Coffee Gals Podcast Ottawa Coffee Fest

In this episode of Coffee Gals, we spoke to Bhavik Mistry and Chris Matias, co-owners of Carlington Coffee House, an independent coffee shop located on Merivale Road in the Carlington neighbourhood in Ottawa. Their café, which opened in 2020, is a converted residential war home originally built in the 1940s. Their goal was simple: Bhavik wanted to have an independent café that served delicious coffee (and authentic ginger masala chai!) within walking distance from where he lived! So they made it happen.
We chatted with them about their impressive DIY renovations, the hoops they’ve had to jump through to obtain city permits (turns out, it’s much harder than it seems to convert a house into a café!) and the implementation of some of their ongoing sustainable projects, like their #secondhandsaturday initiative and Grounds for Giving program.
Bhavik and Chris also wanted to give a shout out to the talented Ryan Smeeton for offering to put up a beautiful art installation in the front of their shop!

In this episode of Coffee Gals, we spoke to Jessie Duffy, owner of Arlington Five, a small coffee shop tucked behind Wilf & Ada's scratch diner in Ottawa’s Centretown. Jessie talks to us about A5’s journey and the multiple times they’ve reinvented themselves since first opening their doors in 2016. In the past 5 years, they’ve changed ownership a few times, switched house roasters (now serving the delicious LULO Coffee in house!), introduced different activities to incorporate creativity in the space and lastly, had to deal with the COVID blow. Jessie’s energy and determination really comes through this episode as she recounts these stories. Don’t miss it!
Note: This episode was recorded back in April, when A5 was taking a break to regroup and regain energy. They have since reopened and are back in full force! Things have changed with the Cooking for a Cause program on hold, but A5 is still working with the Parkdale Food Centre to explore the next chapter.

In this episode of Coffee Gals, we chatted with Sam Mazella, trader and licensed Arabica Q Grader at RGC Coffee, a third-generation green coffee importer based in Montreal, QC, and Founder and President of East Coast Coffee Madness, a coffee event in Montreal where industry professionals and coffee lovers ‘meet + learn + grow’ once a year.
We learn about how their coffee event came to life since it was first founded in 2015 with some key roasters and coffee enthusiasts in Montreal and how they’ve grown and adapted since then. We also chat about how the pandemic has impacted the coffee industry and what we see will lie in the future of coffee events.

In this episode of Coffee Gals, we spoke to Tara Perera, co-owner of Animated Coffee, a small batch coffee roaster in Ottawa. Established in 2014, Tara and her husband/lead roaster, Ryan, set out to provide high quality and responsibly sourced coffee while also supporting animal rescue charities (hence the name Animated = Animal + Caffeinated!). In fact, 25% of their proceeds are distributed to animal rescue partner organizations such as Parrot Partners, The Avery Foundation, Holly's Haven, The Sweet Sanctuary and Ned's Wish.

In this episode of Coffee Gals, we spoke to Josh and Lisa, owners of Ottawa Valley Coffee, a new café opening in Renfrew, a town located about an hour drive west from downtown Ottawa.
Josh and Lisa pride themselves on making sustainability, quality, community and consistency a big part of their core values for their café set to open up in March 2021. They want to become that one stop shop for people to enjoy high quality coffee, buy local goods and eventually, listen to live music with friends and family. Learn about the ways that they incorporated those values when they were in the process of selecting a roaster, creating partnerships with local makers and crafters as well as how they are building their beautiful space made entirely of recycled and repurposed building materials found around their area.
We also chat with Lisa about her side-business, Valley Child Clothing, making children’s sustainable and eco-friendly clothing.

In this episode of Coffee Gals, we spoke to Eric Saumure, CPA, CA and Principal at Zenbooks, Canada's go-to cloud accounting firm and one of OCF’s trusted partners. Are you interested in learning how to start and operate your own profitable coffee shop or coffee-related business? Well then this episode is for you!From providing insight on how to build out financial projections to sharing tips on what to consider when looking for a space, Eric shares some valuable big picture knowledge on how to plan ahead to ensure financial success when starting out a coffee shop.Resources mentioned in this episode:
The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael E. GerberNote for mobile Apple devices: Please take phone off silent/vibrate for audio to work.