One of Montreal’s favourite gourmet coffee shops, Dispatch Coffee, is now serving its super-sustainable brews and beans at 390 Bay Street, just around the corner from Nathan Phillips Square.
For its first venture beyond Quebec’s frontiers, Dispatch has unveiled a gleaming minimalist cafe within the soaring lobby of the early ‘70s Munich Re building. The setting’s stripped-down aesthetic places the focus squarely where it should be: on the staff of baristas expertly prepping and pouring espressos, Americanos, cappuccinos, mochas and lattes, the latter frothed with oatmeal milk. At the moment, all things Dispatch – including packaged bags of pure beans for customers to grind at home – is to go, albeit beautifully so, in biodegradable cups and bags, tattooed with the brand’s signature purple logo.
Dispatch was founded in 2012 by seasoned barista Chrissy Durcak. After a decade of toiling in Montreal’s caffeine trenches, she had become frustrated that most of her java-guzzling customers were unconscious of just how delicious – not to mention sustainable – coffee could be if properly sourced and prepared. More than just a caffeinated commodity, Durcak saw the potential for coffee to join the gourmet ranks of fine wines, with attention being paid to the aromatic notes and terroir flavours derived from the beans’ growing environments.
In its original incarnation, Dispatch consisted of Durcak delivering mason jars of iced coffee to customers on her bicycle. Soon after, she traded in the bike for Montreal’s first coffee truck.
Originally, Durcak outsourcing her beans from other roasters. But what she really wanted was control over Dispatch’s raw product. Working directly with producers would allow her to offer fair prices to farmers, who routinely earn the smallest portion of profits made from the sale of a cup of coffee. On the receiving end, customers would be paying fair prices for top-quality, responsibly sourced beans.
With this mission in mind, Durcak sought out and began importing raw coffee directly from small-scale farms and co-ops, close to half of them women-driven. From a select handful of coffee-producing countries, the green coffee beans were shipped to the roasting workshop she set up in the garage that had once sheltered the Dispatch coffee truck. Soon after, this roastery in Montreal’s Mile-Ex neighbourhood became home to Dispatch’s first (insanely aromatic) coffee shop.
Two more locations––at McGill University and on Saint-Laurent Boulevard––followed before Dispatch made the move to Toronto. In the meantime, Durcak launched a thriving subscription business that took off during the pandemic.
As a result, today Durcak estimates that sales of beans and ground coffee comprise 70 per cent of its business. That Toronto was the second-largest source of online orders, and in close proximity to Montreal, made it the natural next step for Dispatch to put down physical roots.
"Having physical presence in a city allows us to extend more environmentally friendly shipping options to our online customers," explains Durcak. "In Montreal, online customers can pick up their orders in store, or get their coffee delivered by bicycle which are two carbon neutral delivery methods. We will be launching these features by spring in Toronto."
At the same time, Durcak points out that part of the function of Dispatch's cafes is to allow online customers to enjoy a 3D, in-house experience, trying new coffees, learning more about supply chains and picking up tips from baristas on how to brew a better cup of coffee at home. If peckish, they can also take advantage of gourmet sandwiches, flaky French pastries and (in Toronto) decadent cookies made by MasterChef Canada finalist Andre Bhagwandat.
Dispatch crafts all its coffees in-house. Each variety receives a “personalized roasting profile” before being roasted in small batches via a process that enhances the beans’ intrinsic body, sweetness and complexity. As when choosing a vintage wine, customers can select from Dispatch’s rotating selection of seasonal coffees based on the names of the beans’ producers and their place of origin.
Labels are accompanied by descriptions and precise, often surprising, adjectives that conjure the notes experienced when imbibing a given cup of brew. In the case of Reiniel Ramirez from Honduras, for example, customers are likely to taste a beguiling mix of “peach, lime soda and marzipan”.
Such attention to detail is impressive, but leaving no bean unturned is essential when seeking to transform the coffee universe at large. As Durcak once confessed, “I envision a world where everyone drinks better coffee. Everyone who drinks Tim Hortons coffee, who drinks Folgers or instant coffee––I want them to be drinking Dispatch coffee.”
Dispatch Coffee is located at 390 Bay Street and is open daily from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays.
