The Brick Room is one of the the first things you'll see when you enter Brookfield Place from Union Station. With its saturated red brick it sticks out from the otherwise sterile-looking shops in the PATH.

Time seems to stop as you enter the warm, retro-looking space. The hustle and bustle sounds from outside are muted and replaced with ambient jazz music and espresso machines pulling shots.

This is Toronto's latest third wave coffee spot in the downtown core. While one of its goals is to let customers unwind and slow down with consistently exceptional brews, its other goal is to make Toronto the next renowned coffee city in the world.

Owner Komalpreet Singh knew he wanted to open up a cafe like The Brick Room when he moved to Toronto last year.

"I've lived in Melbourne all my life, so I've been used to really amazing coffee," he says.

Instead of starting his cafe right away, Singh says he thought it would be better to learn about Toronto's coffee culture, by working at some notable cafes and connecting with people involved with the third wave coffee movement.

Singh ended up working at one of the Boxcar Social cafes, and eventually became the company's coffee director, which involved coffee profiling and training staff. He also connected with Nigel Wang of 915 Dupont, 135 Ossington and 450 Dufferin and managed some of his businesses.

Now that The Brick Room is open, Singh, finds it especially important to maintain high standards at the cafe. "Selling amazing coffee is not my selling point," he says. "It's a given. It has to be amazing."

So what "amazing coffee" does The Brick Room serve? Currently, the cafe serves light to medium roasted beans from Brazil, with a feature bean from roasters that changes from time to time.

On the menu are coffee classics like a regular brew ($3.25), an espresso shot ($4.25), a latte ($4.85) and a pour over ($7.05), which happens to be a favourite from customers.

There is one beverage in particular, however, that stands out from the traditional coffee drinks that you'd normally see at a cafe, and that is the Signature ($7.95).

The Signature is a cocktail-like drink (with no alcohol) that consists of cold brew that's made from specialty coffee. The coffee is mixed with ice and topped with an in-house foam that's made of whipped cream, sea salt, honey and other toppings. It's then garnished with orange zest and nutmeg.

There are also non-coffee-based drinks available, like chai, which the concentrate is made by the owner himself, matcha, hojicha (all three are listed at $6.75 each), in-house hot chocolate ($4.50) and various teas ($3.25).

Food is also available from The Brick Room, which is sourced from local businesses in the city, like the Lucky Bakery. You can get a wide range of croissants, like the everything croissant ($4.75) — which is similar to an everything bagel, ham and cheese ($6.25) and a gochujang cheese croissant.

Sweeter pastries, like an almond croissant ($6.25), a blueberry cream cheese danish ($5.25) and kouign amann croissant ($5.25) are available too. 

Besides the quality food and drinks, Singh wants to make sure that the human interactions at his space are quality too. He says he finds it important to create a community, by breaking that hierarchy between customers and his staff, who have competed at world coffee championship games.

That way customers feel more welcomed in the space and are more inclined to ask questions about the coffees the cafe offers.

"I cannot change the world, but I can change one experience at a time," he says.

For Singh, The Brick Room is a step in the right direction in making Toronto known as one of the world's coffee capitals. But he knows more needs to be done in order to make that happen, like collaborating with other local cafes and roasters more.

"I want people to start speaking about how Toronto coffee is great," Singh says. "And one cafe can not do it alone. There needs to be multiple cafes who are doing the right thing."

The Brick Room is located at 181 Bay Street.