Mercury Espresso Bar

Mercury Espresso has been part of Toronto's east end since 2006, a corner cafe at Queen and Morse that helped bring third wave coffee to Leslieville long before the strip filled with coffee bars. The room is a neighbourhood meeting place, with regulars who chat with the baristas about what is on the bar, and rotating art exhibitions on the walls that give local and emerging artists a home.

The bar runs on the house Mercury Espresso blend alongside a changing lineup of guest roasters, so the featured drip and the featured espresso shift as new coffees arrive, with notes like toffee and seasonal berries one week and white peach and honey apple the next. Bags of Mercury's own blend and rotating beans are available to take home, and a second Mercury cafe in Corktown carries the same spirit across town.