The Green Grind

Visiting Toronto this weekend and it’s a must to find me a latte… a good latte… and so we did. The exterior looks somewhat bland, sort of grocery store’ish. However the interior is much better. Some cozy chairs and reading material. There is also some seating to get some work done on your laptop. Most importantly though, the latte was pretty good and a nice place to chill out for a bit.

Nice café with many drink options. Also a few pastry options.
A great place to do work, as it’s really quiet, and people seem to go here to do work rather than chat. I like that there aren’t many individual seating options, mainly a large table that can seat 10, a 4-​seater coffee table option, and a couple of individual tables.
They keep the music at a low level, which helps maintain a quiet, relaxing atmosphere.
I had a regular coffee (came in a huge mug) and a peanut butter blondie, total $ 6.50-ish.
Great café, check it out if you need a place to sit and do work for a couple of hours.

I love this place, i love their coffee.

This place has one big communal table and three other small seating tables. Great modern apartment atmosphere. Their london fogs are pretty amazing!

Great selection of treats and light meals. The cappacino was delicious and hit the spot!

Went twice and both times are medium mediocre. fund a fruit fly (many of them on the sugar counter during summer) in my coffee on the second time, would not go back again.

One of my homes away from home. Great for chatting an especially for getting work done. Super friendly staff, excellent lighting and huge windows for panoramic street views. Music is often sometimes hit/​miss, one of the things I value a lot in a café (too much indie rock is not a good thing, IMO!)
Either way, love it :)

I travel the world in my job, jet-​lagged. Thus, I am a coffee addict. The Green Grind is my favourite coffee joint. Why? Well, first of all the coffee is very smooth (organic). The mugs are a good size. Cappuccinos come in a satisfyingly large cup, with artistic milk designs. The snacks are organic, gluten free, etc. Hmm… But they taste great! I would normally be skeptically about a ‘chocolate zucchini muffin’. But one try and I was hooked. All the cookies and snacks are relatively healthy, but never in that granola way. Everything tastes great. The soups and sandwiches are also excellent. Everything is organic, in a gourmet sort of way.
The Green Grind sits on the corner of a boring-​looking building, so you might miss it. You have to walk up a half flight of outdoor stairs. But inside, there are large windows on two sides overlooking Little Italy. This place has great seating, a large wooden communal table, fast Internet, and a cool vibe. Alternative rock is generally played, but never loud enough to disrupt the laid-​back atmosphere. The proprietors are very nice people with good taste, who know what they’re doing, and exude a calm, laid-​back demeanour.
It’s just a great spot, and really makes you want kick back and watch people stroll by down on College Street, web surfing and drinking truly great coffee.

I literally sat at home one night wishing there was a cool, holistic nutritionist friendly café in the city. The next day my dream came true when I discovered The Green Grind.
First off, the layout is amazing. Awesome place to do work, and they have free wifi.
So many gluten-​free, vegan treats. The nanaimo bars are unreal.
Service is amaaaazing! Coming from the service industry myself, I find it quite impressive how they go above and beyond to meet your needs, refill your water, bring you your order, and clear your dishes.
If you’re going to spend your money anywhere, spend it here!

Perfect for hanging around the whole day. The Green Grind has calm, almost library-​like atmosphere, but with background music and delicious coffee.
The crew is friendly and always smiling, and the spot is productivity and serenity inducing.

I would love to love this place!
However, my group dealt with some passive-​aggressive attitude from an employee last week. We have a small book club and four of us arranged to meet at The Green Grind at 6pm on a weekday. Their website says they’re open until 8pm on weekdays.
At 7:15, someone came over to let us know how they had already been closed for 15 minutes and we were holding them up (with some speech about all the things they were doing to try to kill time while waiting for us to leave). If we had known they closed at 7 we would have been out of there before 7. The door was unlocked. The lights were on. There was no announcement or request for us to go before 7 and of course we mistakenly thought they were open until 8.
When I explained that the website says the wrong time, they let me know they have no intention of fixing it because technology is hard. Seriously, because technology is hard. That was the response.

