Kawa Espresso Bar — Restaurant in Calgary

KAWA MADE ME A COFFEE SNOB.

I don't drink caffeine religiously every morning, even though I should do to battle the hangovers. I don't really enjoy tea unless I'm practicing some wive's tale to cure a cold or it starts with the term "Long Island". I'm probably never going to own a french press. But I started going to Kawa Espresso Bar and now I'm a coffee snob.

This is quite simply the best espresso you will find in Calgary. There are some other venues that come close in consistency and quality, but none surpass what Kawa brings to the table (pun intended) with every pour. If you are looking for legitimate, traditional espresso drinks then you need to experience this place. Macchiatos and cappoccinos and orange zest things they do here are really, really good.

Being a regular at Kawa for the last 4 years has led to the epiphany that almost every other place I order a cappuccino at is a waste of my money. Here's why:

At Kawa the espresso is always a drinkable temperature, meaning that the flavour isn't completely burnt out, like your mother in-law's shoe leather Thanksgiving turkey, and secondly, that you can actually drink the item you purchased within a regular time frame. I am not ordering a latte to store in the cellar until the third world war. Why is the espresso served at a heat level comparable to Mercury's atmosphere!? Why must I place my coffee on my desk for the entirety of a Youtube'd "Littlest Hobo" rerun until it is suitable to drink without permanently damaging my taste buds, by which time the drink itself has transformed into a fly trap while sitting idle? At Kawa, the temp is always just right.

At Kawa the milk foam is perfect. It's always this soft, velvety consistency that must be what the back of an Angel's neck feels like. The texture of their steamed milk can be described as a massage across your tongue. I thought I was going to become the home barista equivalent of Robert Downey Jr. after Kawa made me a coffee snob and realized that it is in fact a craft and an art being able to manipulate the milk to a perfect consistency. After being unable to produce a froth that didn't resemble a civil war minefield, I gave up. Too many coffee shops sell crappy, bubbly milk in their drinks which is no better than the job I could do drunk at 3am trying to stay up for the fifth round of sports highlights. A Kawa, the milk is always just right.

At Kawa the espresso just tastes good. I couldn't even tell you what beans they use or if they use the same beans every day - like I said, I'm not some deep rooted coffee enthusiast. But I can tell you it will make you smack your lips without needing to add sugar, caramel, vanilla, sour soothers, tiger blood or any other god forsaken manufactured crap that has become a means of disguising the fact that you are drinking a bloody horrible tasting $5.75. Kawa always tastes just as Salinger writes: real and raw, without sacrificing elegance or style. A lot of the time I mistakenly order espresso somewhere else I am disappointed by the fact that it reminds me of the consolation prizes I used to get at sports day. At Kawa, the flavour is always just right.

Kawa has pastries that are usually quite tasty and a menu that works, They have a surprisingly complete beer list with some exclusive brands and decent wine selection. On evenings you may encounter a funky jazz duo or a college student playing an instrument you can't pronounce, but it all starts with the espresso.

If you want to experience Calgary's best espresso just to know what a real coffee tastes like, go to Kawa. If you want to impress you're cousin who is one fifth Italian and thinks he's above cookie cutter coffee because he knows two players from Inter Milan, go to Kawa. If you are clumsy on first dates and Chili's closes early on Thursdays but you want to seem refined, go to Kawa. If you simply want to experiment that by following a snob of a stranger's advice you can climb the peak of Taste Mt. and uncover a gem of a cafe in Calgary, then...

FOOD IS GOOD, BUT BE WARY OF OTHERS AND HELP THOSE IN NEED IF YOU CAN. (Kind of long, but the workers asked us to write a detailed review about the incident on March 2, Sunday)

Myself and 3 others (2 male, 2 female) visited this place this past Sunday night at around 9pm past. While ordering my drink, I initially notice a very drunk individual sitting at a chair next to my friend and I at the counter. (I say this, because of the bottle that he had in his hand and his blatantly distant gaze eyeing my friend up and down.)

