Platform Espresso Bar

As I've mentioned before, York region is in desperate need of a good coffee shop.  So imagine my surprise when I saw Platform Espresso Bar while driving along Highway 7.  Since that day, I have been meaning to stop by.  So last night, after doing some research on where to meet our friends for breakfast, I was pleasantly surprised that they not only serve coffee, but they also serve brunch!  So our meet up location was determined.

They open at 900a, and we were the first ones to arrive.  And good thing at that, while there is seating, it is quite minimal.  There are 4 small booths that seats 2 comfortably (4 adults would be very squished), and a larger booth that would seat 6 adults comfortably.  On the coffee front, there is quite a bit of selection.  For espresso based drinks, you get a choice of two beans.  If you want a pour over, there's a selection of 4 to 5 different kind of beans.  If you just want a regular coffee, look elsewhere, there isn't that option.  I ordered a latte made with an Ethiopian bean, the hubby ordered a pour over (which they suggest you drink black), also with an Ethiopian bean.  Coffees were good, but as much as I love drinking coffee, I'm not good with distinguishing the flavours in coffee, so I didn't detect the hints of fruitiness in my latte.  Overall I thought my latte could have been a bit stronger.  Latte art was cute, something that is rare up in Markham.  The pour over I initially though was weak, but a few seconds later, the flavour was quite nice.

Pour Over & Latte

Foodwise, we ordered the Sunrise waffle sandwich, one with scrambled eggs instead of sunny side up, a Platform waffle sandwich, and a brioche.  The Sunrise waffle sandwich has eggs, mushrooms, spinach, bacon, and cheese on top of a savoury waffle with choice of crispy potato curls or salad.  The Platform waffle sandwich has chicken, tomato, lettuce, and guacamole also on top of a savoury waffle.  The waffle was pretty good, not really sure what herbs were in it, but I did see herbs.  Crispy potato curls were crispy, but almost couldn't really tell that they were potatoes.  They almost seemed like they were crispy thin onion rings.  I, myself ordered the brioche (forgot to take a picture), because I saw on another blog that it was essentially a mini loaf of bread that came with butter and jam.  I guess I didn't read the description properly, because I got a savoury dinner roll topped with sesame seeds and rosemary.  I was quite disappointed.

Sunrise Waffle Sandwich

 

Sunrise Waffle Sandwich (Scrambled Eggs)

Platform Waffle Sandwich

With the lack of coffee options up here, I would definitely come back for more.  Service was also great here.  Barista was very friendly and very helpful in explaining anything that we were not sure of.  And prior to us ordering, she let us know that recently there has been a warning about potential issues with romaine lettuce, not yet a recall, but to be on the safe side, they were replacing all romaine with iceberg lettuce.

Platform Espresso Bar

4450 Highway 7 E
Markham, ON 

L3R 1M2

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 900a -600p

Phone: (905) 604-9110 

https://www.facebook.com/platform.espresso.bar/

Propeller Coffee Co.

Propeller Coffee Co. I would consider being off the beaten path.  Kinda hard to get to by public transit (not on the subway line), and kinda hidden on a small side street in a somewhat industrial area.  But because of this, there's ample free parking, and a giant comfortable space for you to work in, meet with huge group of friends, and perhaps rent their venue for an event.  The reason why I checked out Propeller Coffee Co. even though it was hard to get to, was for my friend's birthday celebration.  He celebrates his birthday a bit differently, he does a whole day of celebrations starting off with breakfast/brunch, coffee, dinner and drinks.  He invites all of his friends, and his friends show up whenever they want to.  Kinda interesting, also makes for easier conversation with everyone in smaller groups.

As I mentioned, Propeller's space is quite large, and can fit quite a few people.  A lot of people were there working on their laptops.  There's enough power plugs it seemed.  Their coffee was great.  I got a latte, and the hubby got a drip coffee.  The latte was great, with great aftertaste that lingers in your mouth.  I don't know what roast they used that day, but they do roast their own beans.  Another plus in my books.  My only complaint is that they served my latte in a mug that was chipped at the rim.  Two chips if you look at my picture.

Latte

Propeller Coffee Co.
50 Wade Ave.,
Toronto, ON
M6H 2Z3

Phone:  (416) 479-3771

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 8a - 5p

https://propellercoffee.com/public/

Merchants of Green Coffee

Each time we drive along the DVP, I keep seeing The Merchants of Green Coffee, and I keep saying to my husband that we should check it out.  It’s been years since I’ve started saying that.  This time I had the perfect reason, we needed a spot to do some Europe trip 2016 planning.  We could have done it at our house, as we normally do, but I personally wanted a change of scenery, plus, it was my excuse for a good coffee as opposed to using the Nespresso machine at home.  Since it was a Saturday I knew my usual favorite coffee shops would be packed to the brim because they’re usually pretty small and cozy.  So while searching for good coffee, it had to also be big enough, and not that far deep into the downtown core.  So that’s how we ended up at the Merchants of Green Coffee. 