The quest for independent coffee leads next to Little Italy and an oasis of all things organic at THE GREEN GRIND. Other than a name which makes sustainability seem like a chore (an unfortunate pun), TGG is true to its mandate: even the cinnamon topping and agave sweetner is organic-​only. A good spot for light eats like soup, chile, or vegan dessert, TGG also doubles as a study hall with its bright lights and large tables… Here no less than a dozen laptops are open on a sunny, snow-​flecked Saturday afternoon.
The cappuccino from the Indie Passport menu was done to frothy perfection, complete with artful design on top. Teas are all loose leaf and pleasantly displayed in the country-​kitchen part of the décor. This splash of rustic is mashed up with art-​deco light fixtures and a portrait-​meets-​graffiti mural. Seating is varied… more uncomfortable than cushy, but maybe that keeps the students on point.
The vibe here is brainy, socialist, academic and smug: With good reason, of course– this is COFFEE WITH A CONCIOUS.

The first thing that struck out to me when I first visited The Green Grind last year was the gorgeous mural on the wall. The mural was part of a new campaign to raise awareness for the non-​profit children organizations, Make a Wish and Children’s Wish, by painting murals all over Toronto. However, the campaign was short-​lived and The Green Grind was the first and only location to have it done by the talented Paul Leli (
).
What makes The Green Grind different? Well, it’s the only café in Canada to have the LEED Award of 2011 and 2012, which is an award for green buildings. The Green Grind’s entire building is made from recycled goods and environmentally-​friendly materials. Becky, the owner, used to be a university student who enjoyed going to cafes as well. She saw the lack in environmentally-​friendly cafes and decided to create one of her very own. I don’t know about you, but I find this pretty awesome.
Becky doesn’t do latte art herself, so I didn’t receive any on mine. Her baristas do do them though, so feel free to ask for one when you drop by for a latte. I accidentally drowned my latte with too much Organic Blue Agave syrup, making it way too sweet for me to handle. So it was definitely a lesson learned the next time I get my hands on the syrup.
The Green Grind is definitely a student’s haven. I found the café to be the perfect study destination. Not that it’s not a great place to just chill, but during the peak hours in the afternoon, it’s a place to sit down with a nice cup of coffee and hash out all of your research. I like how The Green Grind opens till later, so definitely a bonus for those who need to get a lot of work done.
I really enjoy The Green Grind and it is another one of those cafes I will revisit in the future without the Indie Coffee Passport!

A few years ago I made the mistake of setting an event at Sensual Lounge, the venue which originally did business where The Green Grind now exists.
Only went there once, first the site itself has an inherently bad layout resembling a triangle and on top of that triangle is the entrance. So back then, the place had a few tables and a few couches against the walls and a big empty space in the middle. The whole place was overpriced and mucho sleazy. Rarely do I find a place that was trying so hard to be something that it was not, and in this case it was Sensual.
Many years later, I came back to the same spot and although the Green Grind is head and shoulders a better venue, the building is still the same and as such the layout leaves something to be desired. Specially during the Winter months where it sucks when anyone opens the door and in comes a blast of freezing air for everyone in the joint. No double doors here.
As far as the place you have a few small tables on the right, and a large «A la Dark Horse» communal table on the left mostly littered with single drinkers sporting laptops. Seriously, who thinks a large communal table is a good idea? The communal table was made to eat, talk and be merry. That is why it can be kind of cool at some restaurants but a café is a different animal.
Instead here you have a bunch of people not talking to each other over a huge swatch of wood staring at laptops. Not necessarily promoting the ‘having a coffee with friends idea there, eh? Since everyone is so quiet, you can’t really talk with friends without having complete strangers overhear you so everyone ends up not talking much. It seems communal tables at cafes are meant for loners and laptop hobos searching for free wifi, which GG does have. I think this is a place more akin to a library than a café, so an alright place to come and say, read or work.
Eventually we got one of the smaller tables and found the chairs not very comfortable since they were going for that aesthetic VS comfort debate where comfort gets hit in the face with a crowbar.
The place has that cool, «we are trying to be artistic and chill at the same time but not trying vibe,» so, having said GG does not lend itself to socializing and my friends eventually asked to leave for friendlier grounds.
Oh, and our lattes? They were just okay.

Hung out with friends this afternoon at the Green Grind in the Little Italy area. The café is super cute and environmentally conscious as well. The café seating is communal with a big table in the main area. The washroom lights are motion sensored, so energy efficient!
The lattes were awesome here! Service was excellent. There is even free wifi — there were a bunch of folks with laptops working away while we chatted away.
This is a great hangout out spot if you are looking for an independent chain or great coffee!

