Pilot Coffee Roasters

Pilot began in 2009 as Te Aro Coffee Roasters, the name borrowed from the Wellington, New Zealand neighborhood where founder Andy Wilkin grew up. He and his wife Jessie rebranded the company to Pilot in 2013 as it grew from a wholesale roaster into a small chain of Toronto cafes. The Ossington location took over the old Crafted cafe space, reworked by Williamson Williamson Architects into a tall, narrow room that somehow only seats about thirty people, with plant covered booths lining one side and a dedicated pour over bar along the other.

The espresso counter stays laptop free by house rule, though the rest of the room fills with remote workers over flat whites and cold brew poured both on tap and into cans. Whole bean bags stack near the register for takeaway alongside a short food menu built around avocado toast and daily pastries, and the roasting still happens at Pilot's original Leslieville facility that supplies every location across the city.