Archive for April, 2009
Victoria's Habit Coffee, A Habit Worth Keeping Part II
Habit Coffee, originally uploaded by andai. ...from part I I did head on up to the place, and sure enough the shop was closed. I actually walked right by the shop because I was looking for some prominent signage. Almost reaching the end of that block and wondering if the two women had misdirected me, I stopped and asked a couple that was taking a smoke break if Habit really was on this street. They pointed it out to me… there it was, right across the street with a recessed entrance that had a really small, very nondescript wooden 2x4 plank for signage. I resolved to come back the next day before I had to catch the ferry back to Seattle later that afternoon. So come Sunday late afternoon I found myself doing a mad dash to Habit and this time around, the place was open, thank goodness. There even was a small crowd of folks hanging outside the shop, drinking, smoking etc. I was a little sweaty from the fast paced walking I had done. I didn’t have too much time to fanny about and I had only about 15 [...]
Victoria's Habit Coffee, A Habit Worth Keeping Part I
Habit, originally uploaded by andai. Even before I went to Victoria this last time, I kept hearing good things about Habit Coffee. One of the readers commented on a previous Victoria BC blog post I had written and he included a list of coffeehouses that I should have visited. For some reason, Habit Coffee kind of stood out to me and that is one that I made a mental note that I would check it out next time. Well this time around, I hadn’t properly done my homework beforehand and apparently my memory is not that great because I totally forgot the names of the places to visit, including Habit. I just couldn’t for the life of me remember the list of coffeehouses this person had recommended. And since I deliberately left my laptop at home, with no intention on going online, there was no way I was going to go online to retrieve the list. No worries though, Victoria actually has a lot of coffee shops within walking distance of the main harbor and due to the constraints of not having a car, all of the [...]
Caffé Artigiano, the Real Home of 49th Parallel
Image Title: 143/365 - Coffee break Originally uploaded by, and used with permissions from kennymatic. I discovered Caffé Artigiano a few years ago on one of my first trips to Vancouver BC. At that time I really didn’t know much about the coffee they served other than the fact that I thought the coffee was good. I also really liked the decor of the particular retail location I visited and the reason I went there was simply as matter of convenience due to its close proximity to the hotel where I was staying. Of course if the place even hinted mediocre coffee, I certainly would not have stepped in the door. However, since that timer, though I have been to Vancouver again on numerous occasions, I haven’t been back. Not because I didn't like the coffee or anything like that, but simply because I wanted to take the opportunity to try other coffee shops during my limited stays. So one cafe that I discovered, just a couple of blocks away from the Caffé Artigiano location that I frequented before, was [...]
Mirage Coffee is Bold as Brass
Mirage Signage, originally uploaded by andai. I first walked by Mirage Coffee attracted by their bizarre sign which is of some woman who looks like the stereotypical Virgin Mary images you tend to see. Being that I live on Capital Hill, the home of everything wonderful and bizarre, I have seen my fair share of signage including those that border on anti-Christian sentiment. So naturally the first question that popped into my mind, did the owners have something against Christians? Even though the store was closed for the day the inside was rather dark and rather unappealing and for these reasons the place just did not look like anything worth going to investigate further. Fast forward to the beginning of this month when I was in Victoria for another trip. Some friends of mine, also from Seattle, had been to Victoria the week before and they totally raved about Mirage. And of course me being to some extent sort of open minded guy, decided I was going to put this place on my list of coffee shops to visit. [...]
Afternoon Tea at The Empress
Empress Tea Cup, originally uploaded by andai. One of the things that I really wanted to do the first time I visited Victoria BC was to do the old afternoon tea... something you really don't see in Seattle, the land of all things coffee. At that time, we had considered going to the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria in part because they are world famous for their for their afternoon tea tradition. We heard that the afternoon tea there was rather expensive and so we decided that we would to the White Heather Tea Room and have our afternoon tea there instead. The tea and eats at White Heather Tea Room were great, but on publishing this post about places in Victoria to experience afternoon tea, One of the commentators, Beth, highly recommend that we try the afternoon tea at the Empress. Yes she admitted that it was rather expensive, but it was also one of those things that you should do at least once. And she was not the only one who gave us the same suggestion. So this time around, finding ourselves in [...]
