Gäbi Coffee & Bakery | Anthony Mair CT007

Summary

Joined by our good friend, Anthony Mair, we visited Gäbi Coffee & Bakery in the Chinatown district of Las Vegas joined us for some fine beverages and discussions about England, photography, and coffee … and not tea.

About our Guest (via amairphoto.com)

Anthony Mair first got his hands on a DSLR camera shortly after moving to Las Vegas in 2005. Initially, he shot mainly automotive subjects, gaining clients anywhere from publications in Los Angeles, truck bed covers in Missouri, and shooting SEMA display cars for Lexus. Within two years he landed his first big break: a two month gig shooting a Japanese airline for a 32 page feature spread. This was Anthony's biggest step into the world of photography.

Anthony would eventually go on to explore other different fields in photography: food, landscapes, still life, cityscapes, and portraits. Fast forward to the present; Anthony now has a client list comprised of companies such as MGM Resorts, Hakkasan, Four Seasons Hotel, Budweiser, Christian Louboutin, Caesars Entertainment, The Cosmopolitan, USA Sevens Rugby, and many more.

With years of experience shooting a vast array of subjects he has developed a distinct style that cannot be mistaken, whether he's shooting portraits, food, interiors, or cocktails.

To learn more about Anthony and to view his work, check him out at amairphoto.com. He's also on Instagram and Facebook and Facebook as @amairphoto.

Gäbi Coffee & Bakery

Gäbi Coffee & Bakery is recently opened coffee house located on the western fringe of the Chinatown district of Las Vegas, NV. Although it’s located in a fairly common-looking Las Vegas style strip mall, it’s not difficult to find the entrance to Gäbi. Near the southwest end of the building, Interrupting the nondescript exterior concrete wall, stand an imposing wooden door. Now, we’ve got limited knowledge of history in general, but this door looks like something reminiscent of feudal era Japan. Venturing beyond this door is when the experience begins.

The theme is said to be a “Korean coffee shop experience.” We haven’t visited any Korean coffee shops prior to this, so we can’t compare. But with this being our first, we were nothing short of impressed. Upon entering, the interior is overwhelming. It’s obviously a converted warehouse space; but that conversion has been done so well. The walls and floors are concrete, and the ceiling looks like a simple warehouse interior of exposed wooden trusses and ventilation shafts, accented by rudimentary aluminum sheet metal. That combination alone would typically be cold and uninviting, but it really just serves as a stage for the what it contains. Commanding immediate attention is the steel and glass “greenhouse” right in the middle of the space. Just in front of this greenhouse is the ordering counter, which displays coffees, teas, and pastries, as well as an espresso station on the left end. The interior of the greenhouse is their bakery, where they make all their pastries and baked goods. The greenhouse contains several hanging plants, and is also flanked by large trees, which bask in the natural lighting that shines through the many skylights and bounces off of the walls and dull metallic roof. This provides an awesome feeling of being in a quaint, inside park– almost like a greenhouse-in-a-greenhouse situation.

The perimeter of the shop has various seating arrangements, ranging from couches and two-tops to rocking chairs and a large stairway-tiered bench structure that also doubles as a bookshelf. This is all accented with wood, faux grass turf, and Asian artwork and furniture adorning the walls and open spaces. Tons of light floods in from the large front windows and skylights, with string lighting, Edison bulb lamps, and track lighting bringing subtle lighting to the shadows.

The coffee offerings are what you’d expect from a coffee shop. On this stop, we tried sampled the latte, cappuccino (“The Gäbi,” to be specific), machine-brewed coffee, and manual pour overs. The textures in the latte and cappuccino were beautiful. Espresso was pulled well, and the presentation of The Gäbi cappuccino was awesome. As for the machine-brewed coffee, it’s machine-brewed coffee– a cheap, quick grab. But the manual pour over … this is where they shined. We sampled the Ethiopian and Kenyan. Fantastic, distinct notes in both. Product aside, we did have two slight gripes about the pour over offerings:

They were sold at MP (Market Price). This creates somewhat of an ambiguous situation when you go to purchase the coffee. It presents a can-I-afford-this situation. Were we buying a live Maine lobster, or a cup of coffee? Maybe an detailed description explaining and justifying– and displaying – this price would alleviate the concern prior to ordering. After asking, it turned out that they were priced around $6, which, is slightly more expensive than most other pour over options in the city.
The serving size was somewhere in the realm of 4-5 oz. We viewed this as a fairly small pour. Again, this is in comparison to other pour over services we’ve had. When you couple a 4.5 oz. pour with a hidden $6 price tag, you wonder if the pour over is really worth it. These concerns are only slightly washed away by the flavor and aroma experience while enjoying the coffee.

The experience at Gäbi was awesome. It’s the perfect place to stop in for a cup or ten. It’s the perfect place to read a book, or to host a study group. It’s the perfect place to let your kids get some early morning energy out while you read the paper and enjoy a pastry. Oh, and after browsing their social feeds, it also seems like the perfect place to take that cute I-didn’t-know-you-were-taking-my-photo selfie for Instagram.

Gäbi Coffee & Bakery

Address: 5808 Spring Mountain Road, Suite 104

Phone: 702-209-3880

Open daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Facebook | Instagram | Yelp

Kelvin Home Coffee Roaster on Kickstarter

Looking to get into roasting coffee beans? The Kelvin Home Coffee Roaster appears to be the perfect entry level roaster.

Miscellaneous

The Breville The Smart Grinder Pro that Anthony was raving about

We’ve been eyeballing the Breville Barista Touch as a possible entry-level home espresso machine

Credits

Intro music credit:“Substance” by Grizzly Beats. Used under Creative Commons License.

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