At the new Seton counter, Modbar espresso taps keep the bar low and open, while Tone Touch 03 and 04 brewers handle filter service beside them. Phil Sebastian southeast Calgary now means Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters has opened its first cafe in Calgary's deep southeast, in the Seton neighbourhood. For a roaster that began at the Calgary Farmer's Market in 2007, this is a new morning map: the Simmons Building still does the roasting, and Seton now gets its own counter (Sprudge).
Nathan Manfredi told Sprudge that Seton is a young and rapidly growing part of Calgary, and that the cafe was built as a neighbourhood space rather than a pass-through coffee stop. The details sit in the working parts: how green coffee is stored, how the brewers heat water, who sources at origin, and why the espresso station keeps the bar visually open.
Why Phil Sebastian southeast Calgary Matters Now
Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters was founded in Calgary in 2007 by Phil Robertson and Sebastian Sztabzyb, two engineers who turned their attention to coffee with the measurement habit engineering leaves behind. The company roasts at its roastery in Calgary's historic Simmons Building and serves coffee through Calgary cafes, an online shop, and wholesale partners. Seton adds a different geography to that work. It is the company's first location in Calgary's deep southeast (Impactmagazine).
Deep southeast carries practical weight. A cafe can change a commute, but a neighbourhood cafe changes the small decisions before work, after school, and between errands. Manfredi described the cafe as bright and open, with high ceilings, natural light, and a generous amount of seating. Those facts tell you how the room expects to be used.
The Phil Sebastian southeast Calgary opening puts a Calgary roaster into a part of the city that now gets its own bar flow, its own regulars, and its own breakfast habits. For people who have followed Phil & Sebastian from the Calgary Farmer's Market to the Simmons Building era, Seton is about reach. The roasting stays in Calgary. The daily cup moves closer to home.
A Seton Room Designed Around the Counter
Way of Normal, the Calgary design studio, designed the Seton cafe. The room is meant to feel distinctly Phil & Sebastian while staying relaxed enough for a longer sit. High ceilings and natural light do some of that work. So does the equipment, because the best cafe rooms keep the bar legible. You can see hands moving. You can watch the coffee being made without the espresso machine becoming a wall.
The Modbar espresso system helps with that. Modbar shifts much of the machine below the counter, leaving the work surface cleaner and the exchange between barista and guest less obstructed. In a busy cafe, that matters. A tall espresso machine can turn the counter into a fort. A low-profile system lets the barista pull shots and speak across the same plane.
The Tone Touch 03 and 04 brewers sit beside that espresso setup. Phil & Sebastian chose them for control over filter service and for energy use. The brewers use boilerless technology, heating water as needed instead of keeping a large boiler hot all day. That changes the cafe's energy pattern one brew cycle at a time.
This is also one of Phil & Sebastian's more complete cafe offerings. Hoopla Donuts and Deputy Bagels sit alongside the coffee program, which gives Seton a breakfast counter rather than a coffee-only stop. Order filter coffee if you want to see the Tone Touch system in its lane. Order espresso if you want the Modbar decision to make sense at the counter. Add a Deputy Bagel when the morning needs structure, or a Hoopla Donut when the coffee is the anchor.
From Two Engineers to the Simmons Building Roastery
Phil Robertson and Sebastian Sztabzyb opened their first cafe at the Calgary Farmer's Market in 2007. The same year, Sztabzyb was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. That origin places the company at the intersection of risk, work, and timing from the beginning (Sprudge).
The engineering background still shows in the way Phil & Sebastian talks about coffee. The company measures, tests, tastes blind, and refines over time. That language belongs in the cafe because it shapes the cup before a guest sees it. Coffee passes through cupping tables, sourcing decisions, shipping, storage, roasting, and brewing before it becomes an espresso or filter coffee in Seton.
The Simmons Building roastery gives the company a production home with Calgary identity built into the address. Roasting everything there keeps the Seton cafe tied to the same production system as the rest of the company. For a guest, that means the coffee in the deep southeast still comes through the same Calgary roastery and the same sourcing framework.
