The Purple Perk

Love the atmosphere! The ladies at the counter are always friendly. The coffee is always fresh.
Nice change from Starbucks!

To start they had no issue with our dog hanging outside the outdoor seating. That’s a plus. My wife had the Greek for me omelette. The spinach was clearly from a can. Points lost for ingredient selection. The eggs Benedict I had came with an aftertaste of cooking oil (not butter). For the $ 30 breakfast I expected better. It will be awhile before we return.

I reluctantly give the Purple Perk three stars rather then four. On a few occasions something has been off. One time I ordered decaf coffee in the evening. When I asked for a refund because it was cold, I was told that it was because it had been brewed and sat around for many hours; not what I want to hear. So I recommend you order your coffee freshly brewed. The chocolate cake comes in huge slices and will satisfy a craving and then some. — but, ask if it is fresh. They have some good desserts, snacks and meal items. It is a busy, buzzing place. I go occasionally.

Lots of people and lots of productive energy: The Purple Perk is a great spot for a public meet up, be it social or business. There’s half-​booth seating along the back that makes for a comfy spot to sit while you get a bit of reading or lap-​topping done or while you wait for a guest.
Check out Reuben Tuesdays. I’m not sure if they only have reuben sandwiches on Tuesday’s or if they’re on special, but either way, they’re rather delicious. With sandwiches coming in at the $ 10 — $ 12 dollar range it’s not really a cheap place to eat for what you seem to get. As of right now, I don’t think I’d actively seek The Purple Perk out as a place to go eat, but I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to order some lunch if I was feeling hungry and was meeting up for a coffee. Likewise, I don’t think I’d actively seek out a «to-​go» coffee at The Purple Perk, but it’s a great spot to meet up with someone over a cup of joe.
Enjoy!

It’s okay not my favourite spot food at front like Mac and cheese and lasagna looks dry and they heat in microwave yuck. Having raspberry and white chocolate scone it is good, but coffee not the greatest

Also tried the Reuben. It was very good! $ 11 with salad and was made from scratch. Delicately grilled and a great sauce!

Omg, I can’t believe the rating for this place is only 3 stars. Well, it’s a 5 star in my book. Goes every week, close to work. Great food, priced alright, slightly higher than I’d like it to be, but considering how delicious most things are, I’ll happily fork over the money. Fave, chicken perk wrap, tuna artichoke sandwich, curry lentil soup, and WHITE CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY SCONE is the best scone I’ve ever had. Not so good, gumbo soup, really salty, muffins, a bit oily and kind of big. brewed coffee, so over-​priced at 3.5 $ for a medium, when I can get organic coffee at Eurphoria across from my house for 2 $. But still, one of the best cafes in downtown Calgary.

Home fries are drowned in BBQ sauce. I know Calgary is a barbecue and beef city, but surely not many people want their brunch drowned in BBQ sauce. The Benny hollandaise and veggies were good. But the portabello Benny does not come with a muffin and the menu does not state this fact.

Heard that the chocolate cake’s good. So finally went to pick it up after work couple days ago.
I ordered an iced mocha and a piece of chocolate cake. The iced mocha was not good, and the chocolate cake was DRY, very disappointed!

Purple Perk is a great little local coffee joint always buzzing with energy. The coffee served is always fresh and strong. Of course, they’ve got a good selection of teas for tea-​lovers as well.
I like the variety of seating that’s available at Purple Perk. They’ve got elevated seating that’s conducive to people watching and confers a bit of privacy. The low table seating is accessible for those not able to walk-​up to the other seats.
The Perk has a good selection of savoury and sweet foods you can enjoy, excellent if you plan to hunker down for a while in the store or if you’re simple just peckish. The free wifi that is available in the store will keep you productive! I really also appreciate the fact that the staff don’t seem to mind if you stay awhile! I always feel comfortable in the store and have never felt like I’ve overstayed my welcome :)
I wish they had more Purple Perks in the city.

Purple Perk has been a fave for many years. In the onslaught of snooty, hipster run-​and-​filled cafes, it remains relatively unchanged and I think thats part of its charm.
Sure the coffee shall not compare to some, but you would be hard pressed to find a better mac n cheese in all the city.
The staff are great, seating is ample, wifi is free and nobody blinks when you stay up on the cushy benches for hours behind your laptop, pretending to be a writer.
Also, nobody cares too much when you bring your small children in on Sundays for pancakes (the size of a frisbee!) and your son proceeds to meander around, chatting up ladies 3 decades older than himself and crawling under strangers tables (sorry.)
Its the perfect place for comfortable and casual meet ups, family brunch, late night espresso brownie cravings or just a grab and go!

Not a fan of this place. Looks run down and the drinks/​food are very average. Also, the place has the feel of a diner, not a coffee shop, and has a weird vibe in general.

