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

Seven Grams Espresso Bar

Coffee shops that are not Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Second Cup are difficult to come by.  I am guilty of occasionally purchasing coffee from Starbucks every so often out of convenience, and lack of options.  Coming home from my last trip to Europe, I think I'm learning to appreciate good coffee much more.  In Europe, you don’t see a Starbucks at every corner.  Instead, you see small independently run coffee shops, who take care and pride themselves on their beans.  After making some small talk with these small coffee shop owners, I learned that they would purchase only green beans, and roast the green beans in the roaster in the shop themselves.  Most of these shops have a giant roaster in the café sitting space.  Makes for a good conversation piece.  When you order a coffee, you can order also different preparation methods, ie. Siphon, Chemex, pour over, aeropress etc.

Seven Grams Espresso Bar in Yorkville reminds me of those European coffee shops.  I’m not sure if they roast their own beans though.  You get usually 2 bean options to choose from.  You also have different methods of drink preparation.  My coworker who introduced me to Seven Grams loves the trifecta method.  It was a scorcher that afternoon, and it didn’t feel like they had AC, or maybe the AC just wasn’t strong enough, so we initially just ordered a cold brew (which I forgot to take a picture of) and an iced latte.  The hubby then changed his mind and ordered one of the roasts prepared by the trifecta method.  The iced latte was so-so, nothing particularly special.  I think the addition of too much milk that diluted the coffee flavour too much.  The cold brew was good (forgot to take a picture of it).  I didn’t really try the hot coffee because it was so hot outside.  Hot weather + hot drink doesn't go together for me.  The hubby liked it and said he would get it again.  So I’ll get it a try when it’s colder out.

 

Seven Grams Espresso Bar

131 Avenue Rd.,

Toronto, ON

M5R 2H7

Phone: (647) 351-1317

Hours: Monday - Saturday 7:00am - 6:00pm

            Sunday 8:00am - 6:00pm

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

Dark Horse Espresso Bar

I miss the lazy days we had when we were on vacation in Vancouver.  We would wake up and sit in a coffee shop and have a latte.  I don't get to do that much here.  Where I live, only coffee shop chains exist.  All the little independent shops are downtown.  So on this afternoon, during a 6 hour break in school, I stopped off at Dark Horse Espresso Bar in Chinatown to prep for my seminar at night.  I ordered my latte, found a table and sat down.  I open my notebook and realized I forgot to charge it last night.  I think, no problem, all coffee shops must have outlets available to their customers.  I was very wrong.  Dark Horse must not have supplied enough coffee to the PM for the construction of this coffee shop.....

Back to the coffee.  I miss the beautiful latte art that comes with EVERY latte in Vancouver.  Here, they make it seem like it's too much extra work to make the drink look pretty, it just looks so blah.  The latte was very weak.  I was so disappointed and considered stopping by Starbucks.

Latte

Dark Horse Espresso Bar

215 Spadina Ave. Suite 102

Toronto, ON

M5C  2C7

416-979-1200

Hours: Monday - Friday 7am - 7pm

            Saturday Sunday 8am -7pm

http://darkhorseespresso.com