The space at Merchants of Green Coffee is pretty big, but yet very comfy cozy feeling.  I love the look of mismatched tables and chairs.  I ordered my usual latte and the hubby ordered a 2 cup drip coffee to share with the cousins.  The beans they chose was their own sustainable blend café solar.  I found my latte a bit on the weak side, but the hubby enjoyed his drip coffee very much.  The cousin, well he had no opinion as he likes or doesn’t mind the crap, I mean inconsistency, served at Tim Hortons.  So if you need a break from working at home, drop by Merchants of Green coffee for some coffee and quiet time.

Latte & Drip Coffee

Merchants of Green Coffee

2 Matilda St.,

Toronto, ON

M4M 1L9

Phone:  (416) 749-5369

Hours:  Monday - Friday 8a -6p

             Saturday 9a - 6p

             Sunday 10a - 6p

http://www.merchantsofgreencoffee.com

Boxcar Social

Found another coffee spot!!!  Actually it was quite hard to find.  The first time I tried to come to Boxcar Social, we drove past it without finding it.  The second time, I made sure to Google Map it and street view it to make sure we don’t drive by it again.  The inside of Boxcar Social looks more like a bar than a coffee shop.  Along the wall, behind their bar is a huge display of liquor.  I think they do have a liquor license.   I ordered my usual flat white, and the hubby got a cappuccino.  We headed upstairs to grab a seat.  For a Saturday morning it was quite busy, all the tables were filled except for one.  Coffee was very good smooth, felt a bit on the weaker side at first, but left your mouth with a great coffee aftertaste. 

Cappuccino & Flat white

As I was about to post this blog post, I went on their website and just learned that Boxcar Social has 2 locations, one on Yonge St. (the one I went to) and a location in Riverdale.  Delicious coffee, with a comfy cozy surrounding, and an amazing concept:  Do what we love, do it with our friends, and do it really well.  This is something that we should all apply in our lives.  I can almost feel their passion and love behind Boxcar Social.

Boxcar Social Summerhill

1208 Yonge St.,

Toronto, ON

M4T 1W1

Phone: (416) 792-5873

Hours:  Monday 8a - 5p

             Tuesday - Thursday 8a - 12a

             Friday - Saturday 8a - 2a

             Sunday 8a - 8p

http://www.boxcarsocial.ca/home.html

White Squirrel Coffee

I just learned, right before I started to type this post, that White Squirrel Coffee has 2 locations, one at Queen West and one in Rosedale.  I have to specify that I went to the location on Queen West, just incase staff/service would be specific to location.  White Squirrel has been on my list to check out for years and years, just because the name is kinda funny.  I finally fulfilled my wish on Valentines day.  Not that it was a Valentines day treat (most, if not all my close friends all know how anti-valentines day I am), but because White Squirrel on Queen West was actually on my way to the Sacred Love Market, where my friend had a booth there.  Check out Pulp Function for all sorts of interesting paper goods!

As I was heading to my friend's show, I wanted to grab my coffee to go, and also grab some hot drinks for my friends as the venue location was freezing cold.  Hence no pictures.  Won't see much in a takeout cup.  I placed my order for a flat white, hot chocolate, espresso macchiato, and a hot water.  As I was placing my order with the barista (male), he responded in a snarky tone, "You know they won't stay hot right?  But I'll make it anyways."  I was like "WTF?" in my head.  Did you just give me attitude?  No shit that it won't stay steaming hot, the weekend was the coldest weekend this entire winter.  You don't think I know that?  And no i'm not walking around downtown carrying this take out order.  I'm jumping back into my car.  I smiled and just said "OK".

When I got to pay, the barista/cashier (female), was SUPER nice.  She added up all the drinks in her head, pretty quickly I was impressed.  She told me also that for the hot water, it would be 50 cents for the cup.  Makes sense.  But I ended up with only 3 of my 4 drinks.  The barista (male) that was making my drink forgot the espresso macchiato.  And he was standing around playing on his phone.  Professional eh?  While reading this, you would probably picture someone that's a punk/hipster in his 20's.  But NO!  He looked like 30's, early 40s. You would think he would know better than to play on his phone in front of customers right?

