In early February, we made a trip to The Garden in Strathcona. Like the first place on the list, Their There, I’d never heard of this place, but it’s definitely one of my favourite places that we’ve been to. 

Like their name would suggest, The Garden has some lovely greenery inside and out, inside the shop, there was a mix of small tables, short counters and couches. They also have an excellent selection of local goods such as candles, books, and accessories. 

This time, since I’d never tried one before, we ordered a cortado with our latte to share. For those (like myself) who don’t know, a cortado is a shot of espresso mixed with an equal amount of steamed milk. Cortar means ‘to cut’ in Spanish. The idea here is to dilute the espresso shot with the milk, but not add a lot of the texture that you get in drinks like cappuccinos and lattes. Their espresso, fair-trade from Argo roasters, shone through nicely in the cortado, and the latte was lovely. 

We tried the food on offer yet again and couldn’t resist trying some cookies before our breakfast food arrived. We got a chocolate chunk, and a ginger molasses and both were soft and chewy and just plain magical. I can’t quite remember what they called the egg-toast-deliciousness that we ordered, but one was a nice slice of bread topped with mushrooms and cheese and then topped with a poached egg, and the other was topped ham, swiss and a poached egg. Both were served with some lightly dressed greens. They were fantastic. 

The Garden has a really laid-back, cool atmosphere, and I really look forward to going back there once things get a little bit more back to normal.