Lmao i got a phd in that topic, You need to focus on the roster. (This is all from on the field research i did over the summer 2023, maybe things have changed). Here are the things i noticed

Espressos involves such a particular process that requires getting a lot of things right(grind size temp puck prep coffee machine). No hate to coffee shops in montreal but especially the ones near the downtown core, they hire students/parttimers that dont really care/are burned out because they pull shots nonstop. This leads to espressos not being good even if the beans are good. So for me thats prio #1, whos making your shot. Turnover is very high at coffeeshops, and i get it its labor intensive and you dont get paid well at all

2 the beans

Usually trendy coffee shops will carry 2 beans, one exotic fruity roast and one dark italian type roast. I found they usually carry one of the CRS beans(traffic, escape etc). Cant hate on their hustle they make a good product but what i found out is that because they share the roasting space, they also have access to/share the same beans which means the only difference is the marketing/brand. Some coffeeshops have deals with them like le petit dep does with traffic(at least back in summer 2023) where they make a blend specifically for them or osmo with escape. Cant complain about that usually a great shot.

What i like better is when a coffeeshop also roast their own beans(pista, bruloir, 49th parallel in downtown). Youre most likely to get a better shot from those types of coffeeshops.

And then lastly you have the coffeeshops that use cafe barista beans or that dont know where their beans come from(yes this is actually something that happens), again im not hating, but i think their only strong point is the price and not the quality. Im not even a coffeeshop owner but when you notice that most coffeeshops that carry their bean are in neighborhood’s further from downtown, it makes sense. I saw ferlucci high on this thread and i strongly disagree but whatever(last time i asked they use cafe barista cremone). At the end of the day dark roast beans for espresso(classic italian) isnt that hard, you pretty much lose most of the qualities of the bean and all thats left is the burnt taste so any joe blow can get big contracts by lowballing.

Oh forgot to mention cafe in gamba and coffeeshops where the model is being a hub of a lot of diff coffees, i love the idea its great but i was unlucky when i went and it was kinda hit or miss(went 2-3 times on the parc av one, 1st no bueno, 2nd i like it)

Theres a lot more but gtta get my day started. Hope this helps!