by Andrew Morrison | Five years ago this week, I took a look inside a Gastown construction site that was cloudy with dusty promise. The place would soon become a ridiculously popular, incredibly pretty, totally macked-out cafe called Nelson The Seagull, home of fabulous avo toast and very good coffee.

Until today, when I opened the door and walked into the construction site, I’d assumed it was a clothing store landing at 315 Carrall (the old Brickyard location). Imagine my surprise when I learned that Nelson The Seagull was going to be a bakery and cafe from a triumvirate of young South Africans (one of whom went to my alma mater, the lovely University of Cape Town). Jodie Balfour and siblings Jonathan and Lee seem genuinely super keen to do something a little different from everyone else and on making the neighbourhood just a little bit better, one coffee and ciabatta loaf at a time.

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