Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Dilettantish Darkhorse


Cozy can be described as anything that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of your soul.

A cafe of recent finding has the cozy affect cornered as my new free wifi hang and coffee connection. Canadian coffee culture is a great deal like the Canadian wine culture: M.I.A.
Why the culinary bitch slap you ask? When placing a coffee order the server always asks "what do you like in your coffee" and proceeds to add the cream or sugar or ? to the cup. Yes, I know it's so wrong on so many levels but that's the long and the short of coffee here.

I consider it a Canadian cultural divide.

The Darkhorse cafe on Spidina has all the charm of an uber chic San Francisco hang coupled with the coffee culture akin to Seattle- A true hybrid. Think capitalistic love child cafe. Why the capitalist slam you ask, well this artistically barista-d cafe is more expensive than Starbucks and if you let me geek out with a purely foodie metaphor the Darkhorse cafe is Sonoma to the Toronto coffee oasis as the humble noir grape is to Sonoma. Okay, it's metaphorically a stretch but I think you get where I'm going.

If anything at all is gonna get me through the great white snowy season that awaits, it's great coffee and a cafe vibe that rivals most metropolitan cities: Barcelona comes to mind. Rome too. Perhaps it's a nod to Canadian civility as conceitedness takes a well placed stance at the back of the que right next to snotty and attitude since none of that seems to exist here at the dark horse cafe.

Today it's mixed mob of fashionistas, artist's, geeks, and office types all basking in the vibe.It looks like a deelicious trail mix of humanity.

The weather promises to offer sunshine and warmth, so the excitement level is somewhere between the Easter bunny arriving and an open bar at the Ritz . Yes, really that happy.

Of course just as I state the obvious with my neglected Ray-Bans getting some long overdue use, tomorrow may bring an entirely different vibe to my coffee experience here at the darkhorse, but today it's about as good as it gets here in the fair city of T.O.