Caffe Fantastico - Quadra and Kings, Dockside Green Harbor Rd

Caffe Fantastico - Quadra and Kings, Dockside Green – Harbor Rd.

With modest beginnings in 1993, Ryan Taylor started serving quality espresso based beverages from an Inner Harbor cart. By 1995 he had set up shop in his backyard, roasting coffee to a very high standard. By 1998 a carefully planned café and roasting facility opened on Kings, near Quadra. Caffe Fantastico has two cafes dedicated to coffee culture and one restaurant – and each of them unique in their own way.

The Quadra and Kings locations is like an old baseball nestled into the leather glove that is the Quadra Village – while the Harbor Rd. location is clean lines and ice cool industrial design overlooking neighborhoods of the future.

Perks: Caffe Fantastico’s strengths lie in the quality of their whole bean and the overall integrity of their espresso service – there are few, if any café-roasters that take their product as seriously or the importance of dispatching customers home with a bit more coffee education.

The coffee is the same at both locations; leading edge, fresh and passionate – the standard coffee menu lives here with some variation and whole bean sales are available – as usual with a dose of coffee education with every bag. Each location complements the neighborhood. The Kings and Quadra location, for instance, caters to the middle class and working class enclaves the café-roaster nestles in.

Extras: Along with some of the best whole bean sales in Victoria, Caffe Fantastico sells home brewing equipment from their Kings and Quadra location – and every Caffe Fantastico partner has all the knowledge necessary to impart enough information to get a new home brewer off to a good start. I bought a Newco drip brewer way back in in 2006 and after hundreds and hundreds of pounds of whole bean coffee have been brewed through it, the brewer is still going strong.

Habit Coffee and Culture - 522 Pandora and 808 Yates at the Atrium.

When Shane Devereaux first envisioned his café, I believe he imagined an open space, and a universal and organic attachment to the Earth. A great café, after all, is about your ability to find your space, sip a great cup of coffee, gather your thoughts and embrace those around you. I heard a coffee farmer say once, “We all breath the same air – it only makes sense that we connect on more than one level – beyond the simple bean to cup relationship - farmer to customer.”

When Shane starting planning Habit Coffee in the Fall of 2006 for an opening in the new year of 2007, I think he may have heard this voice as well. By the summer of 2010, there was a new Habit at the Atrium on the corner of Yates and Blanshard – It too had incredible space about it and the same great coffee and passion that Shane started on Pandora.

Perks: There is no denying that both locations of Habit Coffee are hipster havens – but this should not be off putting. Folks visiting from America that have experienced cafes like Stumptown (in Oregon and Washington) will relate to Habit and feel right at home. The cafes are open and airy and encourage students and writers to linger over a cup of java as they jot endlessly into their notebooks or surf the web.

For the night owls in the crowd, Habit at the Atrium is open late weekdays and is the perfect après movie (well placed in the center of Cinema square in Victoria) or post dinner cafe for a cup. Some of Victoria’s coolest eateries are a few minutes away from Habit and it’s not uncommon to say no to dessert and coffee and yes to Habit! It is one of the very few cafes in Victoria that are open late and that’s great!

Extras: Habit Coffee sells Hario pour over equipment, manual grinders and filters for home use. Members of the Habit team are fully engaged, well educated and ready to explain every nuance of their coffee – which is roasted, by the way, at Bows and Arrow coffee over on Garbally Avenue.

Discovery Coffee 664 Discovery St. + 1964 Oak Bay Avenue.

My phone rang one morning – it was a gal in London, England looking to treat her fiancé to the best cup of coffee that the Planet could offer. My job was to tell her where to go – anywhere at all. It has to be the best cup that I knew of. At the time, it was Discovery Coffee on Discovery Street. She arrived with her family in tow as well as the family of her soon to be husband. She and her family had a great time and some awesome coffee.

Then, as now, Discovery prides itself on getting the very best beans from the source and getting all the best flavors from them. Discovery was among the first cafes to embrace the “Cup of excellence” program and continue to participate in online auctions that bring the best “micro-lots” from the farmer to you. Here in Victoria, we residents get some of the most amazing coffees available – prepared by some of the most passionate coffee people in the business.

Perks: Discovery coffee is a multidisciplinary café featuring many brew methods including a siphon bar (on Oak Bay Ave.) guaranteeing the most dramatic and tasty results. Discovery appeals to the obsessive-compulsive coffee geek in many of us – heavy on the educational aspect of the coffee experience, stress on the importance of healthy relationships with the coffee farmers of the World and a focus on participating in as many partnerships that are available for the benefit of the coffee farming community.

John Riopka, Sam Jones (now of 2% Jazz) and John’s boys Logan and Aaron opened the first Discovery Coffee on Discovery in January 2006 (expanded next door in 2008 and the Oak Bay cafe open in 2009. From the get go they have always been the most talked about café and coffee roasting enterprise in Victoria, B.C.

Extras: Discovery Coffee sells Hario pour over gear as well as the occasional vacuum-siphon brewer and filters from their Discovery Street and Oak Bay location.

2% Jazz – Times Colonist on Douglas and Fisgard at the Hudson.

