{"id":2309,"date":"2019-11-02T22:57:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T22:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/?p=2309"},"modified":"2019-11-02T23:40:10","modified_gmt":"2019-11-02T23:40:10","slug":"mulberry-street-coffeehouse-hand-crafting-an-authentic-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/2019\/11\/02\/mulberry-street-coffeehouse-hand-crafting-an-authentic-space\/","title":{"rendered":"MULBERRY STREET COFFEEHOUSE: HAND-CRAFTING AN AUTHENTIC SPACE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MULBERRY STREET COFFEEHOUSE: <\/em>HAND-CRAFTING AN AUTHENTIC SPACE <\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

STORY & IMAGES BY CAI SEPULIS\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a quiet morning on James Street North in Hamilton and the air is still damp from last night\u2019s storm. A slight fog lingers in the air.\u2028I marvel at the iconic, round Mulberry Street Coffeehouse sign swinging above me and take a few photos before going in. \u2018That sign used to be a table,\u2019 managing partner Ella Shepherd will inform me later over food and drinks. \u2018And that one,\u2019 she’ll add, pointing to\u2028a big neon \u2018M\u2019 that sits above another door, \u2018is from an old Shopper\u2019s Drug Mart sign.\u2019 Handcrafted personal touches \u2013 and traces of re-purposing \u2013 are everywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coffee shops and the idea of \u2018handcraft\u2019 are a natural fit, and Mulberry is a perfect instance of this confluence. Fresh coffee. In-house baked goods. Delightful items to invigorate the senses on a sleepy morning. This space, already full with people seemingly camped out for the morning, conveys an authentic sense of home \u2013 mine, yours, ours \u2013 with its plants in the window, rustic tables, exposed walls, tin ceiling and comfy chairs. Clear evidence of a community coming together and not-to-be-missed comfort food are qualities that make a great and welcoming coffee shop. In my own travels, finding the coffee shop the locals call home is always on my list. On today\u2019s trip to Steeltown, Mulberry fits the bill perfectly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fresh coffee and warm pastries \u2013 including the coffeehouse\u2019s coveted lemon loaf \u2013 in front of us, Ella and I sit in what regulars call \u2018The Baking Room.\u2019 We manage to get only a few words in before someone comes by to say hi to Ella, the unproclaimed Queen of Mulberry Street. Ella, who grew up in Vancouver and moved to Hamilton twenty years ago, tells me that she knew right away Hamilton was home. \u2018People say the West Coast is chill, but they must have never met Hamiltonians,\u2019 she confides. I agree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Because Ella experienced the city as warm and welcoming, and found the revitalization that was happening on James Street exhilarating, she jumped at the chance to open the coffeehouse when the opportunity presented itself nine years ago. It was then that she partnered with Roger Abbiss, local businessman and environmental demi-god, to bring Mulberry to life. (Read about Roger\u2019s other initiatives \u2013 including coffeecology, Bikeables, and Dundurn Market \u2013 in TOQUE issue 6.) Their visions for the coffeehouse <\/p>\n\n\n\n

aligned perfectly from the start; that is, to establish a place that offered, in Ella\u2019s words, \u2018fair trade coffee, as organic and local as possible, and good food at fair prices. And,\u2019 she adds, \u2018a welcoming destination where members of the community might want to stay all day.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A destination that\u2019s full of nooks and crannies \u2013 and a rich history too. As Ella tells me: \u2018The building itself was constructed in the late 1800\u2019s as the \u2018Armoury Hotel,\u2019 whose main purpose was to serve the armed forces stationed in the monstrous red-bricked Armoury [still in use] across the street. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later,\u2019 she continues, \u2018the hotel became\u2028a laundromat. And now, after numerous expansions and renovations, it\u2019s Mulberry.\u2019 Coffeehouse. And gallery, too, which is put to good use \u2013 especially when the James Street Art Crawl and annual Super Crawl pack the streets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I watch the first pints of the day being poured in the distance (Collective Arts \u2013 for anyone keeping tabs), Ella and I talk more about the space and what it took to open\u2028its doors. \u2018Over six months of ripping down walls, putting up walls, tearing up the floor, exposing old treasures,\u2019 Ella explains. \u2018Roger and I tried to keep the space as authentic as possible,\u2019 she tells me, \u2018by incorporating the original tile flooring, exposed brick, and other finishes and details\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    And yet these two were also not afraid to incorporate local relics from outside the original space into their design. As Ella\u2028notes: \u2018Roger has always been something\u2028of a \u2018master salvager\u2019 \u2013 giving items from further afield new life here at Mulberry.\u2019 Like the high-top table where we\u2019re sitting, which Roger sourced from the now defunct Susie\u2019s Diner (which would have been located just down the block, where the White Elephant boutique is now). And the chalkboards that were sourced from the now closed Parkside High School in Dundas. And a unique photographic installation by artist Jeff Tessier that extends the place\u2019s homage to the past \u2013 lighting up sepia-toned photographs in a lightbox-meets-chandelier type of fixture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    When our server brings over more food, I murmur to myself, \u2018Oh sure, I can stay a bit longer,\u2019 unable as I am to resist the vivid salad bowls in front of us. \u2018And you have to try one of these, too,\u2019 Ella demands \u2013 splitting a cupcake with me. \u2018It\u2019s gluten free,\u2019 she adds. It doesn\u2019t disappoint. I am more than content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As the sunlight streams through the rustic arched windows and dances through the steam of my third coffee, Ella regales me with more intriguing stories. Of this space. And city. And of herself too. I take another sip and look around. Here I am, like so many others, camped and cozy. In good company and with great food. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the perfect way to spend the day. Basking in this home away from home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      MULBERRY STREET COFFEEHOUSE: HAND-CRAFTING AN AUTHENTIC SPACE  STORY & IMAGES BY CAI SEPULIS\u00a0 It\u2019s a quiet morning on James Street North in Hamilton and the air is still damp from last night\u2019s storm. A slight fog lingers in the air.\u2028I marvel at the iconic, round Mulberry Street Coffeehouse sign swinging above me and take a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[82,53,97,120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-food-drink","category-hamilton","category-issue-9"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/11T2A7831sm.jpg?fit=2160%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8KDF5-Bf","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2309"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2342,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions\/2342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}