A Dark Horse Journey
The journey began in a younger Toronto, still naive but sparked by a fiery passion and desire.
We were trying to find our place in Riverside, on the city's East side. At the time, it was an up-and-coming neighbourhood with little open besides some old mom- and-pop shops. It felt like a wild new frontier, a natural beginning of something.
We took a space so far away because there was enough room for a communal table in the window. We just wanted people to share the space with us and connect. We gutted the place to the brick, rebuilt it, and set up shop with a used 2-group espresso machine on the bar and a handmade communal table we built from a scrap metal bin and some reclaimed floorboards in the window.
Finding our place
Two months later, we opened the doors to the community for the first time and spent the next eight months riding bikes across the city daily at dawn to open up shop.
Not many people thought we could do it, not even ourselves at times, but like a true dark horse, we did!! We became the place to go for espresso, the place to break for a coffee run, and meet up with your friends. Every day felt like we met someone new who became a regular; and then a friend. Slowly, the cafe was shaped and formed by those regulars who walked through the doors and grew into its own entity.
We always wondered if we would get to 10... We pie in the sky and dreamed of it sometimes. We never thought it would happen, but here we are. A Dark Horse built on a journey from one coffee shop to a whole collection of cafes, shaped and formed by the regulars who frequent them, nestled into the city's vibrant neighbourhoods.
Finding our place all along the way.
Our Coffee
Striving to serve you specialty coffee & espresso ☕️
Our coffees are a particular point of pride—our blends, 20 Grand and Northern Dancer have sparked the community's ideas and daily lives since 2006. Psst. a little fun fact: they are also both names of storied Canadian racehorses! 🐎
We're always working and refining by offering a seasonal rotating coffee menu highlighting Single-Origin and curated Blended coffees from our ongoing producer relationships at origin.