The name of Greenville’s newest coffee shop, Canvas, is layered with meaning.
For husband-and-wife owners Arin and Genavieve Gilbert, who moved from Austin, Texas, to Greenville in 2021, this new venture is a convergence of the different ways in which they make art. Arin’s medium is coffee, deftly dialing in the roaster and espresso machine to produce nuanced flavors and aromas from the beans he carefully sources. A visual artist, Genavieve paints what she feels, what she wants to communicate to her audience.
For the first time since Arin entered the coffee roasting world in 2017, the couple is expressing their artistic points of view with a singular goal, bringing coffee and art together, thanks to a brainstorm on Arin’s birthday about two years ago.
The result—their first joint business venture—opened in January as Canvas Coffee + Art House in the corner storefront of the Westone development on Stone Avenue.
The coffee shop features both Canvas roasts and others Arin chooses to include on espresso, drip, or retail shelves. Canvas coffee bags are decorated with original art. Lattes and cortados with frothy designs drawn in steamed milk are a standard, but neither the menu nor the ordering process are designed to feel intimidating.
“I care that our coffee is excellent,” Arin says. “I don’t want to be snobby. I love specialty coffee. But I want you to have the coffee that you like. I don’t think there’s a wrong way to do it. If it tastes good, that’s fine.”
Educational programming includes coffee cupping classes, much like wine tastings, that allow participants to sip a variety of coffees and learn why they have different flavor profiles, and latte art workshops.
Classes at Canvas Coffee and Art House
“We’re helping people to understand that they’re invited into that space, too,” Arin says. “It doesn’t have to be too fancy.”
The windows wrapping the front corner of the shop grant passersby visual access and illuminate the interior with natural light. A small front room, surrounded by glass walls, serves as an artist-in-residence studio, allowing curious coffee drinkers to see art created in real time.
Those same windows and glass walls also create an obstacle for an art gallery. Genavieve has overcome the challenge presented by limited wall space with mobile walls on wheels that allow her to configure the gallery differently for each exhibit, slotting in walls between seating. She plans to curate exhibits showcasing local artists’ works about every eight weeks and host creative gatherings for budding artists and hobbyists.
Her first show in the space, running through mid-March, is “Patience and Persistence,” inspired by Arin’s mother, who lived for much of her life in a wheelchair while raising her children as a single mom. “That phrase got us through the building process,” Genavieve says.
She is also the first artist to take up residence in the small studio.
“Being brave enough to let people see you in your process encourages people in their own creative process,” she says. “Our hope is that people really do embrace creativity. We tended to be the ones pushing people into their gifting. It makes sense that this would be our space for that.”
Cultivating a community both within the physical walls of Canvas and within Greenville’s arts and coffee spaces is the common goal for the Gilberts.
“Something that’s good for your community and society as a whole is to have these third spaces. To have a place that’s just for connecting is more important that we realize,” Genavieve says. “Then when it was taken away [during COVID], we realized we really cared about this a lot.”
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Canvas isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel with its coffee menu, but co-owner Arin Gilbert is eager to showcase the creativity of his team and the range coffee has. Some of those unique options include:
The Coconut Cold Drip Float – Seasonal single-origin cold-drip coffee and toasted coconut, layered like a drinkable parfait.
Kyoto Cold Brew – Coffee drips from a three-foot tower to create an iced coffee, but in the style of a pour-over.
Barista Breakfast – A coffee flight that includes espresso, a flat white, and filter coffee.
Canvas Coffee + Art House, 109 W. Stone Ave., Greenville, wearethecanvas.co
