Six Shooter Coffee

The Biv, and a bar of Cleveland-roasted coffee

Order The Biv first: the house honey and lavender latte, and the drink most regulars use to explain Six Shooter Coffee to someone who has not been. It is sweet without being a dessert, and it works as the reference point for everything else on the board.

Behind it is a full espresso bar, with macchiato, cortado, cappuccino, latte, mocha and americano alongside straight espresso, plus drip when a simpler cup is the point. Drip is the honest test if you want to taste the roast with nothing else in the way. Cold coffee is not an afterthought either: toddy and draft toddy sit on the menu, and nitro runs on tap, including flavoured pours such as cereal milk.

A roastery first, a cafe second

Six Shooter roasts all of its beans in Cleveland, which is the structural fact behind the menu: what lands in the cup is not bought in from an outside roasting partner. The subscription list gives the clearest view of what comes off the roaster, naming Brazil, a Collinwood Espresso, a rotating African and a rotating South American coffee, with rotations tied to harvest seasons rather than to a fixed calendar.

The company grew out of a wholesale coffee business before opening its first storefront in the Waterloo Arts District on 4 March 2016, and it has kept the habit of working through local partnerships since. The Western thread in the name runs through the branding rather than the coffee, which stays a small-batch operation with a neighbourhood cafe attached.

Food that goes past the pastry case

The kitchen is more substantial than a counter of baked goods. Grab-and-go wraps include a Crispy Buffalo Tofu Wrap, a Chicken Salad Wrap and a Curried Chickpea Wrap. Breakfast burritos come as Chorizo and Egg or an Egg and Hashbrown Scramble with cilantro lime crema, and the sandwich list runs to a Turkey Club Panini and a Ham and Cheese Toastie on Stone Oven focaccia.

Away from coffee there is matcha, chai, hot cocoa, iced tea, yerba mate, and hot teas in black, green, mint, and ginger and lemon. A workable order is The Biv with a breakfast burrito in the morning, or a cortado and a wrap at lunch, which is the pattern the menu is built for.