A good coffee and muffin west of the great Atwater gastro divide? It's true! At the newly opened micro-roaster Saint Henri, Jean-Francois Leduc of Caffe in Gamba on Parc roasts and grinds his carefully selected beans. Except this isn't the only café in the neighbourhood where you can grab a decent espresso; for years, nestled away on St-Jacques, Les Gourmets Pressés has been turning out cappuccinos and lattes with their home-made chocolate cherry muffins. Laptop-toting, coffee-drinking, muffin-loving St-Henri-ites may now find themselves with some (literally) hard decisions to make on where to park their derrières.

The Criteria: Coffee, Atmosphere, Food and Baked Goods

Sure, just east of the Atwater coffee divide there's the incredible Lili & Oli, in the Atwater market itself there's Brulerie Aux Quatre Vents, and just west of Atwater there's the long-standing popular brunch spot Café Joe, but Leduc's Café Saint-Henri marks the first true coffee shop in the heart of St-Henri. No sandwiches. No soup. Just coffee...and, well, baked goods.
Best Coffee: Café Saint-Henri. Leduc's coffee philosophy and background speak for themselves:

"5 seconds more or 5 seconds less in a coffee roaster and the result will be the same: you fail in both cases," he says, and you've got to understand the characteristics of coffee to know how to get what you want out of it. Leduc certainly understands the beans.

In 2009 representatives from the sustainable and fair-trade coffee importing co-op Cooperative Coffees asked him to do a training program to become a "taster" for their company. The company imports coffees for 23 artisanal coffee roasteries in Canada and the US. He did the training, then more training, and while he was doing this he was also a finalist in the Canadian Barista Competition, later becoming a regional and national judge for the same competition. So he had the knowledge, the coffee-making skills, and good tastebuds.

Then he went traveling. Cooperative Coffees sent him to coffee farms all over Central America to make connections with growers and learn more about the lands where the beans were growing. He eventually trained the farmers about what he (and customers) were looking for in terms of quality coffee.
At Café Saint-Henri he selects beans from the different farms he's visited and grinds them himself, creating coffees that showcase exactly what he personally wants to bring out of the beans. You can buy his freshly ground mixes at the roastery in the St-Henri neighbourhood, or you can sit in the café for hours and linger over a beautifully-made espresso-based beverage. Or both. Probably he would tell you to do both.
Which brings us to Best Atmosphere: Café Saint-Henri

The bean roaster is on display in the back, and if the smell wasn't enough from just the grinding, the roaster ensures that the caffeine-soaked air intoxicates you. The sleek counter display and wooden furniture stick out like a sore (but beautiful) thumb on rue Notre-Dame West, but they're what make this place so attractive on a quiet morning or afternoon. There's Wi-Fi, of course, and you have the choice to park yourself on either a comfortable chair or a less-than-comfortable church pew. Most rightly choose the chairs, but the wooden pews give character to the café. I'll admit I was impressed before I realized how impractical they were.

Best Food and Baked Goods: Les Gourmets Pressés

Les Gourmets Pressés is much more a lunch bistro/caterer than a coffee shop, so when you need a little more than a cookie with your coffee you want to come here. Yes, they have Wi-Fi, a good espresso machine, and home-made muffins, but they don't have the big front windows and people-watching opportunities of Café Saint-Henri. Les Gourmet Pressés also doesn't make you want to linger through the afternoon with a good book or even a coffee friend. It does make neighbourhood workers and residents want to come for lunch from their daily-changing menu that includes braised chicken with tomatillo and garlic confit on tagliatelle for $14, duck confit on salad for $11.50 ($14 if you add garam masala-spiced potato wedges), or my personal favourite vegetarian moussaka with eggplant and lentils - a tomato-based instead of béchamel-based moussaka with a nice balance of salt from the olives and Parmesan and sweetness from sun-dried tomatoes and onions. Students and rushed workers in the area come for the sandwiches (saran-wrapped up to go) of goat cheese, roasted peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, marinated mushrooms and sweet balsamic reduction with grilled almonds or grilled chicken, homemade chipotle mayo, bacon, and aged cheddar ($8.77 as a sandwich, just under $10 as a salad).

Still, I'm not convinced the bistro gets enough traffic to survive on lunch service alone and it closes at 7pm. So most of their business seems to come from business lunch catering in the area and from their Old Port counter sister restaurant where hungry workers grab a coffee and muffin to go and avoid seats and pews all-together. But the St-Henri location of Les Gourmets Pressés has an extra reason to come for lunch - a very interesting wine list. Okay, I know not a lot of people reading this are going to come for lunch here because they have an interesting wine list, so I asked the server if a lot of people order wine with lunch, and yes, apparently enough do to justify the list. There are also regular tastings, which is definitely unique for a lunch spot. The wine list changes regularly and is at the whim of the restaurant owner, a Montrealer with a wine passion who gets a lot of the bottles by private import instead of from the SAQ shelves. The week I went the options included a good sampling of Western Europe with 2 reds, 2 whites, and a rosé from France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal including a Cote-de-Rhone Feuilles de Garances 2008 for $6.50 a glass. Other options were going for just $4.50. We're not talking Golden Kaan Cabernet Sauvignon here either; these are decent, and if you go with the house wine "discovery of the week" for just $5.50 you could get a real bargain.

Wasn't I writing about food?
In terms of just baked goods, it's a tough call between Les Gourmet Pressés and Café Saint-Henri. The catering kitchen at the former turns out a wide selection of muffins including chocolate cherry or the savoury-sweet peanut-peach. The peanut is more cake-like than muffin-like since it looks like a mini-loaf and has a ridiculously smooth texture, but the mild peaches make the muffin loaf moist and the un-roasted peanuts are soft and chewy. Café Saint-Henri, however, has also done well, recruiting Sweet Lee's Rustic Bakery for the savoury scones, cookies, and muffins. You won't find sandwiches here, but no need to starve. Sugar is a food group, right? You need to try a chocolate mint cookie or an apple, cherry, and orange muffin. If there's anything there with squash in it, buy it, trust me. Her savoury options involve sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, cheddar, and/or basil, so they're good if you just want a snack instead of the similar sandwich option at Les Gourmets Pressés.You may remember Sweet Lee's from such places as the Verdun farmer's market, Cupcake Camp Montreal, and the Concordia Sustainable Food Fair. She definitely one of the nicest people in the baking world and recognizes repeat customers, especially ones who are as obsessed with her molasses cake with butternut squash and ginger as I was. You can also get a croissant with your espresso at Café Saint-Henri, but for options and variety, Les Gourmets Pressés takes the cake.

Les Gourmets Pressés also used to do brunch, but there wasn't enough foot traffic in the area. In 5 years you can probably expect that to change, especially if more independent businesses like Café Saint-Henri keep moving in. The barista at Café Saint-Henri said he doesn't like the term "gentrification," but he does admit the neighbourhood is changing. He insists, however, that there's a big difference between having a Starbucks in the neighbourhood and an independent business like his café. So until they can't afford the rent, both Les Gourmets Pressés and Café Saint-Henri will be there, serving the students and business people in the area who, for now, can afford to splurge on a home-made muffin and some of the best coffee in the city. It'll be interesting to walk through the neighbourhood in 10 years...Cafe Saint-Henri
Where: 3632 rue Notre-Dame Ouest West
Hours: Daily, 7:30am-8pm

Les Gourmets Pressés
Where: 3911 St-Jacques West
Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm