Sidenote is a cafe and vintage shop doing specialty brewing methods and coffee beverages.

Nostalgic books and board games lie about, a collection of old cameras is gathered on a shelf, and a grandfather clock sits quietly in a corner.

Siphon brewing is a method that rose to popularity in Victorian times, original setups extremely elaborate.

The one at Sidenote was made by Japanese glass company Yama, and harnesses the power of a simple butane burner to boil water in a glass beaker for two minutes.

Over the course of a rough four-minute process, the air in the beaker is replaced by water vapours due to the boiling action, ensuring coffee stays in another vessel placed on top while boiling. When the burner is taken away and boiling stops, the coffee drains down into the first beaker.

This results in showcasing the flavour of the coffee and the origin of the beans, in this case a nutty, fruity organic fair trade Peruvian blend from Hale.

Vietnamese egg coffee ($4) starts with getting a cute espresso glass really hot with water, then drawing a shot manually from a beautiful hydraulic-powered Victoria Arduino Athena Leva machine for an exact 28 seconds. 

That’s layered with a bright, tropical and sweet passion fruit meringue, torched for a non-traditional creme brulee effect. The combination is divinely bittersweet, creamy, savoury and caramelized.

They use Hale’s Ethiopian, Guatemalan and Brazilian blend for their nitro coffee ($5), the glass rinsed to cool it before pouring in the same way glasses are warmed with hot water first for hot beverages.

A Raspberry Beret ($5) combines espresso or nitro coffee with chocolate milk and tops it with house raspberry whipped cream, freeze-dried raspberries and cacao nibs, a great indie alternative to sugary coffees from big chains. Just be careful sucking hot coffee through the straw, which makes it easier to drink with that giant mountain of pink whipped cream.

Desmond and Beatrice provide Cowboy Cookies ($2) with salty pretzels stuffed inside, as well as cookies stuffed with chunks of real brownie ($2.50).

The thrifting addiction of one of the owners fills a large open back area with a small but curated selection of hats, jackets, tops, bags, belts, and other odds and ends.

A case is filled with repurposed vintage jewelry made locally, earrings priced at around $10, items like necklaces hovering around a pricier $70.

Seating roughly twenty, there are a ton of outlets, free WiFi and cushy seating right up against a big front window that fills the space with light.