Anyways, coffee wise, was quite weak in my opinion.  But I guess it's because I prefer stronger coffee.  I did like that they used Harmony milk.  Curious to know if the Rosedale location is the same or better.

White Squirrel Coffee
907 Queen St. W.,
Toronto, ON
M6J 1G5

Phone:  (647) 428-4478

Hours:  Monday - Friday 7:30a - 7:00p
             Saturday - Sunday 8:00a - 7:00p

http://www.whitesquirrelcoffee.com

Millie Creperie

What is a mille crêpes cake?  Its essentially a 'cake' that is composed of several layers of crêpes with a cream filling in between each of the layers.  I'm not sure if there's a typical number of layers that is usually used to make the cake, but the direct translation is 1000.  I highly doubt that there's any bakery that will make the cake with 1000 crêpes.  It would be too heavy, too labour intensive, and too big to eat!  

Millie Creperie, as their name indicates, makes crêpes, including the mille crêpes cake.  They come in different flavours, I chose to try the vanilla flavour.  The vanilla cream was very good.  I wish I could have had more.  I found the crêpe layers to be a bit too soft, to the point of being a bit mushy/soggy.  I have to say that I didn't try the cake fresh, it was purchased in the afternoon, I didn't eat it until late at night.  So I'm not sure if thats why the cake is softer than I would like.  My friend said that his (different flavour), was ok, even though he ate it late at night too.

Crêpes Cake

Seems like I need to make a trip down to Kensington Market to give them a try when the cake is 'fresh'.  But I know if i'm down at the store, I'll be tempted to try their other offerings, mainly the crêpe with Japanese green tea gelato.

Millie Creperie

161 Baldwin St.,

Kensington Market,

Toronto, ON M5V 3H9

Phone:  (416) 977-1922

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 12:30p - 8:30p

             Friday - Saturday 12:30 - 10:00p

             Sunday 12:30p - 8:30p

http://milliecreperie.com

Neo Coffee Bar

Another late night treat from a new café.  This is why I’m gaining weight.  Having treats this often, plus it being nighttime treats, can only lead to weight gain, for me at least.  But so hard to say no because they’re delivered right to my door!  These places are pretty inaccessible to me normally since they’re located in the downtown core. 

Neo Coffee Bar is a café of sorts, serves coffee and such, but specializes in Japanese style pastries.  As I haven’t been there myself, I can’t comment on whether there’s seating, how the service is etc.  Heck I can’t even comment on the coffee.  What I did get delivered was a matcha white chocolate chunk cookie, a match red bean roll cake, and fruit roll cake.

The cookie had good matcha flavour.  But the texture of it was very crumbly, almost shortbread like, but didn’t have that buttery taste.  The matcha red bean roll cake, surprisingly didn’t have much matcha flavour.  There was more red bean flavour than anything.  Which is surprising since there’s only that bit of red bean in the cream filling.  The fruit roll was my favourite.  The vanilla cake had really good egg flavour.  And I love the use of fresh fruits.  In this case, the fruits were strawberries and blueberries.  Also overall, the texture of the cake was very good.  Quite smooth, considering the amount of air bubbles the picture shows.  And most importantly, the cake was moist!

Matcha Cookie, Roll Cakes

Neo Coffee Bar

161 Frederick St.  Unit 100,

Toronto, ON

M5A 4P3

Phone:  (647) 348-8811

Hours:  Monday - Friday 7:00a - 7:00p

             Saturday - Sunday 7:00a - 5:00p

http://www.neocoffeebar.com/#top

Redbulb Espresso Bar

I noticed this cute little coffee shop when we went to The Smokery for dinner a while back.  A small independent coffee shop in Stouffville, I never would have thought.  Considering I can’t seem to find anything (easily) in Markham or Richmond Hill.  Stouffville is a bit out of the way, but I made the trip back there to give it a try. 

What I found was a clean comfortable space with artwork on the walls to be sold.  I ordered a latte.  It arrived quickly with pretty latte art on the top.  I honestly can’t remember much of the coffee taste and flavour.  All I can remember is the taste of the milk.  It wasn’t what I was expecting.  I find there’s a big difference in organic milk vs generic milk.  And when I mean generic, I mean Sealtest, Neilson, Lactancia etc.  At home, I usually buy almond milk.  If and when I actually buy cow's milk, which is very rare, I buy Organic Meadows, Harmony, or Sheldon Creek Dairy.  Yes it’s pricier, but there’s a nice sweetness and creaminess, especially with Sheldon Creek Dairy milk, my favorite out of the three.  Here at Red Bulb Espresso, the latte that I got tasted like it was made with generic milk. I did like their fancy corrugated coffee cups.  No need for a sleeve.

