Kawa Espresso Bar

After a morning of running around on Saturday, we headed downtown to check out a place called Kawa Espresso Bar located just off 13 Ave SW and 8 St, right across the street from Jelly Modern Doughnuts. I have been meaning to come down here for quite some time.

Kawa [pronounced Ka’va] is Polish for coffee.

The decor of Kawa is very trendy and modern. There is a reasonable amount of seating both indoors and outdoors. The walls have a variety of artwork that appears to be for sale. The shop also sells a variety of coffee equipment and an assortment of 49th Parallel coffee. They sell baked goods that looked outstanding.

Today we decided to have some lunch while we there. What caught our eye today was that they were serving homemade cabbage rolls. The girl that served us said that the chef cooks them at home and brings them in. My wife and daughter said “Say no more that’s what we will have”. I went with the sausage and perogies. All of our meals we excellent. After that we decided to share a dessert, we ordered the Cherry Whiskey Cheesecake and the Coconut Cream Cake. Both desserts were excellent as well.

For drinks today we ordered a couple London Fog’s and I had a Caramel Machiatto. The espresso blend Kawa was serving was 49th Parellel’s “Old School Espresso”. I first had this blend when I was in Vancouver recently at the 49th Parallel on West 4th in East Vancouver. This is an excellent blend that has flavours of cocoa, caramel and molasses. The other thing I wanted to mention is make sure when you check these places out that you get your beverage in a glass mug or cup. Believe me when I say, the drink tastes way better. To-go cups do not do the coffee or tea justice.

Today from 3pm – 6pm, Kawa had a Jazz Jam going on. As we were sitting there, they were setting up.

If you decide to come down to Kawa a little later in the evening and coffee isn’t your beverage and would prefer something a little stronger, Kawa has a very extensive wine and beer menu. The other thing I noticed was their hours, Sunday to Thursday they are open until 11pm and Friday and Saturday, they are open until 2am.