Tommy Café

The original Tommy, in the British Empire Building

This is the first Tommy Café, the Notre-Dame branch the rest of the brand grew out of, and it sits inside the historic British Empire Building in Old Montréal. The building gives the café its character: high ceilings, generous natural light, plants running through the room and ornate detail left from an earlier life.

Tommy has since opened on Saint-Paul, Sainte-Catherine and Mont-Royal, but this is the room that made it, and it has anchored the neighbourhood's café and brunch scene for more than a decade.

Coffee and brunch, over the counter

The format is a specialty coffee shop that also works as a casual restaurant: order at the counter, then stay for breakfast, brunch or an afternoon pause. Food carries as much of the day as the coffee, which is why the room fills at midday as well as first thing.

Mornings and early afternoons suit it best, and it serves commuters, residents, visitors and small groups in roughly equal measure.

Which Tommy to choose

If you are deciding between locations, take Notre-Dame. It is the branch tied most closely to the brand's beginnings and the only one in the British Empire Building, and the room is the reason to go rather than a menu that differs from the others.

Come for coffee and a brunch plate, sit under the ceiling, and treat it as a pause between Old Montréal stops rather than a takeaway on the way past.