We have a long rich history of featuring exciting new Canadian cafes as part of the Build-Outs feature series, and 2024 is no different. Our first glance northwards takes us to Ottawa, home to senators, the Senators, and an exciting new coffee bar called Little Victories Coffee. Let’s check it out!
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 Andrew Bassett.
For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?
Little Victories Coffee is a small, independent specialty coffee roaster based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada that is owned and operated by two coffee professionals—one roaster and one barista. We operate three cafes and a roastery supplying the city and cafes all across Canada. Our core goal is dedicated to elevating the coffee culture in Ottawa and contributing to the bustling Canadian coffee scene.
Can you tell us a bit about the new space?
Our third location opened on April 15th, 2024, after a build out that took four months to complete. This location has been a dream of ours since seeing it for the first time almost seven years ago. When building this shop, we wanted to push limits and do something the city hadn’t seen before with an emphasis on quality design and materials. We decided to run with a concept in which coffee is the sole focus and our goal with the space became inherently clear: serve the best coffee possible through an elevated brew bar experience.
With that in mind, we chose to break down each different area in our shop to excel in its expertise. Our two custom Slayer Espresso machines are responsible for serving all our “regular” offerings, with a dedicated Slayer Steam LP for all milk based drinks, and a Slayer Espresso V3 cranking out all black coffees.
Our slow pour area, where all our filter coffees are prepared, is tucked away in the back of the shop with some seating and a counter height built-in brewing area. Using two different techniques, pourover and aeropress, our staff serve filters exclusively using the two methods. Bank & Queen does not have standard drip available.
We chose to dedicate each station in the shop to the complexity and beauty offered within well sourced, roasted, and served coffees. There are up to four different espressos being served here daily, with our house espresso, single origin offerings, sugar processed decaf and a new espresso blend currently being tailored to black coffee, all pouring daily.
What’s your approach to coffee?
LVC’s primary goal as a business is to elevate coffee culture within Ottawa and Canada with a quality focused approach. We source predominantly through direct relationships with producers and choose to work with producers and importers smaller than the major companies within the industry.
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
Our shop features two Slayer espresso machines, one dedicated for black coffee and one dedicated for milk based beverages, as well as four Mahlkönig E80 grinders (1 x GBW, 3 x E80S), a EK43S as well as a plethora of Acaia scales, Ohaus scales, Fellow kettles with Loveramics and Hasami porcelain for glassware. We are planning to add our second Lyn Weber EG1 to this pour-over bar to match our flagship location.
How is your project considering sustainability?
We always consider the environment and the sustainability aspect of our cafes with how we try to minimize waste. One of the main aspects of how we run our shops is that we deliver our coffee to our shops in reusable, 15lb pails, rather than traditional 5lb bags, as it significantly reduces our waste and foot print. This helps us save thousands of 5lb bags from landfill every year.
What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?
We opened our cafe on April 15th, 2024 after taking possession of the Space on January 15th!
Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?
We worked with Old Chum Building co for the general construction, Croske Construction for our glass pastry case, Roundhouse Painting for the paint work, Pascale Arpin for the traditional gold leaf gilding signage on the windows, while we designed the cafe completely ourselves.
Thank you!
Thank you so much for considering us!
