Manic Coffee

August 2nd, 2014 - Second cafe visited was Manic Coffee
426 College St.
M-F: 7a - 9p
Sa-Su: 8a - 9p

On the familiar route to Kensington Market, the mr. and I took a trip down to the College and Bathurst area to check out Manic Coffee. We grabbed a streetcar from Bathurst station, and took it down to College, then walked about a block east to the cafe.

Manic Coffee - located right on College St., just east of Bathurst (on the north side)

Walking into the cafe, we were greeted with a simple interior on one side, and stunning brick walls and wood details on the other side. I walked up to the counter, and took a peek at the menu. Then I stood. And I waited... 

Menu, and a small section for some baked goods

And I waited some more... So I took some pictures.

They had packaged vegan baked goods available from Sweets from the Earth. When I had read that they had lots of vegan options, I was excited - but really, you can get Sweets from the Earth pretty much anywhere... Even some Second Cup locations now (which is always good). I like it when these smaller cafes have a bit more of an assortment of this type of thing, but it's not the biggest factor for me enjoying myself.

Some take-home coffee

Their special blend

 Along the brick wall, they displayed a section with their own branded coffee, which is really cute. That little squirrel is adorable...
(I need to add - at this point, I was still waiting to have someone ask me to take my order, but there wasn't a line-up. So I took more pictures...)

The random setup of chairs along the wall is cute, and I'm guessing it's a spot for people to sit while they're waiting for their coffee. 

At this point, it had been a few minutes since I was waiting at the counter, and I was getting annoyed that no one had acknowledged that I was there. I kept looking over at Richard and felt like apologizing for bringing him here, but I just waited some more. 

And I took some more pictures... 

 There was a  lot of random art on the walls, which I quite like. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to see things like this. It also gives you something to look at if you're waiting for a long time...
Someone finally came up to the counter, and took my order (yay!). I grabbed a vanilla almond milk latte (my usual), paid, and proceeded to wait some more. So I took some more pictures...

I'll be honest - I didn't like these colourful paintings (or whatever they were) on the walls, but art is always subjective anyway. They were still interesting to look at.

The section of paintings on the wall above the waiting line of chairs near the coffee bar reminded me of Dark Horse - I wonder if they get that a lot...

So I had waited a little while for my drink, and walked over to the counter to see what was taking so long. I saw one person pouring the steamed milk into my mug, and got excited because it was ready! It didn't look so great, but it was ready - and then he poured it out. (Why?! Why would you do that to a latte? I cried a little inside...)

Then it all made sense - I asked why he did that, and he said "I'm new..." A-HAH! Now I understand the waiting, the waiting more, and the pouring out of a latte... I can completely sympathize with them at this point, because we've all been new at some point or another. And making latte art, especially on temperamental almond milk, is a challenge at even the best of times. It's good that they were working with him at a time that wasn't so busy.

So I checked my patience, and stopped muttering to myself in my head about having to wait this long for a drink, and let them do their thing. The second latte looked very pretty, and I happily (and carefully) took it over to my seat.

Very nice... :)

The mr. asked me what I ordered, and he opted to order the same - along with some of their gelato (yum!). He grabbed the coconut lime flavour, and I'll admit - it was pretty darn good!

 When you're off to the right of the coffee bar, you'll see a long line of gelato. They had 6 ones that were vegan friendly, so we had our pick from a few interesting flavours. I love the combination of coffee with a nice gelato, though I do wish they had a vegan chocolate one. I would have loved to pour a shot of espresso over a nice, rich, dark chocolate gelato. Maybe next time!

The lime coconut gelato - very delicious! 

The mr. drinking his latte

While I was sipping on my drink, the mr. had a funny look on his face. He asked me how mine was, and I took another thoughtful sip before answering "it's very good actually, how is yours?"

He wasn't too happy with what he was drinking, and asked to taste mine to see if it tasted like vanilla. He really liked how mine tasted and looked (his didn't have any fancy latte art), so I tasted his. 

A big factor in any cafe experience is consistency. If a product isn't consistent, it won't keep you coming back for more. I was really sad to see/taste that his latte wasn't anything near as good as mine was, yet we had ordered the same drink. This immediately put a damper on the experience for me because I can't enjoy my experience if the people I'm with aren't also enjoying it. He drank his latte anyway, and decided to not say anything to the people behind the counter. 

I like their custom mugs :)

 That part aside, my latte was still delicious, and I did enjoy the simplicity of the cafe. It was definitely a place I could see myself bringing a book to, and just spending an hour or so reading. Mind you, at just under $5 per almond milk latte - if my drink didn't taste up to par I would have taken it back to the counter. But that's just me...

I don't "rate" these cafes I'm visiting on any scale, but I would say to give this place a try. The people working there were nice, and the atmosphere seemed to be very relaxed. It's also in a great location, very close to Kensington Market (which we went over to after finishing their drinks). One thing I will say to be careful of though is going down to the washroom. You'll hit your head going down the stairs if you're a) tall, and b) clumsy. ;) But that's nothing they can really control hahaha

For something more random... This is the image on their saucers :) heehee...