Avoiding this, I go back to our table in the further end of the cafe where a female highschool student studies alone at a table right across from us. Soon, said drunk individual approaches the student, full on invading her space, sitting next to her and grabbing her while taking her stuff in an attempt to 'study with her.' The student is quite obviously refusing any of his advances but the man kept doing everything to the point that the student had started to weep.

Seeing her distress, my friend and I had immediately tried to get her away from the man who now lounges at HER table, using and wearing her stuff (he had grabbed her glasses off of her face) and still kept trying to grab hold of the student. I had tried confronting the man to leave and be aware of his actions, but he was so inebriated that he did not respond to me, but had soon started to grab my hand instead.

Fortunately, a group of older gentlemen at a separate table had seen this whole fast interaction and pulled the drunk man away and chased him to the other end of the cafe, but he still did not leave. While my friends and I comforted the student, the group of older gentlemen talked to the staff about this incident and asked why they didn't do anything while this was happening and watched other 'youths' (me and my friends) handle it instead, and did not make the drunk man leave the premises. I was not part of the conversation, but I hear snippets of the workers' responses along the lines of "it's not our job, we're not referees." The drunk man is still inside the building, though on the opposite end of where I, my friends and the student was sitting. He had resumed to drink further.

Later in the night, I offered to walk the student to where her ride would pick her up outside the cafe, in which she thankfully agreed. Note that the drunk man was still inside the building, and that the only entrance and exit was around where he sat. As I walked the student out the door, I notice that the drunk man had immediately started to follow the two of us outside. Thankfully, my friends who had been watching had stopped him before he could get too close to me and the student, confronting him to leave and not to follow. The four of us then guarded the student until she could get inside her ride.

By the time that we had come back inside the cafe, it's only then that I notice the staff had talked to the guy to leave the area, and the drunk individual was no longer around. At this point the store was closing, and my friends and I start to leave after finishing our drinks at the table (which we had left with some jackets because we just had to run to reach the student when she started to leave). Staff then asked us to leave a review about the incident because for some reason, the management in the interior of the cafe office didn't believe that there was a commotion happening that warranted their involvement because it was just a bunch of YOUTHS. (Yes, I am offended! what is that supposed to mean?)

I just hope that staff were more vigilant of what's happening in their own store, or if they were unwilling to involve themselves in an incident, to call other authorities instead. Shoutout to the older men at the table who helped and weren't just bystanders when something terrible to a YOUNG HIGHSCHOOL GIRL could happen and IS happening right in front of them.

Other than that, the coffee was actually pretty exquisite and I would love to come back in a better atmosphere to try out the rest of their drink menu. The white mocha...

BATHROOM REVIEW Location: 4 Cleanliness: 8 Security: 7 Ease of use: 9 Decoration: 8 7.2/10

LOCATION - 4 - The bathrooms themselves are located right by where all the jazz action is happening, so the music offers a very nice ambience. The bathroom hallway is a real chode though, the jazz audience is therefore also an audience to your entering and exiting the bathrooms, tough crowd.

CLEANLINESS - 8 - The trash can was overflowing a bit, so paper towels were on the floor beside it. Some minor graffiti on the bathroom mirror. Apart from those small janitorial flaws, pretty clean environment.

SECURITY - 7 - The chode hallway with the jazz audience being right outside the door is a bit unnerving, but the bathroom door has a deadlock on it, and the toilet is around a corner (and in the dark, for some reason).

EASE OF USE - 9 - A wonderful experience. Easy bathroom to navigate. Options for soap dispensing via automatic sensor or manual delivery. Manual controls for everything else, and a nice paper towel roll. I feel clean in this bathroom, and can do everything I need to do with such ease. The only flaw is that the bin for the towels is a little out of the way, but still not too hard to find.

DECORATION - 8 - Love the walls, I like the lighting, and love the music. Plants are present as well, bonus points for that nature feel that we all innately desire. A little dark above the toilet itself, and the environment still could feel jazzier, but overall well done on...