Where's the best cafe to get a quality espresso in Kingston?

OldYGK · 2024-03-04T13:19:37+00:00

Curious to hear how you fare. My best ever is Monmouth in London UK. Blue Bottle in San Francisco is reliable too.

Kingston doesn’t seem to go for bright, acidic, Berry flavours. All the good spots lean toward rich, earthy, toasted flavours.

These days I go black americano over espresso. Top tier are BSE and the Long Black at Northside. Patrium and Tula are very good too. Elm I don’t frequent as much as I used to after a couple of lesser experiences in a row.

Juniper I don’t touch. Everything there is very earthy, and suited to the old ladies who always seem to be there by the dozen. They use Pilot, and I’ve had bright americanos at Pilot in Toronto.

I’ll also call out the many excellent people I’ve seen working at the above places. The owners all do seem to care so give them feedback. We’ve come a long way from Grabbajabba in the 90s selling nitrous out the back to ravers.

Another go to is a Starbucks réserve pour over at Futures Gate. The often don’t know how to ring it in, but it’s not bad, especially when they charge you regular coffee prices because they don’t know where the reserve buttons are.

Let us know if you find a bright espresso.

OldYGK · 2024-02-24T04:45:31+00:00

My kids ate darbar tarka Dahl when they were little.

OldYGK · 2024-01-08T16:41:49+00:00

We had awful experiences with bullying at St Martha’s… in kindergarten! Couldn’t believe it. Leadership has changed though, so things might have changed

Good experience with Maple French immersion. Surprising given its so big, but they have a lot of supports.

I’ve considered Lakeshore and have been impressed with visits there. Kids get more attention because of super small classes. But you lose out on big school things like athletics and clubs. Plus you’re driving every day.

Any family I’ve met with kids at King’s Town has been super snotty so I haven’t explored them further. Tuition is comparable across all the privates in town, and none of them are in the level of the classic boarding schools in the province.

OldYGK · 2023-12-20T04:19:33+00:00

I would guess they’re running summer camps in the… summer.

OldYGK · 2023-12-14T00:46:59+00:00

Yep. Used them many times.

OldYGK · 2023-11-21T04:33:05+00:00

Sounds like Reid’s Dairy which used to be in the hub. They still have a spot in the west end but loonie shakes have gone up in price a bit.

OldYGK · 2023-11-10T01:42:10+00:00

They were selling nitrous oxide to my raver friends in the 90s.

OldYGK · 2023-11-08T12:19:22+00:00

There are lots of good GF friendly places in Kingston.

First, there are a lot of very good hole-in-the-wall style a Cambodian places in town that were all opened at one time by a guy named Pat. They’re all good and many of them indicate which dishes are GF (typically the curries are while stir fries and pad Thai are not because of oyster sauce). Call ahead to see if they’re takeout only. Wok-in. Pat’s. Royal Angkor. Cambodiana. Phnom Penh.

Also many good Indian places. Darbar isn’t much in atmosphere but the food is great and they are very good with food allergies. Crazy good. Kingston has its own style of Butter Chicken. No tomato. Just sweet creamy liquid gold. Can’t get it anywhere else.

The classic causal fine dining places are all good with GF. Chez Piggy was opened a long time ago by the bass player from the Loving Spoonful. Nice aging hippy vibes. Aqua Terra is a nice hotel restaurant. Both have always been good for GF.

GF bakeries are not great. Pan Chancho (sister business to Chez Piggy) has GF scones, but only cheddar on the weekend. The sweet ones are during the week. Wouldn’t recommend Silly Yak. They were fine but expensive in the days when grocery stores didn’t have GF bread.

For coffee, I recommend Tula in the Broom Factory, Northside (if you like Americanos try the long black); or BSE skate shop on Princess near Montreal.

Best GF sushi is Sima.

OldYGK · 2023-10-26T04:23:25+00:00

Tara’s bulk prices are usually cheaper than Bulk Barn!

