Coffee & Whisky House

Coffee, whisky and a short order list

The house pour is Julius Meinl coffee from Vienna, and the thing to put beside it is the three-layer cheesecake: fruit mousse, cheese and a crisp chocolate praline. Coffee & Whisky House runs both halves of its name out of one room in Toruń's Old Town, coffee and cake through the afternoon, whisky into the evening.

The premises carry some history of their own. The space once held Pod Atlantem, a café well known locally, so the room continues an existing tradition rather than starting from scratch. The coffee side is deliberately short, a named Viennese roaster, a signature cake, a matcha latte and a couple of house lemonades, rather than a rotating single-origin board. The whisky list is the deep part of the menu.

Gothic brick, armchairs and a stove

The interior is more lounge than counter. Exposed brick, comfortable armchairs and an ornamental stove suit the gothic Old Town setting, and the way the room is arranged encourages sitting and talking rather than collecting a cup and leaving. Nothing about it is minimal and nothing about it is rushed.

It works in several registers at once: coffee shop in the afternoon, cocktail bar and whisky room later, with a kitchen behind both. Solo visitors are as well served as groups, and the staff are attentive without hovering. The Old Town address puts it among the gothic brick and narrow streets that define central Toruń, which is part of why the room reads as continuous with the city rather than dropped into it.

Order the cheesecake, the matcha latte or the lavender lemonade

The three-layer cheesecake is the most specific thing on the menu and pairs directly with the Julius Meinl coffee. Away from coffee, the matcha latte is the drink guests single out, and the cucumber and lavender lemonade is the one to order when the afternoon is warm. Both are made in house rather than poured from a carton, which is the same instinct that produced the cheesecake.

Savoury food is present but narrower: nachos with cheese sauce and beef tartare are the named plates, and there are vegetarian options on the menu. The clearest path through the place is to treat it as a drinks room first, add the cheesecake for the signature, and leave the wider menu to the evening, when the whisky selection makes it a different visit altogether.