Two More In Toronto

My sis, my gf & me decided to meet some friends up in Toronto and check out the zoo (it's fantastic, btw), so of course I found some time to check out a few coffee joints.

Mr. James on the Linea

Since I've been talking up the Sam James Coffee Bar so much, we had to stop there.  The cap, once again, excellent.

We wandered towards Kensington looking for some food and scarves, and, coming around a corner, we ran into the Sublime Espresso Bar.  I'd been in here before, but it was quite a while ago.  I love the interior here--they sell vinyl as well as coffee.  My espresso was pretty good, a nice touch of sweetness but nothing super-crazy; actually it wasn't too far off the better shots I pull at Spot.  The barista told me they are using beans from a local roaster called Classic Coffee who do a lot of business in the Toronto area.

Definitely love this machine, though: a really beautiful lever-operated Victoria.

After wandering around for a while, we decided on a crepe stand: the Krepesz European Palacsinta Cafe (whew).  The crepes were excellent (Hungarian style?  The thought that I need to explore multiple crepe-cultures is really exciting), but I was really pleasantly surprised with the coffee.  They're using 49th Parallel coffee and, a secret crush of mine, a Synesso espresso machine.

I know a couple locations that have switched from Synessos to other machines for various reasons (hard to get service out East, I hear), but since encountering them I've always liked a few things about how they're set up: the exposed groups, the steam lever, and particularly the "faucet-style" double-walled steam wands.  They seem like they would allow a lot more flexibility in steaming stance.

Regardless, I got a really excellent cappuccino--a little more wet than I might have made it, but I like lattes just as well, so it wasn't an issue.  The barista was very knowledgeable and friendly, threw some impressive rosetta-work on the cap, and the shot came together with the milk very nicely.

Some more Buffalo-centric posts coming up, I promise, but, fair warning, I'm going to be running around a lot to a few different cities this month, and coffee is as always on my agenda.