Montreal is sort of like New York City in regards to having very good to excellent third wave coffee shops. A few notable differences – they are truly indie shops and from a personal perspective as a New Yorker, it pains me to wait for good coffee at 9:00 AM on a weekend.
Here’s a couple of coffee shops I’ve managed to visit during my stay in Montreal.
Dispatch Coffee is arguably one of my favorite shops I’ve visited in a long time. Dispatch is founded by Chrissy Durcak delivering cold brew in mason jars before acquiring the truck that made her a staple of Montreal’s coffee and food truck scenes. This location of Dispatch in Mile-Ex is a production space/roastery/cafe, closely following the opening its first brick-and-mortar establishment at McGill University almost at the same time back October 2014.
It kind of reminds me of NYC coffee shops with the minimalist, industrial chic decor but has a large coffee roaster in the back and a few tables and stools by the bar to sit in. The cold brew is great for not being too acidic and it doesn’t even need milk of any type.
Dispatch has a pastry chef who concocts wonderful pastries. Regrettably, I keep missing out on their house made Oreo. Their olive oil cake was wonderfully light, moist, and has some light fruitiness of the olive oil. Their Vietnamese inspired affogato was insanely good. A scoop of not too sweet Vietnamese coffee ice cream made with their beans and condensed milk then topped off with an excellent pull of espresso. The latter is the one of my ideal desserts for the summer.
Information:
Dispatch Coffee
Website
267 Rue Saint Zotique O
Montréal, QC H2V 1A4
Canada
Map
Phone:+1 514-229-5008
Café Plume is located opposite Parc Jeanne Mance in the Plateau Mont Royal. Weekends are designated as laptop-free at Café Plume unless you plant yourself near the bay windows. What charms me about this place is the laid back, friendly, neighborhood café vibe with cool local art hung on the walls.
Café Plume uses coffee primarily from Verve. Their coffee was very fine indeed. My cortado was one of my favorites in Montréal, not too fruity and not too acidic. The cold brew was also very nice and the acidity was tamed as well.
Information:
Cafe Plume
Website
123 Avenue du Mont-Royal O
Montréal, QC H2T 2S9
Map
Phone:+1 514-903-2618
Café Névé is a spacious, unassuming cafe in the neighborhood of Plateau-Mount Royal. They use beans from Cut Coffee from Toronto, Ontario and Anchored Coffee from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The food is made in-house and most are from scratch. It’s a bustling shop where locals walk in ordering their caffeine of choice and most take it to go, while others linger over a long conversation or reading the local newspaper.
I had their blueberry scone and cortado and both were great. The scone was wonderfully buttery and flaky, dotted with fresh blueberries. The cortado was pleasantly acidic and slightly nutty.
Information:
Café Névé
Website
151 Rue Rachel E
Montréal, QC H2W
Canada
Tel. +1 514-903-9294
Map
While coffee isn’t necessarily in the forefront for Chez Boris but they do make a very good latte to go along with their Russian doughnuts (known as pyshki).
These doughnuts are different than the ones I’m used to having, it’s smaller, light, puffy and melting relatively quickly in the mouth and not too sweet even when they are coated in sugar. There are other flavors like chocolate and cinnamon and they were great as well.
They have an indulgent beignewich — a savory sandwich made with their unsweetened doughnuts. Mine was sandwiched in a fried egg and fried bacon. It is one intense of a breakfast sandwich.
Information:
Chez Boris
Website
5151 Av du Parc
Montréal, QC H2V 4G3
Canada
Phone:+1 514-900-1965
Map
To view photos of this visit, please CLICK HERE for the full photo set or view the gallery below:
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