Extreme Coffee Freak

I have driven through Kensington hundreds of times, noticing new buildings being built and older ones being remodelled. At this time in my adult life, I think it would be cool to live down in Kensington across the street from what is going to be a very cool coffeehouse. That would be a dream, but also very dangerous because I know where I would be hanging out constantly.

I have waited patiently for Espresso Café to open, I sent a few messages to them via Instagram, only to be told to be patient, and opening is going to happen soon. Espresso Café is finally open!!

 

The Interior

Inside the cafe, there is a ton of seating. Lots of regular tables, and a very long high table in the middle of the cafe as you walk in. They have several large purple velvet couches to relax on over by the fireplace. Don’t let the purple velvet fool you, Espresso Café is beautifully decorated, sparing no expense and it shows, from the wallpaper to the lighting. Very tastefully decorated.

The coffee bar, outfitted with a great array of coffee gadgetry, beautiful pendant lamps which provide plenty of light for the baristas to make the nectar of the gods.

Probably one of the coolest things they have in this shop is the baby grand piano by the coffee bar. The night we were there, they had a gentleman playing it, and my daughter loved it because he was playing an assortment of Disney tunes. Things got cooler when he got up and the piano kept playing.

 

The Drinks

We ordered the following drinks: my wife had ordered the Lavender Lemonade, she said that it had nice flavoring. My daughter had a Matcha Latte and I went with the Vanilla Latte. Great flavour. I was particularly happy as I seen that they were serving Timbertrain Coffee from Vancouver.  When we decided to have some dessert, my wife ordered a Cream of Assam, also very good.

The Food

We ordered the following: my wife ordered the Traditional Benedict, my daughter ordered the Porchetta Benedict. I know what you are saying, they ordered breakfast for dinner. Did I tell you that Espresso Café serves breakfast all day? I didn’t go with the breakfast that night, I had the Turkey Club Sandwich with fries. All food was outstanding except the fries, they aren’t fresh cut. Which is too bad because it would make the meal just that much better. Take a look at the pictures, the chefs here do an amazing job plating your meal.

After we had our dinner we sat around a while taking in the amazing environment the owners have put together. The owners were actually sitting down a few tables having dinner as well. So after about 30-45 minutes we decided to get ourselves some dessert. I ordered their traditional cheesecake, which was very creamy and delicious. My daughter ordered the Crème Brulee, which too was really good. My wife ordered the lemon cookie, unfortunately, this was not very good.  It was soft but once you got it into your mouth, it almost tasted pasty and lacked lemon flavoring, to her liking.

The Service

The service at Espresso Café was outstanding, staff were helpful and extremely friendly. We had even made a comment to our server and a few minutes later Ali, the manager, came over and addressed our concern. We ended up talking with him for about 30 minutes. The ownership group and managers are committed to making your experience at Espresso Café a memorable one.  The comments below are off their website, and based on what I have witnessed, they are walking the walk and talking the talk.

“Our mission will be to make best efforts to create an exclusive place where our customers will be able to socialize in a relaxing and comfortable environment as they enjoy the best brewed coffee or espresso in town.”

The next morning, I stopped back to pick up my phone that I misplaced at Espresso Café. It was 7:15am and when I walked in, I saw a couple of the same girls from the night before once again they had huge smiles on their faces and were again extremely friendly.

 

The Hours

The hours at this place are amazing for a Kensington based location are as follows:

Monday to Thursday: 6am to 11pm

Friday: 6am to 12am

Saturday: 7am to 12am

Sunday: 7 am to 11pm

What’s great about these hours is that I guy can have dinner at home and then come down here for a coffee and some dessert. Did I mention the Classic Cheesecake.

 

Parking

Parking is at a premium as it is down in Kensington. You may have to do a little hunting to find somewhere to park, but Kensington is very walkable. Many unique shops to check out. Then when you are ready to leave Espresso Café, get yourself a coffee for the walk back to your car.

 

Last Words

What I have noticed since they have opened is that they are getting local talent in to perform and entertain their customers which is great. (Always love to support the local talent). The other thing I noticed while on their website that they want to support Calgary’s Police, Fire fighters and On Duty Paramedics with discounted prices. Bravo.

