Frederick
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Re:Victoria B.C. Best coffee in Canada? - 2007/12/01 07:01
Oh Boy.....
This is called harassment, mental torture, prodding with a red hot pocker....but for the readership why not?
One of the truly best places to while away a lazy Sunday morning after a torrid night of bed discheveling is in Montreal's French side. Montreal has two main flavors: English and French. French to the east of St. Laurence Boulevard and English to the west. As many great cities, most other ethnic communities each have a smaller village within Montreal. These are sprinkled all over...
Laurier Street is the equivalent of Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills for the French.
Greene Ave. in the west plays that role for the English. Everything in between is the melting pot. Ounce this is understood, you get a much better feeling of how the cog wheels of society work in this city. Wealthy French are located in Outremont, wealthy English in Westmount.
Almost no one knows that Montreal is made of THREE mountains: Mont real, West mount and Outre mount. The three peeks on the crest of Mac Gill University depicts this well.
For this writer, the unusual and the surprise is a modus operandi. I transplanted a typical Westmount lady on a very early Sunday morning (I don't kiss and tell.....well, sort of ) right smack in the French district of Montreal. Would you believe that she had NEVER ventured there? Hé, mes amis, vee are extreeemelee hospitable peopel !
Corner Laurier street and Jeanne Mance...nothing opened yet. Toi, Moi & Café is slowly awakening. They have been in business since 1995 and they treat the coffee business like a religion !
Some customers are already arriving and an "habitué" is asked to fetch some newspapers....he'll most likely end up getting his latte for free...
To the right is the wall offering over 60 kinds of coffee, big slate boards announce the specials....
The counter, over 60 feet long, presents gorgeous croissants and chocolatines and other eye bulging delicacies. The aroma in this place is everything that you would expect.
Besides coffee, they also have teas and serve meals, from quiche to sauté rabbit (seems fitting...)
We settled for some serious fine warm buttered croissants and two bathtubs of Cappuccino, Columbian.
Perfection? Bien Sur !!!!
I won't waste your time depicting the steam coming out of the croisant and the melt in your mouth texture that emanates from Canada's finest grains....
Refills were ordered accompanied by chocolatines (croissants stuffed with dark chocolate) and amandines (croissants stuffed with almond paste).
The owners go regularly to the source of coffee production, visiting many countries and favor greatly the use of fair trade. On top of that Toi,Moi & Café offer training programs for the different aspects of coffee entrepreneur. (their very well made site will give you all the details, I'm not paid for this:toimoicafé.com)
All in all a very different experience. An absolute MUST do. Here are some picts.
Frederick Nakos is the Global authority on the Atomic Espresso Coffee maker. |
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