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P U L L : E V E N T S MONTREAL'S COFFEE COMMUNITY CONNECTS AT BARISTA NATION NO MATTER THE MASSIVE SIZE of the country, we tend to only hear about a few Canadian cities known for specialty coffee, and at the top of any list is always Vancouver. It was lovely, then, to see during the most recent installment of the traveling, free, educational event Barista Nation, that the café and microroastery coffee culture in Montreal is not only vibrant, but growing like mad. It's a curious position to be in: Third-wave cafés like Marie-Éve Laroche's Pikolo Espresso Bar; Jason Malo's Café Humble Lion; Jean-F first specialty shop, Anthony Benda's Café Myriad; which opened in 2008, are not only setting the bar, they're constantly raising it. That's all right with the public, it would seem from the success of the increasing number of independent coffeehouses hell-bent on quality coffee and service. Downtown Montreal alone has more than 100 cafés—and yeah, Starbucks dominates with 20+ stores. It would seem, however, that the city's foodie bent has produced consumers who are willing to both take risks with new places and happily pay more for quality. Still, there's quite a bit of room for growth in the city of 1.6 million, and that's exactly what inspired Anastasia Chovan of Unic to explore the possibility of hosting Barista Nation in the Francophone metropolis. She found an enthusiastic partner in Clockwise from top le: Simon St-Pierre of Saint-Henri Microroastery made pourovers of the Montreal company's beautiful single origins for all the aendees; Julia Barber (le) of Reg Barber Enterprises, awards custom tampers to the winners of the Barista Nation Lae Art Throwdown: Marie- Éve Laroche, Keaton Ricci, and Mitchell Simon. Discussing the challenges of running the popular Pikolo Espresso Bar, quality control manager Mitchell, and owner Marie-Éve, address the Barista Nation audience. 28 barista magazine B o o k 1 - 4 6 . i n d d 2 8 Book 1-46.indd 28 5 / 1 5 / 1 4 1 0 : 2 9 P M 5/15/14 10:29 PM