Bottom line here is I really love what I am seeing out of the Espresso Café, so please get out and support these guys. They are selling a complete experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Has your mouth ever started to water as you got a whiff of a delicious burger? Have you ever become really hungry after seeing the wonderful site of a hamburger? Do you know the feeling of burger juices oozing onto your fingers as you take your first bite? Have you ever gotten excited after hearing of a new burger place you just have to try? Most importantly do you know what an amazing hamburger truly tastes like? If your answer was yes, then Dragon’s Lair is the place you have to visit.

The Interior

Their restaurant is located in Westbrook Mall, unfortunately this is a mall that time has forgotten. This mall is extremely dated, with only a few real stores in it. Dragon’s Lair is located in the food court which is not really big. Seating is very limited, we just happened to go to the mall on Easter weekend and they had a petting zoo in the mall. Which in turn has a hundred-people standing in line with their kids. The food court is full of people who have taken up seats and not eating a thing. Dragon’s Lair was extremely busy. The line was about 10 deep when we got in line and stayed pretty much like that until we left. Nevertheless, Dragon’s Lair is worth the trip.

The Food

We ordered a couple of ¼ lb burgers, with fries and onion rings. I ordered the ½ lb burger and an order of onion rings. Mine was built from a blank canvas, where I added cheddar cheese, lettuce, onion, mustard and spicy chipotle mayo. After I got my burger I realized that I should have added bacon, next time I will not forget. The patties were cooked nicely and the burger was kept simple, but full of flavour. The bun was soft and the bun to meat ratio was well balanced with all the fillings, making the burger very easy to eat, before I knew it, it was all gone. As my daughter would say, “sad face”.

First off, I want to say that these burgers were excellent. You have your choice of many vegetables to put on to your burger. They have house made relishes and a huge assortment of sauces to put on your burger as well. They also offered sautéed mushrooms and onions. The only downside, their French fries should be fresh cut.

Dragon’s Lair has been recognized at the Alberta Burger fest with numerous wins. I do plan on going back to try the Dragon’s Lair burger, it is a $21.00 behemoth that I would like to try and take down.

The Drinks

They offer an assortment of fountain drinks, milkshakes and an assortment of bottled beverages. While we were there, I did see lots of people ordering milkshakes.

 

The Service

This is a mom and pop run place and the service shows. Right from the lady at the till taking the orders to the guys making your burger, everyone was friendly, very helpful and very accommodating.

Parking

Its mall parking, what else can I say?

 

Last words

If I were you, I would go for a drive to Westbrook Mall and have yourself a burger at Dragon’s Lair. Food and service is outstanding. I truly believe this place could support a stand-alone restaurant. I can’t wait until our next visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday morning, I was scoping out Instagram and came across a picture of a very colorful coffee shop. When I saw that it was a local shop in Calgary, I was thrilled and knew we needed to go.

We decided to check out The Muze Coffeehouse, which is located in Chinatown.

A coffee shop and bakery in the basement must provide wonderful smells in the rest of the building. I knew as soon as we walked in, the smell of freshly baked goods hits you right in the face. Oh, what a smell, it is intoxicating.  What’s crazy is there appears to be no empty business spaces in Chinatown, every space has a business in it, and this makes for a very colourful, beautiful neighbourhood.

The Interior

The shop is located in the basement of the building but with very large windows at street level, you don’t feel that you are below street level. The interior is very bright and colorful. The interior is what I found most interesting.

The shop itself is not very big and seats about 10-15 people. While we were there, lots of people were coming in to pick up baked goods and then leaving.

They also have some cool artwork on the walls.

 

The Drinks

The drinks we ordered were as follows; my wife ordered the Chai Tea Latte, my daughter ordered a London Fog and I ordered Vanilla Latte. They serve Rosso coffee.

The Vanilla Latte had better flavour than the one that I had purchased at Rosso recently.

My wife’s Chai Tea Latte was pretty good, I really think that my wife should stop ordering these as I really don’t think she enjoys them anymore. She had a bad experience at a shop that has recently shut down.

