Twiggs Coffee Roasters — Restaurant in North Bay

Not what we expected, or maybe our expectations were too high. As local business "champion'ers"—wherever we live, Canada or the US—we like to source out locally owned and run businesses. While doing business in North Bay May 5, 2022, we asked for a recommendation from our insurance representative. He recommended Twiggs. We decided to try it...

Like I said, maybe our expectations were to high. Upon entry we established a familiarity—the restaurant was reminiscent of Williams Fresh. The cafeteria style ordering process, the display cases filled with tempting baked goods. We were impressed, and thought 'this is going to be THE PLACE to get a good home-baked bread deli sandwich' ...

Hopeful, we order the Montreal smoked meat sandwich on toasted "rye" bread, a lemon-lemonade, and a peach iced tea. Other items include a bag of Twiggs roasted coffee, two bags of Miss Vickie's sea salt and malt vinegar chips, and chocolate covered coffee beans. The associates working were nice, not forthcoming but assumptive in nature—indicative of new or post-covid public reopening (in our opinion, as we have experienced)—we can empathize. However, when our order arrived, a sad grocery store "rye" sandwich style bread (think Wonder bread loaf) barely toasted, with what seemed to be grocery store pre-packaged uniformed sliced Montreal smoked meat with the saddest deli-pickle (half a deli pickle to be exact). The peach iced tea was good, the lemon-lemonade was lacking in actual lemon flavour and was warm at the bottom of the cup and cold on top where the ice lingered, a giant a half lemon hindered comfortable drinking from the straw—a slice or wedge would have sufficed. The chips were stale, period.

The coffee, excellent! I brewed a French pressed pot this morning and the Yirgacheffe (dark roast) did not disappoint! While grinding the bean (burr grinder) the aromatics filling the kitchen with the sent of chocolate, home-baked croissants and happiness—basically a pain au chocolat, divine! Smooth, delicious with chocolate and tobacco notes—a hardy and satisfying dark roast!

So, in summary, we may not go back for lunch. It was disappointing that the bread wasn't a real dark rye bread, and the sandwich presentation was not that of a deli-style, more grocery store style. However, I will purchase my morning beans here when I am in North Bay... and I will get myself a coffee while there. Not all was a lose.

Note: the sandwich portion was more than adequate, as was...

Seems like they are trying their best to make sure we don't want to come back:

Our previous visit we tried a couple deserts and they were stale. One of them had a noticeable crust like it was days old. They also completely forgot about our order until 15 minutes have passed and we went to inquire and then they realized.

During our visit today I ordered a coffee. The sign out front listed the price as $1 When I got to the cash they were asking $2.36 w tax. When I asked about the price discrepancy the manager told me they were waiting for a new sign but that was their price and if I didn't like it I could not take the coffee. Given the level of inflation I have no problem with them raising their price to be more in line with their competition. But the bait and switch thing is not right on principle to do that to your customers. When I suggest that wasn't right he was very rude and refused to honour their advertised price so I accepted that and chose not to take the coffee.

Let's be clear a difference of 30 some odd cents is not a make or break scenario for me but as a matter of principle if they are advertising a price outside their store it's unfair to then switch prices at the cash. What was most amazing about this interaction was the horrible attitude. he was very belligerent during the whole interaction like it was such as waste of his time and acted like expecting your coffee to cost what the big sign said it would is super unreasonable. In any case we're done with Twiggs.

The girl who originally took our order was friendly the whole interaction so...

I am a first-year B.Ed student at Nipissing University and a new visitor of North Bay. Upon my acceptance into the B.Ed program, one of my first impulses was to discover where the closest Starbucks existed in relation to campus. What university student doesn't need their coffee fix, amirite? Discouraged, I discovered that North Bay didn't have a single Starbucks location.

When I arrived to North Bay, almost no time at all passed before I first heard of Twiggs. Curiosity struck and I needed to try this local legend. My opinion is as follows.

I believe I am confident to assume that the proprietor of this wonderful establishment would prefer that Twiggs and Starbucks not exist conversationally in relevance to each other. I want to share with you that there is no comparison. Twiggs wins in every way.

Twiggs earns my praise for the following reasons: The coffee is never less than excellent. The staff is always affable, courteous and efficient. Although I have yet to sample the whole thing, the menu is delectable. The atmosphere is comfortable. Their loyalty system is convenient and beneficial. And, foremost, the cost is perfect.

Moving forward, it will serve as a disappointment that each new city I visit in the future will not have a Twiggs. When the time comes, I will settle for Starbucks. Until then, I will spoil myself with Twiggs before I earn my...