Dale's One of a Grind Bistro · Tuesday December 5, 2006 by colin newell
Dale and family run a one of a kind bistro – cafe on Oak Bay Avenue.
One of a Grind is one of a kind.
In over 20 years of cruising cafes and bistros from Coast to Coast in this great country, I have seen it all and tasted it all.
Photo left – Former owner of One of a Grind Bistro, Dale Manason… from 4 years ago when he still owned O.O.A.G. Bistro – new owners now.
It takes a special something to create the down-home comfort of the One of a Grind. Dale and daughter (and son too I think…) put in regular shifts here Monday through Saturday on Oak Bay avenue just South of Richmond Avenue… technically still in Victoria proper.
The transition to Oak Bay takes place at, get this, the corner of Oak Bay Avenue and Foul Bay road.
Foul Bay road… now there is another storey.
Ok, once again, I digress.
Dale Manason and Co. run the One of a Grind Bistro with a basic and fresh is good approach. And it works.
Everything they serve is made pretty much the moment you ask for it. And that is good where I am coming from.
My memories flip back to another era. An era where places like Ian’s Diner (Richmond and Fort) served up greasy burgers and muddy-thick coffee. Ah.
Dale and Co. at One of a Grind Bistro go retro with the coffee prep. He uses an old-style Gaggia Lever espresso machine – and in my opinion, with the right beans, this method is one of the best.
Anyway. Head on down to One of a Grind. And tell ‘em Colin sent you.
Foot note: Dale sold the One of a Grind Bistro about 4 years ago. It is in new hands and I have not been by in a long time. Perhaps a look is in order.
Comment [4]
Kona Coffee and Jamaica Blue-mountain time... · Saturday December 2, 2006 by colin newell
I get e-mail. Lots of e-mail.
Now that it is December, almost everyone is thinking about specialty coffee as a gift item. This is the time of the year when people think that coffee would make a great gift. Unfortunately, it is also the time of year that opportunists foist some truely bad coffee on naive and enthusiastic consumers.
Everyone has seen those “mini-brick” packs of exotic coffee like Kona and Jamaica Blue Mountain. Read the fine print folks – chances are you are buying utterly stale Kona blend and Jamaica Blue Mountain Blend coffee.
Which means: Chances are there is a very little (if any) real Kona or Jamaica coffee in these sad little packets of (generally pre-ground) coffee.
Another rule-of-thumb: If it is in a brick-pack, it is Rat-ass stale. Trust me on this. Coffee is food too. You wouldn’t buy brown lettuce would you? Then why buy stale coffee?
In an e-mail today, I was asked: “Where can I buy pure Kona coffee in Victoria?”
This question gets asked in virtually every major city in North America during the festive giving season.
Currently, there are no roasters in Victoria selling
“freshly roasted” pure Kona coffee… to the best of my knowledge
Something to consider (and this is important…)
Coffee is only truely fresh for 5 to 10 days after
it leaves the roaster.
Coffee, like other fruits and vegetables, is a food
product that is subject to staling.
A good example of truly stale coffee is the product
you find in cans and bins on the grocery store shelves.
There are a handful of fresh coffee roasters in Victoria… I list them here in terms of
how
I “feel” about them… long story.
1.) Cafe Fantastico — Kings and Quadra and Cook & Mckensie (in the Cook Street village) Roasters of truly amazing coffee.
2.) Level Ground Trading — They roast a small selection of fairly traded and organically grown beans. No konas. What they do roast, is wonderful.
3.) Discovery Coffee — Douglas & Discovery (and its satellite outlet: 2%-JAzz at the Times Colonist building) Sam Jones roasts some of Victoria’s best coffee. No question.
4.) Mirage Coffee Roasters — Blanshard & View street and Government and Courtenay streets. The coffee is good and its fresh.
5.) Cairo Coffee Victoria — 700 block Fort street above Douglas. They sell exotic coffees from time to time. They are currently roasting Kona in store for 50$/pound which is 18$ less per pound than Murchies! Jamaica Blue-Mountain will be roasted in store and sold for 75$/pound. They take advance orders on this coffee so queue up! Bill, the store owner since the 70’s, has the most complete coffee accessory store in Victoria.
6.) Fresh Cup Roastery — Government & Pandora downtown. For me, too new to tell. Give them a whirl.
7.) Moziro Coffee Roasters — Shawnigan Lake Village – Dundas Street. Small batch roasts and great chocolate. If you are in the neighborhood, check them out.
8.) Creekmore Coffee — Coombs (available in quite a few grocery stores) – generally fresh and good value.
9.) Murchies Coffee – they almost always have Kona, but its “freshness” is almost always in question. Sorry Murchies – I have been spot buying from Murchies since 1972 and I have yet to be impressed.
If you want really fresh and spectacular Kona coffee, mail-order it from EveryDay Gourmet Coffee Roasters
in Toronto – their website is www.everydaycoffee.com
Truly spectacular Kona coffee can be mail ordered from Blue Horse Kona – their farm is near Captain Cook on the Big Island of Hawaii – I have actually visited the farm and sampled the coffee and can attest to its origin and freshness. This has been a very good year for Kona coffee (2008) and it is a good time for most people to sample it to see what I mean.
Bottom line: If you want great coffee, it has to be fresh coffee.
Freshly roasted that is.
Cheers!
Comment [6]
Starbucks biggest fan comes to Victoria · Tuesday November 21, 2006 by colin newell
For me, the theme-song of the open road is the 80’s jingle “Man in motion”, from the movie, St. Elmos fire and Vancouver’s Expo 86. This was part of my personal soundtrack on a road trip across a big slice of Canada that year. For Winter, of StarbucksEverywhere.net, the theme of his open road goes way beyond a transitory one hit wonder from the eighties.
