Coffee coffee coffee and more coffee: Kawa open, De Ville sneaks up on unsuspecting Calgary coffeegeeks, and the Prairie Regional Barista Championship is this weekend

Some of this is a repost from chowhound- I’m just so busy these days…

Kawa Espresso Bar and De Ville “luxury coffee and pastries”

Well it’s been many, many months, but the wait is finally over. Kawa Espresso Bar, on the main floor of the office building at 1333 8 St SW (the space that was once General Audio), is open!

Today was the softest of soft openings- no charges for anything, just tips- this is in part because of waiting for the “maximum occupancy” certification by the city, but the place was buzzing with curious customers being plied with terrific 49th-Parallel espresso (and lattes, cappos, etc) as well as Clover-brewed Columbian. The menu will also include various panini and quesadillas, and, in due course, wines. Seeing the space with its seating, and without all the boxes and construction equipment, is inspiring. Pic of interior, which is going to look stunning at night, too:

Kawa will be open initially 6:30am-9pm seven days a week; they hope to have hours until 11 in time for Stampede.

I got the full poop on DeVille “luxury coffee and pastries” (upstairs at Art Central, Centre Street and 7th Ave) today as I got to speak to one of the owners. As I understand things, this is a venture with Saint Germain who will be providing the sweet stuff (good news as SG has tremendous deserts); they have the same espresso machine as does Kawa (a three-group Synesso) but not, at this point, a Clover. As noted earlier, this shop will be pulling beans from Chicago’s famous and respected Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters, and will be the first in Calgary to offer Intelly’s Black Cat espresso (Communitea in Canmore does as well). They’re in the midst of final renos but this pic give a little sense of what the final space will look like, at least around the bar:

DeVille has plans to open next Monday, the 26th. As you can see, they are well on their way; this alacrity is in part because this space did not entail the transition that Kawa did (including change of use permits); this was because De Ville is in the space that was until recently Palette Coffeehouse. Initial hours will be 7-7, 7 days a week, but like Kawa they will aspire to be open later since, like Kawa, they intend to offer wine.

So the 7-days-a-week (even in our downtown!) that Artigiano ushered in seems to be the pattern to follow- even in the case of the new Good Earth in the Lougheed Building, incidentally. Let’s wish all these newcomers well.

Prairie Regional Barista Championships

For the first time, the Canadian Barista Championship participants must pre-qualify at one of four regional contests, with the top three from each qualifying for next fall’s nationals in Montreal. Regionals are Eastern (Montreal), Central (Toronto), Western (Vancouver), and for the first time, Prairies (Calgary). Until now, everybody west of Ontario had to go to the Westerns, and so it was no surprise that until a couple of years ago, almost all of the competitors were from Vancouver and Victoria. As well, the nationals were (in 2006 for example) held in Vancouver as well, AND there was no regional qualifying, so anybody who showed up was eligible- this is how Bob Blumer managed to walk up and come in third, which he did for this Food Network show, Glutton for Punishment. Nobody gets to walk on to the national championships anymore, and neither is there convenience only for BC’ers anymore. I like this.

Anyway, I’m judging! I was toying with the idea until I found out that the contest takes place on Saturday and Sunday of this coming weekend- and Sunday is the 4th Street Lilac Festival, which I cannot miss. As it turns out, judging need not be a full-weekend obligation and I’ve registered to judge in the “early” (10a-1p) slot on Saturday. Training is tomorrow and I think I’d rather judge the “technical” versus “sensory” aspects of the thing (there are separate judgings for each, though I’m not sure if we’ll not be forced to recycle judges- we’ll see). We have 12 competitors signed up; six qualify for Sunday’s finals, then as I said earlier, three qualify for nationals.

My God, look how far the coffee scene has come here. I was just hoping that one or two Calgary baristas would make it to compete in Westerns in Vancouver this year. I never imagined we’d have our own (well, AB-SK-MB and the territories) here.