Café Neve

Café Névé, on the corner of rue Rachel and rue de Bullion, is first notable for the rainbow-coloured graffiti that dominates the wall on its rue Rachel side. Inside, the pervasive smell of coffee will make any café lover feel at home. “We looked at a lot of different places before deciding on this one,” explains owner Gabriel Rousseau. “It used to be J.R. bike shop and it still had that vibe when we walked in. The co-owner, Luke Spicer, and I are both cyclists so we loved the feel of the place right from the start.”

That was in 2009 when there was a real lack of quality coffee shops in the area. “We’d hoped to find a place around here. We did all the construction and re-fitting ourselves, so there was very low overhead.”

Luke and Gabe had both spent most of their lives working in third-wave coffee shops so Gabe considers it a natural progression that they went on to own one. “We’re both very social people so in the first six months, this place ran on our friends. Word-of-mouth spread and we became more and more popular.”