Found Coffee, the ultra-Instagram-able College and Spadina spot that opened during the pandemic back in the summer of 2020, is opening up a second location early in the New Year.
Found 2.0 will bring its cozy-chic, millennial pink interiors and deliciously smooth coffees south to the Trinity Bellwood’s neighbourhood, taking over what was formerly The Lucky Penny, a general store and café. A beloved local spot, The Lucky Penny is closing after eight years in business, having turned what was once a derelict corner of Shaw and Lobb Avenue (in between Dundas Street West and Queen Street West) into a bustling community pillar -- a place where people came to grab coffee, groceries and catch up on neighbourhood goings-on.
But local residents fear not! Found aims to bring the same sense of community and comfort to the space, with a simple mission: recreating that feeling you get when you find something you’ve been looking for your whole life. At Found, the cafe community experience doesn’t just look and taste good but also feels good. The small business focuses on environmental sustainability, ethical sourcing and community service, only serving coffee products that are organic and ethically traded. And while the new coffee shop is doing away with the general store element of its predecessor, patrons can find a good selection of baked goods, avocado toasts and steel-cut oats -- all made fresh in-house.
Found is owned by Australia-born specialty coffee veteran Leighton Walters who originally came to Canada back in 2020 to lead a Canadian expansion of a New York-based coffee shop company. When the onset of COVID-19 forced him to pivot, he decided to go all-in on a dream he'd had after years of working in the world of coffee across Indonesia and Australia: opening his very own spot.
No stranger to expanding on the charm of an existing space, Leighton purchased the shop's first location, formerly known as Hopper Coffee and did major renovations, including adding a charming patio tucked away in the back to make the space uniquely his own.
So what can locals and passersby expect from the new spot? Tons of imported products from Leighton’s native Australia, including the coffee beans that go into his super smooth espresso drinks, like The Doctor, a Found specialty that’s stronger, sweeter and smoother than a traditional Flat White. He also ships in barista-made almond milk and quintessential salty spread Vegemite in addition to stunning ceramic-ware fired in solar-powered kilns from company Pottery for the Planet.
Keep an eye on the 189 Shaw Street space as it transforms into Found’s latest spot, set to open February 2022.