My daughter said that her London Fog was the best she had ever had and was extremely delicious. She believes that the tea was brewed first and then the milk was slowly added so that the flavours were heightened. We believe they used evaporated milk to make it very creamy. I really believe that my daughter will not have a London Fog anywhere else now. We have friends that have said that this is a traditional way of making a Milk Tea, and I have to say that the traditional way is the only way.

 

The Food

The Muze Coffeehouse has partnered up with Jing Jing Bakery. The bakery has been around for 30+years, and I can see why.

While I was looking around the shop I only seen two ovens in the back. These ovens had to be working overtime because as we were sitting there, tray after tray of fresh baked goods were rolling out of the back. The guy that was bringing out the trays was explaining to us what was on each tray, and then telling us which were his favorites. Some of his favorites are now our favorites. One thing I can say is everything we purchased that day was very delicious and very reasonably priced.

I know I am going to get this wrong but we had ordered a couple of coconut buns, a raisin twisty bread and lastly we bought a loaf of their round raisin bread. I enjoyed this toasted with some butter since that was the way they told me to eat this.

When we visit next time, we are definitely trying the Egg Tarts, since everyone we have talked to said that they are amazing and there is nothing else like them.

The Service

There were numerous people working the day we were in the shop and everyone was very friendly and helpful. I did have a chat with one of the owners and he was extremely friendly and a pleasure to talk with. We talked about the vision in getting this shop up and running. We discussed Jing Jing Bakery going into retirement and then coming out to partner with The Muze Coffeehouse.

 

The Hours

The Muze Coffeehouse is open during the Tuesday through Friday 7:00am until 6:30pm, Saturday’s 8:00am until 6:30pm and on Sunday’s they are open 8:00am until 5:30pm, and unfortunately they are closed on Monday’s. I do wish they were open later during the week as it would be a great place to stop by after dinner and have a coffee and dessert.

 

Parking

Welcome to parking in downtown Calgary, it is street parking and it is at a premium. We ended up parking about a block away and walking a couple minutes.

 

Overall this month was a successful YYC Hot Chocolate Fest, we tried 25 different hot chocolates from 20 different locations spending roughly $300 with the average hot chocolate costing six dollars.

We tried a few more this year than we did last year. This year we really wanted to visit the more creative hot chocolates and avoid the simplistic hot chocolates.

I asked my daughter and my wife to rate their top five hot chocolates, each made their own list and wrote them down so I could type them.

My daughter’s list:

1. Rosso – Orange Blossom Hot Chocolate
2. Societe – Bumblebee
3. Blush – Pistachio Orange Blossom Bliss
4. Sucre – Orange Florentine Cocoa
5. Bubblemania – Black Sesame Hot Chocolate

My wife’s list:

1. Bridgeland – Be Still, My Beet(ing) Heart
2. Rosso – Orange Blossom Hot Chocolate
3. Societe – Bumblebee
4. Bubblemania – Black Sesame Hot Chocolate
5. Blush – Pistachio Orange Blossom Bliss

One thing both my wife and my daughter could agree on was Boogies Frozen Hot Chocolate was absolutely in a category all on its own. It was the only cold hot chocolate we had and it was amazing. We hope they keep it on the menu.

We were very pleased that we were a part of this years YYC Hot Chocolate Fest, and we are so happy that we were able to visit as many locations as we could.

Hope you all had a very chocolatey February.

After visiting Light Cellar, we drove through Kensington and tried Hexagon’s hot chocolate.

Their hot chocolate is called the Matcha Koro which is inspired by the lighthearted card game Machi Koro, Hexagon Cafe presents Matcha Koro! In the village of Machi Koro all the residents are filled with dreams that one day their small village will grow into a big city filled with bright lights. However, during the winter season, construction of the city of slows down and the people of Machi Koro sip their world famous hot chocolate Matcha Koro. Matcha Koro is white hot chocolate that is blended with matcha green tea folded together with steam milk. Garnishes include whip cream, fresh mint leaf topped with a raspberry and a green tea macaroon.

