Obama Café

I’d like to review this place but ITS NEVER OPEN! I was thrilled when they changed the hours to open at 11:30 and I was so excited to try it for lunch. For a vegetarian, inexpensive lunch options around here are limited.
BUT IT WASN’T OPEN!
HELLO?

I can’t believe I waited so long to review this place. I might be biased because I am a left-​leaning, pseudo-​socialist, pinko wombat, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Obama Café is A-​OK.
The décor is inspiring if you have a hard on for the 44^th president. There is Obama memorabilia everywhere, mementos of his inauguration, and his face graces every table top. Really. The walls are slathered in a coffee bean wallpaper which gives a dark and unsettling aura; like you’ve fallen into a silo of single-​origin beans. Seating is kind of sparse. There are are two booths, a few bistro tables and a lot of empty space.
Now granted, they barely serve anything here. Their coffee is all Kenyan (natch) but I’m far too much of a coffee snob to trust a cup from here. I attempted to get a Diet Soda but cold cans were in short supply. I eventually settled on a lukewarm Ginger Ale. If that isn’t a metaphor for Obama’s presidency, I don’t know what is.
In short, I can’t really comment on their food and drink but as Obama-​themed cafés in Toronto go, it wasn’t half bad.
Obligatory Title Pun: KENYA dig it?
Menu Readability: It’s just a sign above the counter.
Need to mention: They have a TV that I assumed is perpetually tuned to Kenyan soccer.
What this place teaches me about myself: I believe in change.

If you want to step back into time, when the world rallied around Obama, then this is the place for you. POTUS welcomes you in, once inside he peers at you from 12 months of the 2009 calender and he even casts a watchful eye on you from your table top.
We were searching for some shisha places on that Danforth strip after restaurant hopping, when someone pointed us in the direction of Obama Café.
It’s a pretty dark and no frills place; and the front of the café seemed like a world congress of Ethiopian men!
My friends and I ordered a mint shisha, which did take sometime to prepare, but the lady serving us was apologetic and helpful. The shisha itself was flavorful and strong. I usually like to have shisha in more comfortable settings but oh well.

I can’t speak for the coffee, but the food is pretty good. From what I see it’s all vegetarian! Yay!!! Seating seems really limited though and the whole front area was just filled with a large group of guys drinking coffee/​tea and watching tv. A bit intimidating and not really a café feel. May be best to get your food to go.

I wanted to give my mom her Obama themed mother’s day gift (
) at an Obama themed café. I trekked it all the way from Etobicoke to this place only to find it inexplicably closed.
The sign in the window fully says open, and I am there within the hours of operations listed, and yet the lights are off, there is no note on the door and all the chairs on up on the tables.
Thanks for nothing Obama Café :-(

Cultural opportunists of the world, unite!
You have to wonder how well a ‘Barack Obama themed’ coffeeshop would do smack dab in the middle of a desolate strip of absurdia on the east end.
The tables have his face on them. There’s a lifesized cardboard cutout of the man in the middle of the room.
There are newspaper clippings of him all over the walls.
A confused and lost tourist walks by and snaps a picture. The whole thing is completely off-​the-​wall. Of course, this is neither here nor there.
The big question… Can we make a good cup of coffee?
Yes, we can.