New café - Café 92% - NDG

There is a café located on Sherbrooke close to Loyola that has been opened for a little over a month called café 92%. I spoke with Claudia, one of four owners about it.



"The name for the café comes from the temperature of an espresso - 92%", says Claudia. "Carlos came up with the idea for the logo on the business card, a cup shaped out of 92%, and Maria, third co-owner, designed it. Maria also did the pictures for the flyer which requests customer coordinates in order they may be contacted about events or promotions."

Maria and Claudia dreamed of opening up their own coffee shop back in Mexico where they are from and decided after a short stint as coffee shop owners, they decided to come to Montreal and study food service and restaurant management. Opening café 92% has really been a group effort.

"The benches are church benches we found on the internet for 300 $. We met someone next door at Mama Rosa's who builds kitchen cabinets and counters at a reasonable price; we did our own painting. I had never painted before. The ceiling was red and we had to paint over it, " says Claudia. " We picked up cushions from restaurant auctions and picked up things here and there. We already had the coffee machine. Maria and friend did the tiles and reda, fourth co-owner installed the lights."

It took them about 3 months from concept to opening. Concerning the menu, they offer a series of coffees from regular to espresso and macchiato to ice caps and ice chai lattes. I asked her what a mexican milkshake was.

" It is like a smoothie. In Mexico, they call it a Licuados. It is milk, sugar and fruit. It comes in different flavours, some with vanilla, guava, soursop ( tropical fruit in South America), mango, banana. "

"Aguas frescas (fresh water) is made with water, fruit and sugar. We also have hibiscus tea and the flower is also used in salads and adds flavour.In Mexico, they call it agua de Jamaica because they thought it comes from Jamaica," says Claudia.

They also serve sandwiches, soup, quesadillas, pastries. I asked her about the brand of coffee they serve and she replied Union. I noticed they serve 4 oclock tea which is a fairly traded and organic brand of tea. I myself have tried their earl grey which has a very strong bergamot flavour. As for the pastries, I am not sure whether they make them with organic or fairly traded ingredients. I do know that when I asked for sugar, I was offered 2 choices of brown sugar. Intriguing...

They are open to artists exhibiting on their walls and to musicians performing. Their website is coming soon.

"Our goal is to share something, what we like, with people."

Café 92% located at 6703 Sherbrooke W., Montreal, Quebec.
T: 514 750 4392
Open 7 days a week. (closes 9:30 during week and 9 on weekends).