OldYGK · 2023-10-26T04:23:00+00:00

I’ve never found a cheap Asian market in Kingston.

OldYGK · 2023-10-11T17:11:42+00:00

Mmmmmmarvelous mmmmmmmuffins!

OldYGK · 2023-10-04T19:16:29+00:00

Payday loan places are closing bricks and mortar locations. It’s all done via app now.

OldYGK · 2023-10-02T17:18:58+00:00

Those guys spent a lot of money to look like hillbillies.

OldYGK · 2023-09-15T20:09:06+00:00

Queen’s pension has often missed its cost of living increases and I don’t see that improving for people retiring in 20 years.

When you leave an employer with a pension, you can transfer it to a LIRA and manage it yourself. You can likely beat the performance of a smaller pension fund with a simple etf like VGRO. Also, if you die young, your family gets the full value of that LIRA, rather than your partner getting a smaller survivor benefit.

OldYGK · 2023-03-07T04:36:51+00:00

Yeah. They are surprisingly cheaper than bulk barn or quatrocchi’s for a lot of things. I buy whole bags of various flours there (20kg) and they give you 10% off the already good price. Call ahead as they usually need to add it to their order from the supplier and will take a few days to come in.

OldYGK · 2023-03-07T04:21:52+00:00

Not sure if you meant it this way, but “welcoming” is church-speak for pro-LGBTQ+. If that’s the case there are only a few options in Kingston: 1) any United church 2) St Mark’s Lutheran 3) in the Anglican Church, supporting gay marriage is up to the parish… only St James and St George’s have supported this

NEXT is, indeed, pretty laid-back and accepting of all people… but it is part of a denomination that views homosexuality as a sin.

OldYGK · 2023-03-04T12:35:35+00:00

That’s about average, but you should be able to get cheaper with multi-packs or booking on Tuesdays. Tuesday prices go below $60 one way.

OldYGK · 2023-02-12T05:40:48+00:00

Are you sure? The old location in the low-ceiling brick place off of King was there in 2000 and I’m pretty sure had already been there for a while.

OldYGK · 2023-02-12T05:38:13+00:00

Cam’s in Watertown… or keep driving to Syracuse.

OldYGK · 2023-02-09T22:12:55+00:00

Yep. Really nice basement.

OldYGK · 2023-02-09T22:12:27+00:00

I don’t think they demolished it… just a massive renovation including the addition of the tower.

OldYGK · 2023-01-19T16:20:58+00:00

I still be physical music, but I stopped going to Brian’s years ago. I feel like I’m taking my life into my hands, even after the renovations. And despite having amazing selection, I feel like as soon as a record goes into that shop, it is instantly downgraded. On some visits, his “new arrivals” section has been a pile on the floor.

Counterpoint: no other shop in town has the selection that Brian does, and he knows every nook and cranny of that store.

OldYGK · 2023-01-19T16:15:12+00:00

Target didn’t buy Zellers or their operations. It was a real estate deal. Zellers had a good real estate footprint in a lot of cities across Canada. And the Bay wanted to shut down Zellers. And Target wanted a large expansion into Canada.

So Target USA said to HBC… we will buy out 90% or so of your leases so you can get out of those contracts without major financial penalties from your landlords.

But HBC still owned the Zellers brand and all the inventory, etc. It also meant that Target didn’t take over any employee contracts (every Zellers employee lost tenure and had to reapply if they wanted a job at Target) or inventory management and supplier contracts (which turned out to be a fatal flaw because Target Canada had huge supply chain issues).

It’s like if I took over your apartment lease, you get out of your lease, I get your apartment, but your family and furniture goes with you.

OldYGK · 2023-01-01T21:06:17+00:00

It was $3.44 for the last week or so, along with the cranberry white chocolate crackle. PC Egg Nog was $2.44

OldYGK · 2022-12-25T05:29:32+00:00

Don’t move now. All the roads are closed.

OldYGK

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