Bloom Bakery and Cafe is setting up shop at the former Blenz location at Seymour and Robson.
One of downtown Vancouver’s oldest coffee corners is getting a second life.
The longstanding Blenz Coffee shop in downtown Vancouver on Seymour and Robson has quietly closed its doors after 20-plus years of service. The storefront at 767 Seymour St. is now papered-over and a new vision is being realized inside.
Bloom Bakery and Cafe will be a floral-themed space designed for students, night workers, daily commuters or anyone searching for a place to belong. The new shop is expected to open June 10, turning the historic corner into a 24/7 coffee stop.
For young owner Shayesta Azizi, the idea came from a problem she kept running into.
As a student, she struggled to find cafes open late at night that were not overcrowded. She often drove from Coquitlam to Vancouver just to find a study spot, only to walk into packed rooms with no seating left. That frustration slowly turned into a business idea.
“I wanted to create something beautiful,” Azizi says. “Something that brings the nature of B.C. inside a cafe.”
That vision became Bloom — a cafe designed to feel calm, welcoming and accessible at any hour of the day. The new cafe focuses on affordability while still serving premium products like Arabica coffee, high-quality Japanese matcha, and freshly baked goods. The menu will also include vegetarian, halal, vegan and gluten-free options to make the space inclusive for a wide range of customers.
Figuring things out in real time
At 22 years old, Azizi knows the pressure of opening a business alone.“What keeps me going is the opportunity to give back to the community,” she says. “My goal has never been to maximize profits, but to create a place where everyone can enjoy good coffee and freshly baked goods at any hour of the day without having to spend a fortune.”
The journey behind Bloom has not been simple. Azizi immigrated to Canada from Afghanistan, a country where girls are denied access to education. Later, she took a semester off to save up money and put it towards the cafe.
Unexpected expenses, delays and uncertainty followed almost immediately.
“It’s my first time in the business,” she said. “And I don’t have any prior experience in cafes or bakeries.”
The Gen Z-owned cafe already carries the energy of someone figuring things out in real time — balancing risk, ambition, exhaustion and optimism all at once.
If all goes as planned, one of downtown Vancouver’s most familiar coffee corners will bloom again this June — this time with florals on the walls, matcha behind the counter, and a young owner betting everything she has on an idea she couldn’t ignore.
Dev Patel is a master’s student at UBC’s school of journalism and is a summer intern at Vancouver Is Awesome.