This is i-deal!

Urban Flute Project is about community with a capital ‘C’, so if you want to put your finger on the pulse of the city, you might add these locations for sourcing your next cup of java!

• ‘Linuxcaffee’ at Harbord & Grace
• ‘Jet Fuel’ on Parliament
• ‘i-deal’ in Kensington Market
• ‘Balzac’s’ in the Distillery
• Starbucks, BCE Place
• ‘Timmie H’ on the Lakeshore

…there is a coffee shop in every corner of town!

For a real eye-opener if you don’t get into the downtown core during rush-hour, try Starbucks in the Lower Level of BCE Place, adjacent to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

I did not heed Craig’s advice, and arriving at 8.30 on a weekday morning discovered an Old-World market-like cacophony, 50-60 customers in several steadily moving, snaking line-ups…and he said it was a slow morning?!!

You ain’t seen Starbucks like this: his team assembled from the finest vendors Starbucks has to offer - the true veterans - they are fast, efficient, friendly: even in the crush of the morning rush-hour, they seemingly know everyone on a first-name basis.

If you think you are a coffee connisseur and the above locations aren’t familiar, I’d say you have some coffee-homework, my friend!

Oh, and then there is my most recent find: the Tim Horton’s drive-thru at Lakeshore & Cawthra that welcomes the occasional cylist from Toronto in need of stabalizing his or her blood-sugar. The weight of of a bicycle doesn’t register as a vehicle, so without blatantly ‘cutting the line’ of motorists just proceed directly to the window kiosk!

I have found myself at this location when it’s relatively quiet, however I will attest to the devotion of Timmie fans: when I have been on the road examining for the RCM, on more than one occasion I have seen multiple line-ups 25+deep! More than a little church-like, this ‘daily sacrament’ suggests that Modern Society is not so directionless as one might think!

This particular Tim Horton’s is close to where the coal-burning 4-Sisters used to stand, acting as a sentinel landmark for Mississaugans and Torontonians alike…as well as Peregrine Falcons: now what ever happened to that whole story?!

Apparently they couldn’t demolish the stacks because it was grandfathered as a nesting site for an endangered species, and yet the demolition proceeded…this Urban Flute story remains to be told!

Visit what remains of the 4-Sisters yourself (and ride through the Tim Horton’s Drive-Thru!) by exploring the Canada Trail one afternoon when you are in the mood for a bit of a cycle…a little further west and you come to the historic Cawthra estate, now the Mississauga location of the Royal Conservatory of Music.

www.linuxcaffe.ca/

www.balzacscoffee.com/

www.idealcoffees.com/pages/about.html

jetfuelcoffee.com/mamboversion/content/view/25/103/

www.pennyfarthingworldtour.com/bicycle-books.htm