Sztabzyb's current role connects the front and back of the business. He leads cafe operations and company finances, and he sources green coffee in Central and South America. That combination matters because sourcing choices land in the budget, the roast plan, the brew bar, and the price a cafe can pay for green coffee. At Seton, those choices become local and daily.
Green Coffee, Frozen on Arrival
One of Phil & Sebastian's clearest process details happens before roasting. When green coffee arrives in Calgary, the company freezes all of it to slow aging and protect quality. Green coffee changes over time, and storage affects how a coffee later roasts and brews. Freezing is a way to hold the coffee closer to the condition in which the roaster selected it.
Keep that in mind when a Seton barista pours filter coffee from the Tone Touch brewer. The cup began as a buying decision, then became a storage decision, then a roast decision at the Simmons Building. By the time it reaches the counter, quality has already been defended several times. The guest sees the last motion. The roaster has been working on the coffee for much longer.
The company frames sustainability through long-term buying as well as cafe equipment. Phil & Sebastian invests in long-term relationships with producers, pays well above Fairtrade rates, and works on origin projects meant to improve coffee quality and the durability of those partnerships. The phrasing is practical: pay more, keep relationships, preserve quality, build repeatable systems.
For a coffee drinker at the Seton counter, the origin work will show through the brewed coffee of the day and the staff's guidance at the bar. A filter coffee brewed on Tone Touch equipment has already passed through Sztabzyb's sourcing work, Calgary storage, the Simmons Building roastery, and a bar setup chosen for control. The cup is the last step.
That is why Phil Sebastian southeast Calgary is a useful phrase for people who care how cafes work. The opening is a location story, but the details sit in production choices: green coffee frozen upon arrival, boilerless brewers at the bar, espresso equipment selected for an open counter, and a food offer that makes the room usable across the morning.
What to Order at the New Seton Cafe
Start with filter coffee. The Tone Touch 03 and 04 brewers are part of the new cafe's identity, and filter service gives the roaster the most direct line from sourcing to cup. Ask what is brewing that morning. If the staff steers you toward a specific coffee, take the recommendation. Phil & Sebastian spends time cupping and selecting coffees, then works to preserve them through shipping, storage, and roasting. Filter is where that chain tends to speak clearly.
Then order an espresso. The Modbar system is there for a reason: it keeps the bar open while giving staff control over espresso service. A short drink will show the bar's calibration more directly than a taller milk drink. Stand near the counter long enough to watch how the bar moves. The equipment was chosen to avoid hiding the work.
For food, the clear order is coffee with either a Deputy Bagel or a Hoopla Donut. The choice depends on the hour and the appetite. The bagel makes Seton a breakfast stop. The donut turns a coffee run into a pause. Phil & Sebastian calls this one of its more complete cafe offerings, and that completeness is the point: the new location is built for routine.
Do not treat the menu like a checklist. Pick the two things that explain the room: a filter coffee from the Tone Touch system and something from the food counter. If you return, move to espresso. A cafe reveals itself over repeat visits, through who is on bar, what coffee is brewed, and how the counter handles the morning push.
How to Visit the Seton Cafe
The Seton cafe is now open in Calgary's deep southeast. Go in the morning, when the cafe's breakfast offer can do its work and the room has time to become part of the day. If you live nearby, fold it into a weekly rhythm. If you are crossing the city, make the visit about the bar: filter first, espresso second, then a bagel or donut if you are staying.
Bring someone who cares about design and they will notice the open counter. Bring someone who cares about sourcing and they will have questions about the green coffee freezer, Central and South American buying, and the Simmons Building roastery.
The Seton opening gives Phil & Sebastian a new daily audience in Calgary without moving the centre of its craft away from roasting, sourcing, and measured bar work.
Watch what happens next at this counter: which coffees regulars ask for by name, how the breakfast order settles in, and how a deep southeast cafe starts to build its own habits around a Calgary roaster that began with two engineers and a market stall.