Rooster Coffee House (Broadview)

Sunset Over Riverdale Park

3.5 of 5

The view is the first ingredient. Rooster sits at 479 Broadview Avenue, across the road from Riverdale Park, and from the window bar the hill falls away toward the valley with downtown lined up on the far side. Shawn Andrews and her partner Dave opened it in December 2009, and it has been the east end's favourite place to watch the sun go down over a coffee ever since.

Inside it is modern vintage: leather chairs and board games, old luggage pressed into service as tables, and a big shared table for people who hold meetings on weekends. In the early days the beans came from Te Aro, the Leslieville roaster that later became Pilot. These days Rooster roasts its own, signature house roasts alongside single origins. Baked goods arrive daily from a handful of specialty bakers, and the menu now stretches to brunch, lunch, beer, wine and ciders from Prince Edward County. From the start there were water bowls outside for dogs, and that says plenty about the regulars.

Rooster has added shops on King East and on Jarvis, but Broadview is the original and the only one with that view. Go late in the day, about an hour before sunset, claim a seat at the window bar, order a house roast as filter and whatever the bakers sent over, and watch the city turn orange. A coffee with a view should not be this rare in a city this size. Rooster worked that out early.

Order this: A house roast on filter, Whatever the bakers sent over this morning, A County cider if the day is done
The damage: $
Go: Late in the day, an hour before sunset
Find it: 479 Broadview Ave, Toronto, ON M4K 2N4