Edmonton's Best Indie Coffee Shops

Canadians have an almost cult fascination with coffee. There are two or three famous franchise coffee spots on any given block, but a new type of corner café is brewing in Edmonton. The independent coffee shop — the next generation or third-wave in pop-culture java.

Coffee as Art

Coffee Bureau, located at 10505 Jasper Avenue in the Edmonton neighbourhood of Rossdale, is just one shop in an eclectic line-up of indie cafes in the city's downtown coffee district. This independent coffee house is owned and operated by Peter West who says his customers appreciate good coffee in the same way that others appreciate a fine glass of wine. He picked the location because he believed that there was sufficient pedestrian traffic and people working in offices nearby to support his business.

The baristas, to borrow the terminology from you-know-who, know all about the coffee beans they grind and prepare in a unique way. This is not where folks just "put on" a pot of coffee. They prepare "slow coffee." Coffee is an art not just a hot cup of something guaranteed to keep your eyes open. Coffee Bureau is open Monday to Friday from 7 am to 5:30 pm and Saturday 9 to 3ish.

Credo

This is another third-wave indie shop also Downtown on 104 Street with a second location at Stony Plain and 124 Street in the Oliver/Glenora neighbourhood. Geoff Linden opened the first location six years ago and is good-naturedly referred to as Edmonton's "godfather of coffee," proving that there was a demand for good coffee shops in the inner-city as well as room for more.

Transcend Coffee Mercer

This shop is on the same street as the original Credo in the historic Mercer Warehouse Building. It's been open for two years and was the third shop the owner Poul Mark has opened in Edmonton. A fourth location will open in 2017 in the new Ritchie Market. Fresh-roasted superior quality coffee is what Transcend aspires to provide its customers. Transcend is open 7:30 to 7:30 weekdays, Saturdays 9 am to 7:30 pm and unlike other downtown indie shops is open Sundays 10 am to 4 pm.

Lock Stock Coffee

Owner Sal Di Maio was in Australia and loved the third-wave coffee culture he discovered there last year. The observed that Aussie coffee shops were only open until 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon. He thought that since most people stop drinking coffee early in the day that he would bring that regard for coffee drinking to Edmonton. Interestingly, Australians have a distinct disdain for coffee shop chains and work hard to promote their unique, independent coffee roasters, wholesalers and street-front businesses.

Lock Stock Coffee is at 10534 Jasper Avenue, another shop in this tight-knit community of coffee aficionados that are creating a coffee community rather that competing against each other. Di Maio told Avenue Magazine that the more independent coffee shops there are and the fewer coffee chain locations there are, the better for Edmonton.

He notes that there's room for everyone and that each independent shop provides a different experience that the other.