Phew! I can finally remove this from my bookmark list - it's been there for month now. Tired of the Starbucks run-a-round and burnt coffee scene I planned for my meeting in Port Credit to take place at its newest indie coffee shop SLASH record store - Archtop.
In Chicago they call a place like this a "slashie" - part one type of business slash part of another. I really enjoy this combo as someone who never wants to order just one thing when I eat out. Now I can double my business pleasure by visiting two kinds of business in one!
Free wifi to begin with so that's a huge start off the bat. For those looking the password is their phone number, no dashes or spaces.
The record store part is both upstairs and in the basement. The new/current records are upstairs, along with various CDs and DVDs and box sets of all of the above. In the basement lives their growing previously loved record collection also for sale. If you've got the time and the patience you can find some gems at a very reasonable price. For ex: saw MJs Thriller for $29.99 - in great condition.
To add to the audiophile experience they also have an audio expert on staff who can assist with all you record and player questions.
With regards to the cafe portion, it gets full marks as well. I ordered a breakfast sandwich and it was fresh made today just on display in their refrigerated display case along with tons of other sandwiches and sweets (made and packaged by local GTA purveyor Sweets Of The Earth). To go with my breakfast sandwich I went with a Chai latte. The latte came in a temperature controlled double layer pint glass of sorts and the chai, while not a spicy chai was mellow and tasty and the perfect temperature for my taste.
My only critique is that the space is so small and there are no plugs of you've got a laptop - but I get it with the small number of tables they want to keep customers moving, totally cool. It won't keep me away.
In my books this record store SLASH cafe is awesome SLASH hip! I'm in!