Caffé Artigiano, the Real Home of 49th Parallel

Originally uploaded by, and used with permissions from kennymatic.

I discovered Caffé Artigiano a few years ago on one of my first trips to Vancouver BC. At that time I really didn’t know much about the coffee they served other than the fact that I thought the coffee was good. I also really liked the decor of the particular retail location I visited and the reason I went there was simply as matter of convenience due to its close proximity to the hotel where I was staying. Of course if the place even hinted mediocre coffee, I certainly would not have stepped in the door.

However, since that timer, though I have been to Vancouver again on numerous occasions, I haven’t been back. Not because I didn’t like the coffee or anything like that, but simply because I wanted to take the opportunity to try other coffee shops during my limited stays. So one cafe that I discovered, just a couple of blocks away from the Caffé Artigiano location that I frequented before, was Scuié, the Italian style cafe and espresso place.

The other interesting thing that I noticed on my subsequent visits was that Artigiano had multiple locations in the city and that put me off a little, especially since some of the locations did not look as great as the one that I first visited. But what was interesting I found that as I was doing my various write-ups of coffee shops in Vancouver and Victoria BC, more than once, readers suggested that I should go check-out Artigiano for some of the best coffee in Vancouver.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks back, this is when I took my second trip to Victoria BC. Due to the fact that to my plan of action was to visit coffee shops that I had not tried the last time, and that these would be coffee shops that were within walking distance from my hotel. I expected that I would include Murchies Tea & Coffee, even though I had been to the place the previous time, but then I found out that a couple of doors down, in the bottom location of the Bedford Regency Hotel on Government Street, there was a small Caffé Artigiano, the same kind of set up as Stumptown at the bottom of the Ace Hotel in Portland.

I decided that here was my opportunity to try it out again so that I can this time around do a write-up on the place. I am really glad I tried the coffee there for a couple of reasons.

The first reason is simply because the coffee I was served was actually pretty good. I really enjoyed my double short (8 oz) latte. The coffee was nice and strong with great flavor. It was interesting to that they actually do serve short (i.e. 8 oz) lattes because a lot of the coffee shops in Victoria only offer 12 and 16 oz cups. There is one other place in Victoria that I can tell you for sure, Habit Coffee also offers the option of an 8 oz cup as part of its standard coffee menu.

The second reason I am glad I went there is because I discovered that Artigiano serves 49th Parallel coffee beans. So what? Well, there is only one coffee shop in Seattle that uses 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters‘ beans and that is Trabant Coffee & Chai down on 2nd Avenue. I’ve been there a few times and the baristas there swear by 49th Parallel as the best coffee beans in the Pacific Northwest which is a pretty bold statement to make in Seattle. Especially considering that 49th Parallel is actually a Canadian based roasting company from Burnaby (Vancouver) BC. What is even more interesting is that the founders and owners of Artigiano are also the founders and owners of 49th Parallel.

This brings me to the third reason why I am glad I checked out Artigiano. This past weekend, the World Barista Championship 2009 competition just concluded in Atlanta, GA. The first place winner was Gwilym Davis of London England, but in an extremely close second finish was Sammy Piccolo the founder and owner of 49th Parallel and Artigiano. He holds the distinction of being the only barista to have come in the top 3 spot over the past four competitions, including this year’s competition. He is also considered to be one of, if not the best barista in Canada. So it was great to be able to check out a coffee shop owned by and enjoy the beans roasted by the second place finisher in the WBC 2009.

I think the fact that Piccolo is pretty much involved in his coffee business kind of shows in the attitudes of the baristas at the place. I thought the baristas, who took my order, made my drink and chatted about their coffee were great, and very gracious. They gave me a bit of info about the company and the beans, including the blend that they use for espresso, i.e. the Private Reserve Espresso blend. I think it would be interesting if Piccolo decided to open up a shop in Seattle, it would be interesting to see how they would do. I mean, if Kaladi Brothers can do it, then why not?

April 27, 2009 0

Victoria Coffee Culture Not Quite Up After Dark

Murchies, originally uploaded by andai.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a weekend trip to Victoria BC so that I could once again sample Victoria’s growing coffee scene. This is the second trip that I have taken to Victoria over the last 12 months.

The last time I visited, I was there for a couple days before heading up to Vancouver and at that time I was able to visit a number of Victorian coffee shops including the following; Serious Coffee, Sounds Like Coffee, Dolce Vita Coffee Art, Murchies Tea and Coffee, and White Heather Tea Room – for afternoon tea. I also checked out Salt Spring Coffee while I was on the way to Victoria.

I can tell you that with all that caffeine in my bloodstream, I was super alert the whole time I was there.. and as hard as it might be to believe, I may have actually drunk a tad too much espresso for the short time that I was there. So this time around I needed a slightly different approach. I was only going to be there from Saturday late in the morning, leaving the next day in the afternoon meaning I had a really small window of opportunity in which to sample as much as I could without getting over caffeinated. So the game plan was instead of ordering 12 oz lattes all the time, I would in some cases just order the 8 oz lattes… still maintaining the double espresso shots though. At the very least, it would not be as filling so I should be able to sample more places.

The other limitation I was facing was that since I wasn’t driving, all the places I was to try out would have to be within reasonable walking distance. I didn’t think this would be a problem at all since Victoria, relative to its size, actually does have a lot of coffee shops, all within easy walking distance from the downtown harbor area.

Union Pacific Coffee Company Sign, originally uploaded by andai.

I didn’t have a list of actual coffee shops that I wanted to visit, but there were a couple that I had in mind including Mirage Coffee, Union Pacific and Grindstone Cafe. Someone had also suggested that I should check out Caffe Artigiano, which I had done the first time I ever visited Vancouver and Macchiato. I was not able to sample anything at Grindstone, nor Union Pacific because they were closed, but I was able to visit; Macchiato, Mirage Coffee, Caffe Artigiano, Habit Coffee and also The Empress Hotel, for Afternoon tea.

