Little Brick Café and General Store
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| With all the new houses and condos surrounding the Little Brick, it's nice to see this old house stand its ground. |
Little Brick Cafe and general store is the fourth business owned and operated by Nate Box. He is a young, entrepreneur that has an amazing knack for business. He first opened
Elm Café, which is a spot my hubby and I visit (a lot) during the summer on our way to
the downtown farmer's market. Their sammies
are delish. Then Nate opened District, which
lucky for me is only walking distance from my work. District Coffee Co. makes really good salads for
lunch. Then there is Burrow, which I
haven’t had a chance to check out yet. Burrow is a coffee shop is located in the Churchill LRT and serves breakfast
items for busy commuters. Now, we have
Little Brick.
Little Brick
is Nate's newest venture and is located in the heart of the Riverdale community. From what I heard, it’s a very welcomed addition to the hood, since the community does not have any coffee shops for the
locals.
Another
thing I liked about Nate’s choice of area, was to use a historic
1903 house. I am a history buff and like the fact that this house was saved and
used for community to use. The house
belonged to J.B. Little. He owned the brickyard that was located in the
Riverdale area. A lot of bricks used to
make homes and businesses in the early 1900’s were manufactured around the
North Saskatchewan River, where the clay suitable for brick making could be
found. You can find at Fort Edmonton Park the brickyard building what includes
J.B. Little’s original brick making machinery. That is all for today’s history lesson, now back to coffee….
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| The first door you see is the staff entrance. |
The coffee
shop and store is very welcoming when you walk in. When you
walk onto the property, you will have to walk around back to the main entrance
(just follow the sidewalk). When I walked
around, I notice that the yard was very nicely landscaped and there were a few
doggies tied up to trees waiting for their masters while they grabbed their coffee. Having a dog tied to a tree, laying on grass and in a fenced yard – as a dog owner, I think that I’d feel
reassured that my baby won’t mind the 5 minutes of separation while I get my caffeine fix.
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| One of the puppies waiting for his/her owner to continue on their walk. |
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| Follow the sidewalk to the main door. Look straight and you will see a Boston Terrier waiting patiently. |
The place is
very light and airy. I am not a
professional designer in describing how the place looked – but the house has kept its formal historic look (which i love). With the white paint, natural wood floor and clean lines - the place felt and looked very
comfortable. I can see myself coming
here with a group of friends and enjoy the time.
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| It was so busy, I didn't want to take too many pictures. |
When you
walk in, you find the small but very usable counter space. They serve coffee, some baked goods (muffins,
biscotti and scones). There is also
sandwiches. I just picked up a biscotti
and a coffee and looked around the store. The biscotti was salted caramel - yummy.
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| Some items on the shelves |
The store
sells locally made products and other coffee related items. I found some peanut butter made in Calgary,
and various other food staples.
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| Hallway to the living room, dining room and the kitchen. |
There is are
large windows in the main coffee/store area. To the right of the main door is a hallway to two other rooms to enjoy
your coffee and scone. There is a comfy
living room area and the dining room has a communal table where people can work
on their laptops.
If you are
ever in the Riverdale area, I’d recommend coming in for a coffee. I have heard that there might be burgers and
beer in the summer (see the news links below). I’ll be up for that.
Here is the
general info:
Little Brick
Café and General Store
1004 – 90
Street, Edmonton
Phone:
780-705-1230
Website: littlebrick.ca
Parking:
Parking lot in the back alley and front street parking.
Bus: 1, 308
& 88
Hours: not
listed on the site, should be listed soon – they are just newly opened.
Here are
some news links:
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