This hot chocolate had a very nice presentation, you even hot a whole matcha flavoured macaroon with the purchase of the hot chocolate. We were disappointed that they used a lower quality matcha, so you couldn’t really get the full flavour of the matcha. It was not a sweet hot chocolate despite using white chocolate in the drink. If you left the mint and raspberry in the hot chocolate, nearly half way through you started to taste the flavour.

Overall, we would like to go back and play some of the hundreds of games that they have. Such a cool cafe.

We decided to visit Light Cellar since when we tried their submission last year, we found it very good.

Their hot chocolate is called the Black Gold Hot Chocolate which is a hot chocolate loaded with the trending superfood tastes of golden turmeric & activated charcoal! Feed your body the “Black Gold” Hot Chocolate & you will feel exceptionally good!  Crafted with a creamy cacao butter base, dive into this rich, anti-inflammatory turmeric elixir topped with detoxifying activated charcoal chocolate!  Take a leap into this golden rich hot chocolate experience and be renewed, inspired, and activated!

This hot chocolate was very yellow from the tumeric, it had a chalky flavour to it, but it was still very good. It was surprisingly sweet with the flavours it had, it was also very creamy. This was one of the most expensive hot chocolates that we had tried at roughly $7.00.

Overall, this was a very healthy earthy hot chocolate.

After we visited Bubblemania we decided to stop in Bridgeland and go to Main Dish.

Their hot chocolate is called the Cinnamon Bun Hot Chocolate which is prepared with delicious flavour of cinnamon bun hot chocolate, made with real chocolate ganache for that extra rich chocolatey goodness, spiced with chili, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg. Lastly, the drink is topped off with its own mini cinnamon bun, baked in-house!

I must say if you like cinnamon this is the hot chocolate for you. Our first sip almost tasted like we were attempting the cinnamon challenge. We were disappointed with this drink and we were hoping that it would have been better than it was.

Overall, I would not have recommended this hot chocolate to anyone, just because it felt like the cinnamon challenge on first sip.

Tonight we wanted to stop at Bubblemania on 16th Ave. It was so busy and the parking lot is so bad, especially for someone who owns a big truck.

Their hot chocolate is called the Black Sesame Hot Chocolate which features Ground Black Sesame adds a nuttiness to rich hot chocolate. Topped with a Black Sesame Whipped Cream and Callebaut Dark Chocolate shavings. If Hot Chocolate and Chinese Black Sesame Dessert Soup had a baby, that baby would be this drink. It’s different yet familiar at the same time and more importantly, delicious!

We stopped in to try their interesting hot chocolate. They have a ton of flavours for their bubble teas and when we ordered we really believed that we were going to get a cold hot chocolate. So we were very surprised when we were handed a hot hot chocolate.

The hot chocolate was simple in presentation, but jam packed with flavour. We were so pleased that it was so good. To my daughter it tasted like a ferraro roche, and my wife had another profile but she couldn’t put a name to it.

Overall this hot chocolate was absolutely delicious, it had such amazing flavour.

After Bite we headed over to Boogies Burgers. We were pleasantly surprised to see that they had entered and we were very excited to try their creation.

Their hot chocolate is called the “Frozen Hot Chocolate” by earthly standards is an oxymoron, but what if you expanded your horizons to contemplate what would happen if Hot Chocolate was shot into outer space? Their Frozen Hot Chocolate is an intergalactic marriage of texture and flavor that defies earthly understanding, but speaks a language your tastebuds will understand on a cosmic level. Just to keep you from getting stuck in different dimensions while you drink this – they have grounded this beverage with an infusion of a sweet earthly delight – the Nanaimo bar.

As we were waiting it was so exciting to see that they did a cold hot chocolate. It was such a great flavour. They advertised that the milkshake tasted like Nanaimo Bars and sure enough it really did taste like that right down to the hint of coconut at the end.

It was so different from any other hot chocolate we had tried thus far. Thankfully this Frozen hot chocolate really did taste like a Nanaimo Bar and it is in a league all on its own since it was the only cold hot chocolate we had tried.

Overall, I really hope that they keep this one on the menu because I know I would go back and have another milkshake with some food.

Great job Boogies, you really did a great job.