Coffee loves bikes. Bikes love coffee. The blessed union betwixt the two subcultures is long and storied, from Tour de France riders sipping espresso for a bit of extra pep in the hill stages, to Tour de Brooklyn hipsters hopping off their fixies for a pour-over. (Wow that sounds dated, does this still happen?) The city of Toronto is now home to an exciting new bike cafe, serving coffee-loving pedal-pushers in the heart of the city. A house might cost $8 million dollars for no reason right now in Toronto, but the satisfaction of riding your bike and drinking some nice coffee is priceless.
The 2024 Build-Outs of Coffee is presented by Ceado and Dona. The 2024 Build-outs of Coffee is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, La Marzocco, Acaia and Ghirardelli.
As told to Sprudge by Fred Sztabinski.
For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?
Fix is an inclusive community hub for expert bike repairs, beautiful new rides, innovative accessories, delicious coffee, and tasty bites, all under one roof. We carry inventive products that are locally and ethically-sourced, while supporting a lifestyle that impacts the Earth as little as possible. As ambassadors for outstanding bike design and specialty coffee, we’re proud to be a part of Toronto’s ever-evolving cultural community.
Can you tell us a bit about the new space?
Our new space is located within a brand new mixed-use development in Toronto’s downtown core, called The Well. For our second location, we worked with one of our regular coffee and bike customers who had experience design top-end coffee bars (Thor and Odin in Toronto), David Grant-Rubash of Phaedrus Studio, who took the time to really delve into and understand our operating needs for both specialty coffee, bike retail, and bike repair. We had to work within a small footprint (about 1,000 square feet), and so the design is both functionally and aesthetically brilliant—we love it! We have a beautiful coffee bar in the center of the space on the ground floor, surrounded by bike retail display, and service intake, with an ingenious pulley system for mounting and retrieving bikes along a 20-foot tall double-height space. And above the coffee beer, we built a mezzanine for bike repair stations. We have limited indoor cafe seating, with additional covered patio seating out front.
What’s your approach to coffee?
While we are also a professional bike shop (retail sales and service), we have always striven to ensure that our coffee game is on par with the best independent specialty coffee bars in the city. We pay attention to sourcing from the best local roasters (Quietly, Java, Epoch, and Angry), hiring and training experienced baristas, using reliable equipment, and installing systems for continual brew recipe refinement and quality control. As a neighborhood community hub, the customer experience, in terms of getting to know and connect with our customers, is just as important as ensuring our coffee quality is consistent and delicious. We also want to always offer unique pairing food items, so our baking program is run in-house in our basement kitchen at our original Gladstone location, which also supplies our new location at The Well. We are best knowns for our berry muffins and house-made cold brew!
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
Our second Mavam undercounter two-group espresso machine; Ek43 and E65 grinders from Mahlkönig; Marco undercounter hot water dispenser; RO system from Water for Coffee; FETCO batch brewer; Hatco drop-in cold well.
How is your project considering sustainability?
We encourage our roast partners to supply us with bulk beans in reusable containers; we offer bulk beans to customers in reusable containers; we participate in the local Muuse reusable cup exchange program, and offer customers a discount for using their own reusable cup; we source compostable paper cups; we encourage coffee and food to stay in ceramic-ware, instead of paper/plastic to go, as much as possible; we transfer baked goods and supplies between our locations by cargo bike; we sort our trash, including organic waste; we do not supply plastic straws.
What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?
We’ve just recently opened on March 26th, 2024
Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?
For sure: Phaedrus Studio, CNC Cutting, The Make Nice Project, Gilmore Contracting
Thank you!
Thank you!
The 2024 Build-Outs of Coffee is presented by Ceado and Dona. The 2024 Build-outs of Coffee is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, La Marzocco, Acaia and Ghirardelli.