So what do I think about Victoria’s coffee scene? I think in general, they are doing relatively great. I think the scene is growing little by little and there is certainly excellent coffee to be had. I would say that my top three coffee shops were Habit Coffee, Caffe Artigiano and Mirage Coffee, and this includes comparing with my previous trip to Victoria.

The one thing that I think is still lacking is the late night coffee scene, hence the title of this blog “… Not Quite Up After Dark” which is a play on words regarding Union Pacific, a coffee house that closes by five, and reopens as a tasting restaurant (modeled after Salt) called ‘Up After Dark’. This was my main takeaway about coffee in Victoria is that most of the coffee shops seem to close relatively early, anywhere between 5:00 and 6:00 PM… 7:00 is certainly pushing it. I actually complained about this to the folks of Habit Coffee and they told me what they were actually thinking of staying open much later. I think that would certainly help grow the coffee culture in Victoria.

My other big takeaway is that Victoria is certainly coming on its own… plenty of room to grow, but if you certainly love great espresso, you have more than a couple of excellent options in Victoria… just make sure you don’t get there too late otherwise you may find your favorite coffee shop closed for the evening. 😉

Over the next week or so I will be blogging about each of these five places I visited so come on back…

April 20, 2009 2

Gwilym is the 2009 World Barista Champion

nuova simonelli espresso machine at the 2009 NWRBC, originally uploaded by andai.

And there you have it. A heart felt congratulations to Gwilym Davis from London, who emerged top barista in the 2009 World Barista Championship held this year in Atlanta GA after beating five other contestants with a total score of 623 points.

Sammy Piccolo of Canada came in second with 619.5 points and Michael Phillips third with 618.5 points. Pretty close race I must say. Rounding out the top six were Colin Harmon of Ireland, Lee Jong Hoon of South Korea (or Republic of Korea) and Attila Molnar of Hungary who came in fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively.

Gwilym Davis from London, England, in addition to winning Best Barista also took the Best Espresso and Best Signature Drink categories. It was a little harder for me to find out more information about Davis, but I guess he serves his espresso creations out of Gwilym & Crew’s Coffee Carts in London’s Whitecross Street and Columbia Road Martket Flower Market. They use Square Mile Coffee Roasters‘ beans. Apparently a lot of baristas and roasters go to him for their drinks… and now that the cat is out of the bag, I expect his lines to get even longer.

Sammy Piccolo is is highly regarded as the best barista in Canada and when I say this I think I am understating this. It so happens that he is the only barista to actually have placed in the top three spots in the World Championships four times in a row (including this just concluded competition). Now one of the reasons I am really excited about Sammy being in the top three is with regard to Caffé Artigiano and 49th Parallel. He and his brother started the Vancouver based franchise, Caffé Artigiano, a coffeehouse that I have visited on a few occasions, in Vancouver BC and also in Victoria BC. I have a blog post regarding my most recent trip to Victoria a couple of weeks back where I talk about my visit to Caffé Artigiano. I also didn’t know he is also the co-founder of 49th Parallel, a coffee roaster that does a pretty awesome job, yet, many that I have talked to, even in the barista/coffeehouse arena, have not really heard about. I can tell you that I think they do an awesome job and you can get 49th Parallel beans at Caffé Artigiano if you are in Vancouver or Victoria BC. For those of you in Seattle, head on down to Trabant Coffee. As far as I know, this is the only place in Seattle where you can taste 49th’s awesomeness.

Michael Phillips is a Chicago based barista with Intelligentsia Coffee. One thing interesting about Intelligentsia is that they are very actively involved in the coffee scene with regards to training baristas and tend to be well represented at the various barista competitions. The only place that you can certainly get Intelligentsia coffee is at Specialty’s Bakery and Cafe. There are a few in Seattle, however be warned that the Specialty’s on 4th Avenue does not serve Intelligentsia coffee but actually serves Peets Coffee. Unfortunately I don’t know of any traditional, non-chain indie coffeehouse or coffee shop in the Seattle area that serves Intelligentsia so Specialty’s is what I would go off on for now. Now if you happen to be in Victoria BC, you can get Intelligentsia at Dolce Vita Coffee Art but other than that, I don’t really know of any other coffeehouse in Vancouver or Victoria. If you do know of any other coffee shop in the Pacific Northwest that does serve Intelligentsia, please let us know in the comments.

I was not able to attend the competition but I was able to follow some of the buzz on twitter.

April 19, 2009 3

Caffè Artigiano Coffee House

Caffe Artigiano Coffee House, originally uploaded by andai.

I first visited one of the Caffè Artigiano shops a couple of years back on one of my previous visits to Vanvouver BC. I had passed by the one on Hornby Street, just off of Robson a couple of times and I really liked the interior decor so I made it a point to drop in. At that time I was simply enjoying good coffee so I wasn’t making a point of finding out anything about the beans used etc.

I also don’t remember too much about their coffee except that I remember that I really enjoyed drinking it and taking pictures in the shop. I also went back to the store at least one more time during my short visit at that time. And the only reason that I didn’t go back to Artigiano this last time I visited was the fact that I wanted to check out some new shops and also revisit Sciue but I have placed Artigiano on the revisit list for sure.

Finally, I don’t know how many stores they had at that time when I visited, but it seemed this last time around that they are growing in popularity. I base that conclusion simply on the fact that I noticed that there were a number of people I saw in the streets who were carrying Artigiano coffee cups… and that must say something…

August 16, 2008 0

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