The rhythm of Winter’s world is the snare drum tap of concrete highway ticking past small towns ground down by the sleepless ravage of sun, sand and wind.
Winter has seen all the seasons, the sun at every angle, from West to East, day by day. His orchestra is scored with telegraph poles, marking a cadence for medians, on ramps, and exits leading to the next destination. Winter’s open road is the crisp sound of wind whistling past and a bass clef of road noise only he understands.
Say hello to Winter. Winter could be the last of the great American explorers or a new generation of geographic visionaries.
When the coffeecrew spoke to Winter he was in Florida visiting several Starbucks locations.
Winter, you see, has a goal in mind – visiting each and every Starbucks outlet on the planet Earth. Now from initial impressions, this would appear to be well nigh impossible. Of course it’s impossible. Starbucks opens several corporate coffee outlets every day in distant locations.
No normal man (or woman) could possibly hope to climb this mountain. Winter, as I found out, is not your average guy.
Setting out on this implausible mission, triggered by a casual conversation in a Starbucks cafe, Winter began his sojourn in 1997.
Someone mentioned whether or not it was possible to visit every starbucks in the World.
An idea was born. Between then and April of 2004, Winter put over 300,000 miles on his Integra, knocking over more than 4000 Starbucks locations in North America alone. Winter hasn’t restricted himself to corporate locations in North America alone. No, as his venture has gained media exposure a few sponsors have dropped in return tickets.
One of his guest spots, on the “Wayne Brady Show”, he scored return tickets to England. Winter’s trip to Japan was financed out of pocket.
So we asked: “Winter, what makes or breaks a visit for you?”
“Well, to start with, I have got to have a half-cup of coffee. I announce myself when I arrive, explaining in my own words the nature of my project…” “and I carry a number of media clippings and articles about my project..”
Winter asks for a manager or assistant manager, looking for a complimentary mug of. Responses are mixed but more often than not, one of the baristas on the floor knows who he is. In general, Starbucks head office is a little arms length with Winter in much the same way oil companies eschew inventors of gas saving technology!
None of this adventure comes cheap. With a double major in Philosophy and Computer Science, Winter is no dummy. He picks up software development jobs where he can to fuel his next mission. His short term goal is to master .NET technology to better himself and enhance his marketable skills. Alas, Winter lives for the road and my distinct impression was that it is not really about the coffee. Somewhere along the line the real addiction became the open road. The sights, sounds and smells of the open road are a lure that, for Winter, are irresistible. After 48 states, it is safe to say that Winter has seen every ocean, every bay, every gulf, every prairie, every flavor of town, country and city. The two states remaining are South Dakota and Hawaii. (Tickets anyone?) What’s more, Winter describes this whole project as “Too rewarding..” to abandon. This single comment prompted me to dig deeper.
Winter’s cityscape is more than just a demitasse of bitter brew. Underneath the crust of sameness, city to city, are some of his favorite diversions. Winter is, after all, a scrabble master and wordsmith in training. Winter likes to eat (who doesn’t) and his favorite foodie joints are a highlight in his travel endeavor. Endless driving jags have an impact on Winter’s early thirties body and he knows where all the best Swedish deep tissue massage places are. If these enticements were not enough to keep Winter rolling, a love interest he has nicknamed Schmoopie keeps him on the straight and narrow. She finds him “interesting” – interesting enough to send him gas money to alter his caffeinated trajectory into her town.
Winter is, if you would, the Zen master of the concrete trail. He owes a debt of gratitude to Lewis and Clark and a tip of the hat to every rough neck that broke ground for migration mediums like route 66. The highways and byways of North America are truly diverse, a river of commerce and an unending stream of humanity on the move. Despite this, there is only one Winter and his vision is long and unending.
It’s one o’clock in the morning in a Walmart parking lot somewhere in Florida. Winter sounds oddly awake at this hour and psychologically prepared for the next leg of his endless journey. If he is lucky he will get a few hours of good sleep in the back of his Civic hatchback and awake to the sound of John Parr’s catchy lyrics…
“I can see a new horizon, Underneath the blazin’ sky
I’ll be where the eagle’s, Flyin’ higher and higher
Gonna be your man in motion, All I need is a pair of wheels
Take me where my future’s lyin’
St. Elmo’s Fire”….
Winter returns to Vancouver Island this Friday and Saturday – November 24 and 25, 2006. Catch him if you can.
Imagine all Starbucks closed... · Friday November 17, 2006 by colin newell
Well actually, it is a partial reality.
Today in Vancouver, B.C. Canada, all Starbucks, Tim Horton’s and all cafes in general are closed due to a boil water advisory following a severe fall storm that struck the area two days ago.
Imagine that.
All Starbucks stores closed within a large city like Vancouver.
In order to do this any other way (other than a variety of other obvious disasters…) one would have to turn the clock back prior to about 1988, in Vancouver, when there were ZERO Starbucks and virtually no specialty coffee shops (outside the cool, ethnic neighborhoods of Commercial Drive that is…)
Call it surreal.
Enjoy it while you can.
Comment [2]
Brewing my first pot of "Hines Coffee" · Friday October 20, 2006 by colin newell
Actually it came from Caffe Misto on Foul Bay Avenue in Victoria B.C. Canada.
And it was a blend just for me. A half-caf espresso blend.
My first test with it is in the Newco OCS-8 thermal carafe brewer.
Anyone who is truely serious about their coffee – serious coffee drinkers that is, well – they use a Newco OCS-8 or a Dutch made wonder called the Technivorm.
The Newco (and Technivorm) infuse the coffee with water that is between 196 and 205 degrees (close to the latter generally)
If you are not brewing your coffee with water at the right temperature… well, you might as well be drinking coffee flavored Kool-Aid.
