This morning a friend and I decided to go on a coffee tour of our area. Residing in the Grange we did our initial stop on Baldwin St. We dared to entered John's cafe for a latte and was kindly guided to another spot unknown to us called T.A.N. coffee for what was termed "Real coffee". More businesses should take this quite unselfish to community business building.
Intially we kind of joked looking at a sign made of Doilies and the hand written with letters"T" " A" "N", that inside we would find 70 year old hippies baking spiked brownies, but our luck would have no such thing.
So we were welcomed by a cute guy with a mock mohawk, and the sound of Black Keys churning in the background.
A worn in environment that worked for this type of walk. Quite cosy in fact, reclaimed chairs, lop sided tables, and interesting photos (which when we asked were also the coffee guy's work...so not to look like i was trying to pick him up, I peeked at his art tags a now know him as Justin). We knew this day was to start extremely well. Yes I am easily persuaded into a good time by cute boys and rock 'n' roll.
We asked for a large Latte and were kindly told this drink had an extra shot of espresso. We need to make a day out of this, so we settled for what was called a "real latte"... The coffee art guy name Justin obviously took his coffee serious by the way he brushed of every last bit of stray coffee and watched the coffee pouring into the cup as if one extra drip would be the end of the world (actually kind of of weird).
Finally our drinks were finished, in a cool indigo latte cup, with an awesome looking rosetta (only ever seen at BullDog cafe), my sidekick was presented with a Tulip that looked to be drawn on with a stencil. Black keys still playing, a latte that was aestectically pleasing and smooth as velvet with the sweetness one comes to expect from a ($3.50) coffee. Our coffee day was officially over at that point, because we ordered another one to go and even got a free drip coffee for next time. This was definitely a worth while trip and a worth while review, a must go back type of place.
T.A.N.got a 4 thumbs up and a wink to the cute boy behind the bar. read more