hit on this idea of guest authors sharing their equally fascinating coffee journeys across the globe. Super excited to present to you one of the biggest Coffee Nerds and a great coffee mate

Ievgen Kasian

, who works & lives in The Netherlands. Both of us share several common interests beyond coffee: Indie Rock Music, Japan, World History & Politics, Travel, to name a few. Ievgen was on a vacation to his hometown Vancouver, BC (British Columbia) and has shared stories about these three gorgeous coffee places. Let’s hear it in his own words:

Hey folks, excited to share with you some of the mainstays as well as hidden gems of the Lower Mainland coffee world.

Let’s start with the crowd’s favourite Vancouver’s one and only, Revolver! Revolver Coffee has an amazing urban ambience with a wide selection of pour over and espresso-based coffees, they also sell beans from all around the world. The owners are Giannakos family and is owned by three brothers and their parents. For Giannakos family coffee is truly a family affair since they have been in coffee related business for many decades.

Revolver is located in the heart of Gastown area of Vancouver and truly represents its name since they continuously rotate or “revolve” a variety of roasters and keeping it fresh and interesting since 2011!

The second beloved mainstays of Vancouver coffee scene is Timbertrain Coffee. These guys are going for a much more minimalistic, modern, and clean Nordic look while still being very inviting. Now boasting several locations, they have also started in the iconic Gastown neighbourhood of Vancouver. They offer a huge line up of in house freshly roasted beans that can satisfy the pickiest coffee enthusiasts in both espresso and brewed varieties. The owners of Timbertrain are super hip couple of friends who quit their daily jobs and incessantly pursued their dream of roasting and selling their coffee, and now they are legends on BC coffee scene!

But my favourite newly discovered and truly hidden gem of a coffee place during this trip was Oldhand Coffee in Abbotsford, BC. Abby is a rural area on the outskirts of Vancouver and not a place that you would expect a world class coffee and yet these guys really pulled it off!

Firstly, their ambiance is on point being really rustic and west coast and I love it creates a great contrast with many more minimalist establishments. Once you enter apart from warmth of amazing staff and hygge decor it will be the smell of freshly baked goods that will lure you in.

They have probably the best lemon blueberry scones that I have had in my life that are baked in house daily and their staff is extremely knowledgeable about coffee and usually have 4-5 varieties of beans of pour over to go along the scones just perfectly.The owners have deep understanding of local community, amazing coffee and great vibes!

If you are ever in Vancouver and want a break from city hustle and bustle definitely stop by Oldhand Coffee.

‘Brews Bros’ saying Arriverderci for now!