Latte

Not sure if I would make the trek there for a latte, I’d rather go down south into Toronto if I have a latte craving.

Redbulb Espresso Bar

6148 Main Street,

Stouffville, ON

L4A 1A6

Phone:  (905) 591-2054

Hours:  Monday - Friday 5:30a - 5:00p

             Saturday - Sunday 7:00a - 5:00p

http://redbulb.ca/espressobar/

Redline Coffee & Espresso Bar

This is a place that is totally out of the normal neighborhoods that I frequent, but we were feeling adventurous that Saturday morning.  Maybe it had to do the adrenaline rush from my morning run, I ran 7k instead of 5k, always feels good to run more than you planned on running.  After we found a place to park, and were walking to Redline Coffee & Espresso Bar, we passed by this building, that looked awfully familiar.  OMG!  It’s a building where they shot Rookie Blue.  The past few weeks I’ve been obsessed with the show.  Obsessed to the point where I would watch episode after episode when I had the time.

Redline is pretty much at the corner of Queen East and Parliament, very easy to find.  For some reason I was expecting a super modern looking coffee house.  What I was greeted with was a coffee house with lots of kitschy little items that you can actually buy.  We ordered a mochachino, single latte and a chocolate chip cookie.  I paid with my credit card as I normaly would, but the machine was different.  Almost ancient looking.  Turns out they’re using a super old credit card machine that Pizza Pizza used to use.  

My latte was pretty smooth, but borderline too weak.  I guess I should have ordered a double.  The mocha was too sweet for me.  I find in general mochas are too sweet.  But for some reason the hubby likes to order it even though he's not a sweets guy.  That I don't understand.  What I would come back for is not their coffee even though it's not bad, but their chocolate chip cookie, AMAZING.  It rivals my favourite chocolate chip cookie made by Le Gourmand.  Thick, chewy, with just enough chocolate chunks.  So good.  I think they actually bake the cookies themselves, not too sure though, I didn't ask.

Mocha, Latte, Cookie

Redline Espresso

354 Queen St. E.,

Toronto, ON

M5A 1T2

Phone:  (647) 344-3865

Hours:  Monday - Friday 8:00a - 5:30p

             Saturday - Sunday 8:00a - 5:00p

http://www.redlinecoffee.ca

Maman

I was on Chowhound just doing some random reading, seeing if theres any new places (restaurants, bakeries, coffee houses, etc.) to check out.  I saw a really old post re-appear regarding kouign amann, meaning, that there’s a possibility of kougin amann in Toronto?  Super excited!  This would mean I don’t have to wait until the hubby travels to Vancouver or Montreal to get this sweet treat?!  I told my food boyfriend about this, and the very next day he went to scope out Maman for me.  He came back with half disappointing news.  They make kouign amann, but there’s no set day of the week where they will make it.  Feels like my hopes have been crushed.  To make my day less horrible, he did bring a white chocolate blueberry lavender cake, and a chocolate chip cookie.  When he told me it was white chocolate blueberry lavender cake, I was like eww.  I don’t like white chocolate, and there’s no chocolate in white chocolate!  Why is white chocolate even called chocolate?  Strike one.  Lavender in food?  To me, lavender belongs in soap, and lotions.  Strike 2.  I like blueberries?  So at least there’s one good thing.  The base of the cake seems to be a pound cake.  Love pound cake. My pants, not so much.  To my surprise, this cake was pretty good, light on the lavender, so you can taste it faintly.  No soapy taste that I was worried about.  There were a few blueberries floating around the top of the cake.  If the name didn’t have the words white chocolate, I would have never tasted it.  Overall, pretty good cake, nice and moist.

Blueberry Lavender White Chocolate Cake

The cookie had large chunks of chocolate.  A good balance of chocolate to ‘dough’.  The downside, it wasn’t as chewy as I was expecting.  I prefer chewy over crunchy.  So personal preference again.  But still VERY good, with lots of buttery flavour.  

Chocolate Chip (Chunk) Cookie

Maman is a French bistro/cafe/bakery from what I see on their website.  It looks like they also serve sandwiches and stuff.  The pictures alone on their website remind me of Paris, making me miss Paris even more.  I need to make a trip to Maman myself.  Hoping that when I do go, there will be kouign amann to try.  Right now, the best kouign amann I’ve had is still from Montreal.

Maman

100 King St. W.,

Toronto, ON

M5X 1B1

Phone:  (416) 216-6767

Hours: Monday - Tuesday 7:00am - 8:00pm

            Wednesday - Friday 7:00am - 10:00pm

            Saturday 10:00am - 3:00pm

http://mamantoronto.com