Lukes General Store puts down Gastown roots
After opening as a pop-up shop in March, Lukes General Store (49 West Hastings Street) now has a permanent location in Gastown.
The Calgary-based retailer owned by Gareth Lukes is an offshoot of the family-run Lukes Drug Mart, which has operated in the community of Bridgeland since 1951. Earlier this year, Lukes opened its first location outside Alberta in Vancouver’s Chinatown.
As the name implies, Lukes General Store offers a variety of dry goods, apothecary, home, and grocery items. They also happen to serve coffee and sell vinyl records.
During the pop-up shop, Lukes concentrated on Portland’s Stumptown Coffee Roasters. The new incarnation of Lukes has ventured a little further south to San Francisco. Baristas now serve Four Barrel Coffee, which is also sold in bags to take home.
The other focus at Lukes is music on vinyl records. The boutique’s collection is curated by Shaun Cowan and the current selection includes albums from Haim, Metallica, Jack White, and St. Vincent. Also in-store is audio equipment, such as minimalist headphones by Urbanears.
The general store carries the Malin + Goetz skincare line, Pendleton blankets, Otter Wax and The Laundress fabric-care products, and Johnstons of Elgin scarves. Edible goods include Mast Brothers chocolate bars, Millifera Bees honey, The Farmhouse cheeses, Italian tomato-based Sugo Sauce, Cartems Donuterie doughnuts, and Nelson the Seagull breads.
"Lukes is staying true to the general store ethos. We're selling high quality goods that meet your daily needs", Veronika Rezucha, a manager at Lukes, stated in a news release. "Drop in, grab a coffee, browse some vinyl, fill your grocery bag, and soak in a great atmosphere. It's an elevated convenience store experience."
Lukes General Stores is open from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.
Comments
13 Comments
Stephanie
Nov 21, 2014 at 3:36pm
Can you breathe in there? Because I can't imagine there's much oxygen left after it's been sucked up by the pretentiousness.
(Also, please stop saying that E. Hastings is Gastown. It's not. You sound like those silly people from the south part of Surrey who want to convince everyone they live in White Rock.)
Miranda Nelson
Nov 21, 2014 at 3:53pm
Lukes is located at 49 <b>West</b> Hastings Street, which is in Gastown.
Lori McIntosh
Nov 21, 2014 at 4:04pm
The shop in Calgary is great. This one, not so much. Entirely the wrong neighbourhood for something like this - 95% of its residents would never be able to afford anything in there.
Jon Welmers
Nov 21, 2014 at 7:31pm
I don't like when people write things off as "hipster pretension" without thinking about it, but this place sounds like nothing but that. A "general store" with out of this world prices setting up shop in the most impoverished area of town. It's just bullshit.
David
Nov 21, 2014 at 8:16pm
G.E.N.T.R.I.F.I.C.A.T.I....you know the rest.
Gregg
Nov 21, 2014 at 10:36pm
Wow...with that product list they should attract just about nobody. Sounds like a rich hipster hobby , not a real business.
Discount
Nov 22, 2014 at 7:52am
If you have an moronic beard, Discount, No beard no discount. Next!!! Which person wants to pay double for nothing.??
Bobby
Nov 22, 2014 at 3:42pm
I'm not a fan of hipsters, but high quality coffee is one of their few redeeming factors. I'm impressed this store gets theirs from Four Barrel — I used to go to the Four Barrel coffee shop often when I lived in San Francisco. The coffee made it worth it to dive into the heart of hipster territory.
Paul D
Nov 22, 2014 at 4:05pm
It's not very convenient for an "elevated convenience" store to close at 6pm on weekdays and 5pm on weekends.
Hurricane.Lindsay.
Nov 23, 2014 at 4:08am
I have walked by this place every day and have always wondered what the fuck they are doing in the DTES. Why are they selling cartem's doughnuts and nelson and seagull's bread when both those products are available from the actual bakery's located around the corner? I don't see what they are bringing to the table besides elevated pricing.