Nemesis Coffee

Order at the counter, then look up. Nemesis works on the idea that a coffee bar can be a piece of architecture as much as a place to buy an espresso, and its Vancouver rooms are built to that brief, with roasting on show and a pastry case supplied by the company's own bakehouse.

A coffee company, not a single room

Nemesis runs more than one Vancouver address, Gastown and Great Northern Way among them, under the line Coffee Creating Culture, with baristas, chefs and creatives on the same team. The result is a hybrid rather than a chain of identical counters: cafes with commercial kitchens behind them, room for events, and coffee production visible instead of hidden in a back unit. A visit is counter-led, so you order, wait by the bar and find a seat, but the scale of the rooms means it rarely feels like a transaction even when it is a quick one.

The Great Northern Way pavilion

The flagship is worth the detour. Completed in 2020 with Perkins&Will as architects, alongside PCI Developments and Low Tide Properties, the Great Northern Way building is a bright red curvilinear pavilion whose form comes from flower-blossom geometry: ten timber petals clad in red composite-aluminium shingles, fabric fins radiating from an oculus to diffuse the light and soften the acoustics, exposed birch plywood warming the walls and ceiling, and low-iron glass that puts the roastery on full display. It was conceived as destination retail rather than as a tenancy, which is why it reads more like a public building than a shop.

What to order

Start with the pastry case, because the baking has its own identity through Dope Bakehouse. The Classic Butter Croissant, the Pain au Chocolat and The Queen are the three house bakes to anchor an order. On the coffee side, the retail names map the range: an everyday filter, the Nemesis signature, and a single-origin Ethiopian for anyone who wants the brighter end. With a commercial kitchen in play, the food goes beyond pastry into savoury cooking, so the same counter covers a quick flat white and a plate eaten sitting down, which is rare for a room that still calls itself a coffee bar. Nemesis was ranked 15th in The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops in 2026.