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| - OKAY, I will no longer complain about there being a lack of coffee cafe culture in Toronto now that I've found ZAZA this evening on a random solo walk in Yorkville this evening.
ZAZA is a brand new (three weeks old) espresso bar right in the heart of Yorkville. It has sandwiches, desserts, coffee and GELATO! It features a clean modern interior of mostly tall, white bar tables, chairs and benches in its main indoor dining area and in the open-concept gelato and coffee bar area next door.
Firstly, since it's an espresso bar, the espresso. It was a very smooth and strong shot, full of flavour and definitely full bodied.
Secondly, the gelato. While they have all the typical milk based gelato and few ice-based gelato, they also have a sugar-free, soy hazelnut gelato! This is everything I want in a gelato and more! Any vegan can tell you that it's hard to find a non-fruit flavoured gelato that is also dairy-free, so the fact that this is a SOY-based gelato that is HAZELNUT flavoured is amazing and awesome and leaves me totally satisfied with those 2 points. HOWEVER, the very fact that this soy-hazelnut gelato is also SUGAR-FREE has me totally blown away... even though it's sugar-free in the sense that it has no added sugar except for the sugar in the soymilk! Finally someone sees things how I see it... if an ingredient has sugar in it already, it makes NO SENSE to add MORE sugar.. just work with what's there!
Thirdly, and equally important is that the servers are very nice, friendly and know their products! I even got invited to their grand opening this coming Thursday August 4, 2011. It will be a wine and cheese event, featuring desserts and wines from all over Italy! Not just the south, according to Paolo, the friendly barista who made my espresso!
I'm most def coming back! And I'm going to bring all my friends, veggies and non-veggies alike. This place has something for everyone! Or maybe I'll just bring my favourites... I'd like to keep this place to myself for awhile... so I can come here for a relaxing Yorkville/ Italian escape!
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