Kwanzaa Coffee House

This is a cute little place close to the stadium. We arrived late in the afternoon, so the lunch specials and soup were long gone, but the lattes were as good as any I’ve ever had. They even have almond milk lattes. On the counter was a small assortment of cute Kenyan sculptures and beautiful cards from a local photographer. Most of their business probably comes from the professional building around the corner, and they have hours to match.

Oh. My. God. That chicken shawarma was so huge I needed a forklift just to get it upto my mouth. Seriously, it came with its own fork (photo —
).
I never would’ve known about Kwanzaa had it not been for Unilocal.It’s tucked away in one of the buildings in the hotel strip just off Crowchild and 16^th Ave. But I needed a place to park my behind for a couple of hours and so I found myself hunting it down. A couple of rounds around the block and finally, I spotted the name on one of the windows.
The lunch special today is a chicken shawarma or a beef donair. Chicken smothered in sauce, pickles, banana peppers, onions and the likes? Oh yes please! Diet, schmiet. A weekend eating poutine wasn’t going to deter me from shawarming myself-​there are veggies in there!
On the coffee shop side of things, they’ve got your usual lattes, mochas (raspberry looks tasty), some iced coffees and smoothies, as well as a basic array of muffins, squares and cinnamon buns to keep your sweet tooth satisfied.
There’s no wifi, but you can try and grab a signal from the Best Western. I connected, but couldn’t get the internet working. Apparently the space wasn’t built with internet in mind, and no easy way for Kwanzaa to grab themselves a portal to the superhighway :(.
At any rate, the two ladies there during my stay were super friendly! If only they were open weekends… oh well, I’ll just have to make sure I’m driving by the next time I need some more lunch :).

One of the few independent coffee shops to open in the last five years and be successful! Great service! I love their home made paninis.