Sam Jones runs what is, arguably, the oldest scaled up kiosk type café in the Victoria area – and from modest beginnings in the 90’s tucked into the corner of a gas station at the Hillside – Douglas junction and later as an anchored kiosk beside the Times-Colonist building and then a free standing bricks and mortar joint in a commercial building adjacent to the venerable newspaper. Sam has always put excellence ahead of anything else in his “espresso-centric” World – and I have had my most dramatic and intense espresso shots of my life.

After much consideration and planning (and a respectable stint as a coffee roaster out in the countryside), Sam and his team have opened the coffee showcase, 2% Jazz at the Hudson, a marvel of clean industrial lines, unbendingly passionate coffee professionals. It, too, features a roasting facility and an expanse of concrete and steel – plus a location beneath one of Victoria’s newest condo developments.

2% at the Hudson sits at the Southwest corner of the Hudson building facing the next phase of the development – and has positioned itself as coffee central for many new residents. 2% on Douglas (near Hillside) serves the journalists, gumshoes and folks in the industrial areas of Victoria north.

Perks: Expect great coffee, a “slow-bar” and an eclectic and exciting selection of sweet and savory accompaniments. Sam Jones does his level best to get the best barista staff in the business – and also to maintain a sustained sense of humor in a business filled with serious issues like environmentalism, sustainability and fair trade. Some of my most exciting cups of coffee have been in the new Hudson space – a location that welcomes folks who want to linger long over a great cup of coffee.

Drumroaster Coffee – at the Cowichan Bay turnoff – Island Highway – Cobble Hill.

When Geir Oglend ran his coffee kiosk on Douglas Street near Pandora Avenue in the 1980’s he already had a lifetime of coffee culture under his belt – literally. As a Norwegian-Canadian (stress on the Norway connection), he had caffeine in his blood from a very early age. Norway, in fact, has the highest coffee appreciation quotient of any specific social group on the planet. It could be the northerly location, the long nights, the gray days or all the trees.

Whichever factor, it is abundantly clear that Geir (and his lovely wife Pat) and their kids (Carsen and Courtenay – 2 of the 3 siblings) are the Camelot of Island coffee culture here on the West Coast. Drumroaster coffee features the best selections of specialty coffee, espresso, drip, slow-brew – pretty much any way you want it – as well as the best in-house baked sweets and savories the Island has to offer.

Even though Drumroaster Coffee is a restful forty-five minute drive from Victoria and a ferry ride from Vancouver, it is one of the true West Coast coffee destinations.

Perks: Geir and his cast of caffeine “passionista’s” cut no corners and make sure every customers experience is nothing less than memorable. There are many reasons why Drumroaster is one of my favorite Island cafes – it has a mysterious something-something that draws people from around the countryside. Drumroaster is amongst the most rural of cafes yet there is a never-ending line-up in this airy and cavernous space.

Extras: Drumroaster sells more coffee equipment than many of the Victoria cafes combined; Hario kit, kettles, pour accessories, Aeropress brewers, etc – always a changing mosaic of brewing gear!

Bows and Arrows Coffee – 483 Garbally Road – Victoria West

When Drew Johnson and his partner Leesha Sabine (with their new baby in tow) met up with long time associate – coffee professional Amber Fox (formerly of Toronto and San Francisco) it was only natural that their combined talents would coalesce into nothing less than coffee greatness.
I spoke with Amber for a few minutes between customers and it was abundantly clear she had a lifetime of coffee culture experience and a vision that favors the farmer and coffee quality over fashion and flash – that is, the farmer family and their relationship to buyer/roaster is number one. Direct trade – where the farmer, co-ops, families and communities benefit directly and fairly.

Bows and Arrows layout in industrial Victoria West is not unique but somewhat of an amalgam of some of the best regional cafes – but, and here is the twist, it is not really a café – it is a roasting facility with a slant towards commercial clients – with a pour bar and espresso bar for showcasing their whole bean sales for everyone – and serving the local community.

Perks: Their hours are restricted during the day – come by for some simply amazing coffees and walk away with a bag or two – and an improved knowledge of where coffee comes from what we, as consumers, need to think about while savoring some of the most amazing bean on Victoria’s coffee scene.

Extras: Bows and Arrows is the newest addition to the Victoria scene and one of the most passionate and informed. My first few bags of whole bean coffee and shots of espresso were utterly astounding. Everyone else in town will need to watch these folks and raise their bar accordingly!

Bubby Roses Bakery and Coffee – Meares Street and Cook Street

Bubby Roses Bakery and Café on Cook St. is arguably not all café – with one of Victoria’s widest and most exciting selections of baked goods, sweet and savory, it is one of the more likely places in town to get your weekly Rye than, maybe, your daily cappuccino – but, the Synesso espresso machine is front and center near the entrance. And there is always a small crowd of folks gathered around to get their morning or afternoon fix. Coffee is by Discovery and it’s always prepared skillfully.

Accompaniments for your double Americano’s often include Victoria’s best sticky buns, best muffins or best croissant – and even some simple lunches. Their weekend features of waffles and French toast with fresh fruit and maple syrup of utterly yummy and satisfying!
Mark and Valerie Engels, creator of Bubby’s, spend their time between their café and their kitchen (further down Cook Street towards the village) and their past experience includes a pizza joint on Salt Spring Island (from the 80’s) as well as baking for numerous legendary restaurants in Victoria in the 90’s.