Tag Archives: Calgary coffee shops

Best Calgary Coffee Roaster: Devil’s Head Coffee

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Devil’s Head Coffee has a wee coffee bar in front and roasting gear in the back

Devil’s Head Coffee had me (a former mountaineer) as soon as I walked in the door of their little Calgary roastery and saw photos of owners Chris and Tanis climbing rock and ice routes in the Ghost Valley.

But then they checked all the boxes of what I’m looking for in a roaster. First and foremost is the excellent quality of the coffee, featuring a dozen single-origin and custom-blended beans from farms and co-ops around the world. Those beans are small-batch roasted several days a week.

And Devil’s Head does what every coffee roaster should do but usually doesn’t: print the roast date right on the bags. That way you know the coffee is fresh.

The sign of freshness: the roasting date right on the package

So far, I’ve been to the roastery and little coffee bar only twice; they’re located way down in industrial southeast Calgary. No matter. They regularly deliver to every part of the city, and it’s free if your order is $40 or more.

Several times, I’ve ordered in the morning and had a parcel on my doorstep that afternoon. Beat that Amazon!

Devil’s Head Coffee
Bay 5, 5700 Barlow Trail SE, Calgary
Monday to Thursday 9 am-5 pm, Friday 9 am-4 pm. Closed weekends.
403-561-8274

Butter Block Delivers a Blockbuster

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A butter croissant and a sweet scone at fabulous Calgary pastry baker Butter Block

I came for a simple butter croissant. I left with so much more.

Butter Block & Co. makes arguably Calgary’s finest butter croissant, albeit with stiff competition from the likes of Manuel Latruwe, Black Sheep and Yann Haute Patisserie. Butter Block certainly delivered, for me, on all that a winning croissant promises: requisite multiple layers of butter-dripping, crispy yet pillowy pastry.

Yet I couldn’t stop at a single croissant, given the creative diversity that beckoned from Butter Block Café’s display case. I tacked on to my plate a lovely, crumbly sweet scone but could only wistfully gaze at the pain au chocolate, an unusual sesame croissant and the pastel de natas (Portuguese custard tarts), which I once swooned over in Lisbon. Future visits are certain.

The display case kept being replenished with fresh, innovative pastries

What knocked Butter Block out of the park for me was a holy grail quest finally answered—an exceptional bakery paired with an excellent coffee shop. Sometimes you get one but rarely both.

Yet in this cozy midtown Calgary café, everyone else was sipping on lovingly produced pour-over coffees. So of course, I added this to my tab and was rewarded with a smooth, earthy brew. It turns out, Butter Block has worked with David Kim in a Calgary roastery called Paradigm Spark.

The pour-over coffee bar. Soon to disappear?

Is all this too good to be true? Perhaps. Paradigm Spark is leaving the location December 31 in search of its own space, with Butter Block stepping in to fill the coffee void. We’ll see how it goes. But before I left, I made sure to snag a bag of Melody beans roasted less than a week ago.

I snagged some fresh-roasted beans while I could

Butter Block was established in 2017 by Karen Kong, a graduate of SAIT’s Baking and Pastry Arts program. The bakery is across the hall from the café, in the historic Devenish building, and it’s where you can pick up frozen croissants, to be baked at home. That’s because the best croissant is one just pulled from the oven.

Butter Block Cafe
Unit 110, 908 17 Avenue SW, Calgary
Weekdays 7:30 am-4 pm, weekends 9 am-4 pm