The Modern Italian Style Macchiato Caffé
Umbia at Macchiato, originally uploaded by andai. Macchiato Caffé or simply Macchiato, is located on the corner of Broughton St and Broad St (entrance) was the first official stop on my second coffee excursion in Victoria BC. I actually passed by Macchiato several times during my first trip to Victoria. I did not however go in there for a couple of reasons. On first occasion I had just had lunch at lunch at Konpira and being pretty stuffed, I wasn’t in the mood for coffee. Konpira, by the way, which is only half a block away, is my favorite Japanese restaurant in Victoria. They are famous for their limited hand-made Udon noodles and extremely fresh sushi. The Japanese master who owns the restaurant makes only about 30 or 40 servings of the hand-made Udon noodles and so if you don’t get there early, you are out of luck. But I digress… back to coffee. On a couple other occasions I passed by the place, they were already closed for the day… pretty early actually. So I decided that I would have to [...]
Victoria Coffee Culture Not Quite Up After Dark
Murchies, originally uploaded by andai. A couple of weeks ago, I took a weekend trip to Victoria BC so that I could once again sample Victoria's growing coffee scene. This is the second trip that I have taken to Victoria over the last 12 months. The last time I visited, I was there for a couple days before heading up to Vancouver and at that time I was able to visit a number of Victorian coffee shops including the following; Serious Coffee, Sounds Like Coffee, Dolce Vita Coffee Art, Murchies Tea and Coffee, and White Heather Tea Room - for afternoon tea. I also checked out Salt Spring Coffee while I was on the way to Victoria. I can tell you that with all that caffeine in my bloodstream, I was super alert the whole time I was there.. and as hard as it might be to believe, I may have actually drunk a tad too much espresso for the short time that I was there. So this time around I needed a slightly different approach. I was only going to be there from Saturday late in the morning, leaving the next day in [...]
Gwilym is the 2009 World Barista Champion
nuova simonelli espresso machine at the 2009 NWRBC, originally uploaded by andai. And there you have it. A heart felt congratulations to Gwilym Davis from London, who emerged top barista in the 2009 World Barista Championship held this year in Atlanta GA after beating five other contestants with a total score of 623 points. Sammy Piccolo of Canada came in second with 619.5 points and Michael Phillips third with 618.5 points. Pretty close race I must say. Rounding out the top six were Colin Harmon of Ireland, Lee Jong Hoon of South Korea (or Republic of Korea) and Attila Molnar of Hungary who came in fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively. Gwilym Davis from London, England, in addition to winning Best Barista also took the Best Espresso and Best Signature Drink categories. It was a little harder for me to find out more information about Davis, but I guess he serves his espresso creations out of Gwilym & Crew’s Coffee Carts in London's Whitecross Street and Columbia Road Martket Flower Market. [...]
Volunteer Park Café and Marketplace Prefers Stumptown
Volunteer Park Cafe Coffee Cup, originally uploaded by andai. I was somewhat surprised but not really when I went to Volunteer Park Café some months ago and found out that they no longer carried the Café Vita coffee beans but instead had switched to Stumptown coffee beans. I thought that was really interesting and at that time, the barista on duty could not tell me why they had done the switch. Though I have been there a few times since, I finally chatted with one of baristas who knew and told me the story. It turns out that the reason they switched was not because Café Vita coffee beans was bad or anything like that. The reason was pretty simple actually. On the one hand, and in their own words, Stumptown has excellent customer service and are a great supplier to work with and they have great coffee so switching for those reasons alone was not a problem. But the even bigger deal was the fact that the owner of VPC&M just so happens to be one of the co-owners of ‘Oddfellows’ up on Capital [...]
Looking Back at Bauhaus’ Transformation
Bauhaus, originally uploaded by andai. So the one thing that will always encourage me to go back to a coffee shop, besides decent espresso drinks of course are baristas who are friendly and reasonable. It is also equally, if not more important to me that the place is one where I would feel comfortable hanging out with the rest of the regulars who frequent the place, enjoying espresso drinks and hanging out. It is being in the midst of that ‘community’, even if you are not necessarily interacting directly with those around you. This community and great customer service are what I really believe is king when it comes to having a great coffee shop and coffee shop experience! Now with customer service, I think that sometimes we as customers forget to really appreciate baristas who are willing to go out of their way to make sure you enjoy your experience at their shop until we get into a situation where the customer service is really bad or you are surrounded by idiots who are making your enjoyment of [...]