Introducing: Crafted by Te Aro. I Deal Coffee gets some competition on Ossington

Ossington’s nightlife is alive and well, but the strip can be quite dead in daylight hours—there’s I Deal Coffee and, well, not much else. Perhaps that’s why Crafted by Te Aro is full of coffee drinkers and laptops, despite the fact that it’s been open for only a week. The café is essentially Te Aro’s second outpost, allowing people in the west end to experience what made its Leslieville counterpart so popular: coffee made from beans roasted on the premises, classes on how to make a better cup, and a quiet, relaxed atmosphere in which customers don’t have to shout their order to the barista. It even has a glass garage door similar to the other shop’s, though co-owners Jessie and Andy Wilkin says it was a necessity—the window was about to fall out when they took over the space from the Get Real! Café two months ago.

One thing that does make this location different is the cold drip coffee maker that looks like it was lifted from a mad scientist’s basement. The glass concoction makes a strong, smooth brew with hints of dark chocolate, but at $4 for six ounces, it’s more of a weekend treat than a morning ritual. Every two seconds, a single drop of ice water falls from the top jar, soaking through the grounds and winding through a glass tube before dripping into the pot, a process that takes up to eight hours. Yes, the drink is time consuming to make, but it’s all part of the laid-back Leslieville vibe that the Wilkins are bringing west.

Crafted by Te Aro, 135 Ossington Ave., te-aro.ca.