Café Dweller

I adore cafés. I love the smell of espresso, the sound of the cappuccino machines frothing up delicious steamy creations, and the comfy surroundings. In fact I love them so much, I tend to use them as an office for meetings or for studying. My obsession with cafés and finding the perfect café au lait have led me all over the city of Toronto trying to find the very best. So far, my biggest challenge is finding one with good music, internet access and… nice strong lattés. I don’t like the watered down variety we have in the chain operations in Canada. That is not coffee, my friends. Once you’ve tasted a perfect espresso in France, or a Café Con Leche in Spain, the run of the mill coffee based beverages here are an enormous let down. So far, I have yet to encounter my perfect café. Even if the coffee is up to par, either they have no wireless access or they have the radio blaring, commercials and all, which is anything but enjoyable. However, I love Le Gourmand http://www.legourmand.com on Spadina. The lattes are truly delicious and the fresh baked chocolate chip walnut cookies are the best I’ve ever had. The lattés at Balzac’s http://www.balzacscoffee.com are a work of art. They are poured so skillfully, you get a pretty little design in each rich, velvety cup, and they are closest to the European coffees I have encountered thus far. I’ve also recently been introduced to B Espresso on Queen East and am in love. It’s so cute and the lattés are perfection. So if you see a girl with long brown hair, glued to a laptop that looks like she hasn’t seen the sun in weeks, that’s me… and you know you’ve found a good café!