My new favourite study spot that was discovered thanks to these fabulous Unilocal reviews. I stopped by on a Saturday afternoon and got a lot of work done at their busy communal table. Everyone speaks very quietly and is respectful on their phones. The restaurant is set up to accommodate work. They have plenty of plugs, extension cords and power bars set up under the large wooden communal table, free wifi (no password needed), and all of the larger comfortable chairs for groups are on the opposite side of the restaurant to keep the communal table a bit quiet.
The space has an industrial look to it (high open ceilings, dangling yellow light bulbs, large open windows), but is still quite cozy with red furniture, a large mural, some TTC art work and decorative frames/​mirrors.
To eat and drink, I had the peppermint rooibos tea, which was so delicious. I’ve never had a roooibos/​mint combo before but it works. The tea is available in a few different varieties, blueberry, tangerine/​ginger, chamomile, green, early grey, cherry/​berry — you can also buy it in bulk. A large tea was about $ 2.50, or you can also buy a teapot for around $ 3.
I also had a cookie that was full of apples and oats. It was vegan and sugar-​free, I believe, but was very hearty. I definitely recommend as a good study snack to hold you over until dinner. They also had some slices of a berry loaf, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies and muffins.

I know I get lost all the time. I have this habit of walking by places and did not know I just walk passed them… The Green Grind is one of those places!
Cold and Freezing outside. Nice and Toasty inside…
Mochaccino, just have the nice hint of chocolaty flavour… which I like much better than the cappuccino there. The roast is a little light for my taste and I felt like I am drinking a hot steamy latte without the café.
Free Wifi… does attract a lot of laptop Junkies like myself. but at least we secluded 2 seats for ourselves and can enjoy our drinks and gossip a little.
Indie Coffee Passport was welcomed here!

Passport stop #8 for me. I did not expect to like it as much as I did. I’m beginning to realise that I really appreciate clean and roomy cafes to the more crowded and more cramped up locations.
I did come here alone, which is why I enjoyed the experience so much because there was only 1 more seat remaining in the communal table and if I had an accomplice the experience might have suffered but then again the cushioned bar stools were free.
The staff was very friendly and chatty (in a good way) and their mochaccino was probably the best chocolate infused coffee drink I’ve ever had! (Granted a mocha is not something I frequently indulge in during my coffee visits.) It was nice warm and frothy, perfect for the coldest Sunday of the year to date!
And it’s not too far for me to make it realistic to start visiting more often, definitely to try their snacks. This has definitely been one of my favourite coffee passport stops yet!

I didn’t notice a ramp of any sort leading to the front doors, so I considered it my daily exercise to walk up the flight of stairs. The communal table was half full by early Sunday afternoon while the initial Bookshelf/​Lounge area was quite free for use. I parked myself on 1 of 3 comfortable cushioned chairs and began to ponder why everyone preferred to sit on hard wooden chairs…
This is truly a society of multi-​tasking Techno-​Junkies, as nobody there simply sat and enjoy what’s in front of them without having both hands full. While I had both Hands on the Cappuccino created from the Green Espresso Machine, everyone else either had a handful of Laptop or Smartphone. I’m the one becoming obsolete and no one else in that room.
The regular Cappuccino was bigger than some other places which meant when I saw the modern Cappuccino preparation method (Non-​foamy), I knew that initial sip would be watered down because of excessive Milk/​Foam-​to-​Espresso ratio. I did get slight MILD Espresso taste but afterwards it just became a Latte to me. I didn’t get Caffeinated enough.

Once upon a time there was a douche-​bar called the Sensual Lounge where you could go overpay for rail drinks, and watch 905ers make out in pleather chairs and ruin an otherwise decent Saturday night. That place is gone.
Rising like a glorious phoenix from its skeevy ashes is The Green Grind, an absolutely gorgeous spot at College and Manning. You’ll feel like a world leader if you snag the head spot at their wide communal table. If you’re feeling more chill you can lounge in the cozy chairs by the bookshelf, or sit at the bar. There is free wifi and a few plugs at the big table for your laptop.
I’m not sure all coffee afficionados would vouch for the espresso at GG; they’re definitely less hardcore than other shops in the city. That said, I’ve never had a bad drink here. Oh, and they have a variety of cool snacks including a sugar-​free and vegan squares. But even if they rang my coffee out of a discared toupée, this place wins points on atmosphere alone. It’s just fantastic.
Obligatory Title Pun: I give this place the GREEN light.
Menu Readability: Liquid crayon on framed chalkboards of varying sizes.
Need to mention: The lights in the bathroom turn on automatically.
What this place teaches me about myself: I could never join a «roundtable discussion.» I need to sit at the head.