According to everyone we talked to, there are no gay coffeehouses in Winnipeg, which left us feeling very sad. It had been a few days since we had received our required dose of walking through the door of a cafe to have dozens of gay eyes simultaneous pierce and judge us. So we settled for the Mondragon: a cute anarchist cafe and bookstore that is exclusively vegan, unlike the place in Minneapolis. The bookstore is small, but has a queer section that even has a vaginal coloring book (don’t ask).
We love anarchists because of their strong principles: not bowing to “the man,” etc. But what do we love more than principles? Businesses that accept American Express, and thank goodness Mondragon took ours. We will be going back and bringing all of our capitalist, AmEx-bearing friends with us the next time we go to Winnipeg. See a couple more photos of the cafe after the jump.
This is the organic bicycle shop in the same building as Mondragon. Organic? Maybe all-natural. Perhaps “made by hippies” is the best term, but we would take our bike there for sure.
Mondragon Cafe and Bookstore [Official Site]
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Visit the Winnipeg city guide provided by GayCities.com, the sponsor of Queerty’s Big Gay Road Trip: Northern Edition.
~~Honeycat~~
Winnipeg is not gay friendly. In order for it to have a gay coffee house, it has to be gay friendly/positive or at the very least, have a gay village. It has none of these. The turn out for the pride parade last year was 3,000 people. Which, looking at the number of people living here, that was actually a big turn out. NOT! Winnipeg had some gay owned stores until they shut down because they were not doing so well. I got told it was due to people being “unaware” that these businesses existed. I seem to think it’s because gay clubs are more accepted then gay businesses. I see straight people here going “It’s bad enough they have their own clubs but do we really want them kissing, holding hands, hugging each other and just being open like that in OUR neighbourhoods?”
Sorry you came to a nonprogressive place like Winnipeg. Next time, go to Toronto. At least they have a gay village with gay coffee houses, bookstores, community center, retail stores, grocery stores, businesses…they even have something called the “gay pages”. Now all it needs is a gay mall and we’re done!
Had to spew…sorry.
Take care and happy 666,
From One Queer To Another.
Peter
Winnipeg is very gay friendly for a city of its size. Of course, Toronto has a gay village, and more gay owned and operated businesses — because it’s 20x bigger!
While Osborne and Corydon aren’t “gay villages” they certainly are more than gay-friendly. I think the fact that Winnipeg doesn’t need to have a segregated gay ghetto says something about how open-minded people are here.
Remember Winnipeg elected N. America’s first openly gay mayor.