Magnificent coffee (and more) at Sharpfle Waffle

Those who love coffee may have found themselves down the rabbit hole long ago. It happened to me twenty years back when I became a home-roaster of green coffee beans.

I used a small table top device called a Fresh Roast that was in its first generation. It roasted enough beans to make between four to six cups of coffee in a French press.

Already you may have noticed some specificity in what I described. Four to six cups? French press? Why not a drip coffee maker or a pour over? And wouldn't you use the same amount of ground coffee for each of the methods?

Not necessarily and yes we open a Pandora's box once we start asking questions around coffee.

But this Pandora’s box is actually a profile of a Hintonburg coffee shop named Sharpfle Waffle. A visit here will provide you with, what is in my estimation, a finer coffee experience than almost any shop in Ottawa.

If you spend any amount of time speaking with owner James (TaeHyun) Choi, you'll come away with a greater education in coffee than you ever thought you needed.

When I first met James at the start of the summer it only took a few minutes for me to recognize that I was speaking with someone who was operating at a deeper level of coffee understanding than anyone I'd ever met. Soon our inner coffee geeks were waltzing about his shop like disembodied spirits to the jazz over the speakers.

Born in South Korea, James has lived in Taipei, Beijing, and Shanghai. In his twenties he took on his undergrad studies at Hope College in Holland, Mich. After the 45th president was elected to office, James experienced first-hand how jobs for foreign workers dried up in the US.

Rather than suffer any further indignities, he came to Canada and got his masters in statistics at the University of Waterloo. Soon after, and with a job offer from Statistics Canada, he moved to Ottawa.

Ottawa's coffee culture was enhanced when James opened Sharpfle Waffle last December.

A “sharp” is an elevated note in music theory and its written form resembles the pattern on a waffle. As James explained, he wanted it to rhyme but also hoped that “people would have an elevated experience that would make them sing.”

I'm not the singing type but I've ignobly grunted in pleasure at what they offer.

He's grateful for all the assistance he's had in building his business. In the first months, he had help setting up his shop from his friend Jay Lee, who was then sous chef at Beckta and now acts as chef de patie at the legendary New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park.

Viviana Kwak, who studied and was a teaching assistant at the Cordon Bleu school, is the pastry chef providing classic baked goods such as cream puffs. Her financiers (little almond cakes flavoured with browned butter) are masterful with just the right amount of sweetness and a toothsome density. One of my favourite coffee sides. A pity they're so hard to come by.

When James isn't making your coffee, you're in the expert hands of barista Dongman Lee. Dongman is a certified Q Grader. This is an individual who has passed through a rigorous program to evaluate green coffee. For coffee professionals at every level of the industry, it's a globally recognized standard.

I watched as he prepared my pour-over coffee, weighing not only the beans he would use per cup, but also weighing the amount of hot water he poured over the grounds. Oh, and if you thought the geekiness ended there, there's also a debate about whether water should be 95 C or 100 C.

He served the coffee black and the aromas fairly raced to my nose reminding me of cherry and dark fruits. It was a full spectrum of flavours and natural sweetness without any of the over-extracted “oxo beef cube” character I often associate with the coffees of certain international chains. Really quite perfect.

James has assembled a team of top-flight talent and he tells me that his idea is to “create a synergy between the drinks and the pastries we offer.” From my experience, everything is right on track.

He also has an eye to the future in which he hopes to operate out of a warehouse where he can roast on a larger scale.

Meeting James the way I did and then learning of his work as a statistician, his preoccupation with detail, with the minutiae of all the variables that coffee demands, it all suddenly made sense.

He has a specific passion but he also needs to understand it. Enjoy the coffee here and perhaps you will too.