Roast N’ Brew

Horrible experience. Went last night for latte and iced hot chocolate. The latte was OK at best not fancy and I found a tad weak and tasteless. It was hot though. The iced hot chocolate seemed to be poor hot chocolate blended with ice so therefore was very weak. The location is good and the facilities are ok. Plastic spoons and cups! The music was depressing (70’s oldies) and too loud for the space. This coffee place seems to be a place where someone has invested a lot of money and is looking for a return on investment which I never feel at Planet Coffee or Bridgehead.

Ottawa’s slowly becoming a solid coffee city which is pretty awesome. There’s a large population of coffee places from the outside chains of Tim Horton’s, Starbucks, Second Cup and a others. However there’s a growing population of local shops that started here like Bridgehead, Roast N Brew, I Deal Coffee, Planet Coffee and many other great local cafes.
I’m assuming this Roast N Brew opened in the last month or two as I don’t recall it being open before I went away on vacation. It’s located at, Rideau and Waller at the old PC Cyber, beside Norml or across from the Beer Store on Rideau St. The space is awesome! I’d give it 4 stores on space alone. The ceilings are extremely high…15−20 ft I’m assuming. The place has exposed brick, a lot of tables… with breathing room, a few leather chairs, a bench couch and I believe a fireplace.
The counter is very large with a large assortment of cafes and paninis. I believe they specialize in paninis here. Talking to the staff they are extremely friendly and polite. The music here isn’t to loud but there’s always a light echo throughout the space.
I ended up getting a cappuccino and a panini the one night I was working here. The home brew is STRONG, it’s usually the way I like it but something seemed a little off. Some people might not like this as it’s their house brew so you should definitely ask them about what type of roasts they might serve. I never did that but I was happy with my drink. I ended up with a monte cristo brought to my table. The sandwich was grilled perfectly. The rest of it however was just OK. It was lacking flavour but if I’m around again I’d definitely try another one. They also have a small assortment of salads and other items on the menu that I only quickly browsed through.
The space is really inviting and calming to me. I’d come back in a heartbeat if I needed to get away from home to do some work. The food is OK and coffee wasn’t bad.
The website mentions that this place is opening soon. Trust me it’s open, unless I had some weird dream about having a coffee here which I wouldn’t put past myself these days :)