Needs a good cleaning.
I do quite like the look of a number of the food items at the purple perk, but I’ve had a difficult time allowing myself to order any of them. For one simple reason.
I worked in a coffee shop previously and I find the purple perk’s pastry case to be down right disgusting. If you look at the glass and the space between the shelves and the glass there is enough food in there to feed an army… of ants, fruit flies, whatever other gross creatures likely want to get in and feast. If this was the coffee shop I worked in previously, we would have shut ourselves down just to do a deep clean for a few days before serving any of this to the public. You can see numerous times that cake icing or cheese or whatever has been scraped along the underside of the shelves and then not cleaned up. It is left there to mold and rot and be gross. Just waiting for another slice of cake to get scraped along it and take the old gross rotting food with it. YUUUUUUK. Please clean your pastry case! I don’t even want to know what else is gross and just isn’t out in the open for people to see.

I live in the area and come to purple perk often… almost daily. I support it and would like to see it succeed.
However, today is probably one of the most terrible experiences I’ve ever had at a food establishment. It’s in regards to customer feedback.
I was in line at the purple perk and I overheard a guest ask for gluten free. The girl behind was very apologetic and said she’s sorry. Ok… they left… I saw the owner so I mentioned the situation to him and said it might be a good idea to have a couple options. Again, a valid point and giving feedback because I assumed he would actually care about his customers requests or concerns. He said absolutely no way. And then proceeded to tell me he calls them «glutards». I said I have friends who are gluten free and I took extreme offense to his callous response. He said a lot of places don’t have gluten free. You know what?! So what if they do?! You don’t have to respond to a regular patron or any customer for that matter in the way you did sir!
Any well run business with great leadership would take that feedback, thank the customer and perhaps try to better their business. I wonder if he treats his patrons that way how does he treat his staff. It’s a very unfortunate experience and has now cost the perk even more lost revenue because every single friend of mine now knows and we will not be taking our business there anymore.

I’ve visited the Purple Perk a few times, and have always enjoyed their homemade sandwiches and goodies. On this visit, we enjoyed the warm hummus dip with tortilla chips. The Chicken Caesar wrap needed work though. Did not taste of Caesar salad at all. In any event, this is a nice place to sit outside along 4^th Street and watch the world go by.

We planned to visit a few downtown coffee shops and take a break from S-​bux. Finally, today we had the opportunity to get The Purple Perk experience.
Which was meh.
Service was nice and friendly, but coffee tasted below average. Tables were hard to come by, especially outside. There were quite a few hipster types drifting in and out. Lighting is kind of dim inside.
Overall — average.

A great place to hang out for a cup of java. They have a decent selection of hot foods and desserts too. Their cheesecake is amazing. I’d definitely recommend it.

Cute little place with a surprising amount of seating. Patio in summer out front.
Good product — strong, smooth coffee. Staff guessed that the beans were Colombian when I asked.
Overall the staff were disconnected and not overly friendly.
Place could use a good cleaning and seeing fruit flies around the cream station next to the dirty dishes station — not so great.
But for take out, overall 3 stars as I really liked my wet capp. Great location for people watching on 4^th.
Free wi-​fi of course. Lots of baked goods, wraps and supposedly very popular for their breakfasts.
They close at 10pm on weeknights, 11pm on weekends.

This is a nice little place to grab a tea or a coffee and a snack with friends, or maybe do some studying (which thankfully I’m about 18 years too old for). I’ve only been here later in the evening on Sunday nights or weekend days. The service is always friendly and they have a mix of food options from mac and cheese (interesting flavour kick) to sammies (beef wrap is good as is the chicken wrap) and sweets. While I’ve never swooned over anything I’ve had, I’ve never been left disappointed either.
They also do office catering (Including my office) and they do a good job of that. Lots of neat wraps and other yummy salads to choose from. Cool flavour combos etc.
The Perk is solid. It might not wow you but I don’t think that’s what they are trying to do.

The Purple Perk sits somewhere around the average mark for me. Nothing really screams out at me saying this is the place to be or is outstanding in any way.
I’ve ducked in here a few times for supper, a cake and a Sunday morning coffee on different occasions.
Food was good yet nothing that stood out from other menus I’ve seen. Cake was ok but had that overly sweet, overly processed flavour to it. And my Sunday morning coffee… Lets just say you don’t stuff up someone’s first coffee of the day. Anything pre caffeine on a Sunday I have little tolerance for. Taking my order for a coffee, then promptly forgetting about my order and deciding to count tips for a bit, then walk off and have a chat with other staff and then make two other coffees for customers who came in AFTER me all while I was still standing at the takeaway counter waiting.
Not impressed to say the least. If the staff were a bit more switched on surely they would take notice of someone quite obviously waiting for a drink.
Will happily explore the Mission area for better coffee places, that’s for sure!