Hunnybee Bruncheonette: Sunny Brunch in Vancouver’s Strathcona

At the corner of Gore Avenue and Union Street, between Strathcona and Chinatown, Hunnybee Bruncheonette has become one of those Vancouver brunch spots people are willing to line up for.

The formula is straightforward: good coffee, bread baked that morning, a short menu made almost entirely from scratch and a sunny patio that seems to catch the light even when Vancouver does not. It is casual, affordable and neighbourhood-driven, exactly as owner Matthew Senecal-Junkeer intended.

A Corner He Always Believed In

The story of Hunnybee actually begins in Gastown. About 16 years ago, fresh out of university, Matthew was working as both a barista and a cook in Vancouver. Even then, he had an idea for the kind of café he wanted to open: quick, casual, affordable and designed as much for hospitality workers as anyone else. That idea eventually became The Birds & The Beets, which has been part of Gastown for more than a decade.

A few years later, another corner caught his attention. Matthew lives only a few blocks from Union and Gore and had long thought the intersection had something special. “I always thought that we could make something work,” he says.

In 2018, the team took over an existing café there and turned it into Hunnybee, with a simple goal: build the kind of neighbourhood spot they themselves would want nearby.

Finding Hunnybee by Doing Less

Hunnybee really found its identity when the team simplified things. When COVID hit, the menu was cut by roughly 75 per cent. Garnishes disappeared, dishes became simpler and, for the first time, takeout became an important part of the business.

It worked.

The neighbourhood quickly embraced the more focused version of Hunnybee, and much of that approach remains today. The menu is compact and fairly consistent, with seasonal ingredients appearing here and there.

More importantly, the fundamentals are taken seriously. The bread is baked in-house, the eggs come from a local farm and the kitchen makes almost everything from scratch.

The team also works hard to keep prices accessible, something that matters to Matthew. Hunnybee may have become one of Vancouver’s busiest brunch spots, but it still wants to feel like a neighbourhood café.

The Breakfast Sandwich

Ask Matthew what you should order on a first visit and he does not hesitate: the breakfast sandwich. “There’s no gimmicks or anything fancy,” he explains. The sourdough is made in-house and griddled in clarified butter, a small detail that makes more of a difference than you might expect. Then come good tomatoes, eggs and aged cheddar.

“A lot of small differences add up to a pretty unique product that I still love eating,” he adds.

We understand why. It is the kind of breakfast sandwich that seems almost too simple on paper, until you eat it. The bread is fresh, every ingredient has a purpose and nothing is there just to make the plate look more complicated.

The pancakes have their loyal following too.

The Sunny Corner

The patio is a big part of what makes Hunnybee so easy to love. Somehow, this particular corner of Strathcona seems to catch the sun. People sit outside throughout much of the year, which is no small achievement in Vancouver.

When we visited, the patio was full, the light was beautiful and a line stretched outside the café. Nobody seemed particularly bothered by it. That line has become part of the Hunnybee experience, especially on weekends. The café has found a new audience through TikTok and now serves more people than Matthew and his team ever expected.

“It’s been humbling in a lot of ways,” he says.

A small heads-up for first-timers: weekends can get busy, and there is often a line, but it is all worth it.

Two Restaurants, One Room

When brunch ends, the space does not go quiet. Four evenings a week, Thank You Pizza takes over Hunnybee. It is a model the team already knows well: in Gastown, The Birds & The Beets shares its home with Bar Tartare in the evening.

Instead of letting a restaurant sit empty for half the day, two independent concepts get to make the same room their own. For Matthew, that idea of building places that serve a neighbourhood throughout the day is central to what the group does.

And another project is already on the way. The team is working on a sourdough bagel shop nearby in Chinatown. More on that when the doors open!

A Neighbourhood Place, Morning to Night

What Matthew seems proudest of is not necessarily one dish or one busy weekend. It is the collection of neighbourhood places he and his partners have managed to build.

He loves restaurants, food and the people who work in them, and his goal has been to create spaces that can become part of the rhythm of a neighbourhood, from morning coffee to dinner.

Even now, he says there are moments when it still feels surreal. He might drive by to drop off bread, or step onto the line himself, and see people stretching down Union Street waiting to get in.

Hunnybee is simple in all the right ways: freshly baked bread, a very good breakfast sandwich, a sunny patio and a team that cares about doing the basics properly.

Come early if it is the weekend. And if there is a line, stay. It is worth it.

Written by Fabie Lubin
Photography by Scott Usheroff (Craving Curator)

Updated on November 04, 2026

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