Cafe Gran Sasso | 4830 Côte-Vertu West Ville Saint-Laurent QC H4S 1J9 | T: 514-931-3005 | www.cafegransasso.com
NOTES: Best K-cup supplier in the city, hands down
We love supporting local businesses, and family-run businesses earn our most enthusiastic loyalty. Generally this loyalty comes at a cost though - higher prices, limited selection, long drives to bizarre, out of the way locales...you know what I mean. That's why finding Cafe Gran Sasso was such a coup. Not only are they local AND family-run - but they also offer the best selection and price we've found anywhere, a mere 2 minute drive from highways 40 and 520.
Before we go further, you need to understand that coffee in our house is nothing short of a religion. My wife, a die hard purist, prefers espresso or drip coffee that tastes like jet fuel. I have only been drinking coffee for about 2 or 3 years, and prefer light roast and flavoured varieties. After several years, and hundreds of pots of coffee which ultimately ended up down the drain, we decided to bite the bullet and buy a single serve Keurig machine from Costco. We then embarked on the journey of trying to find a decent K-cup supplier. Online retailers have good prices and often offer free shipping if you buy enough, but we bounced from supplier to supplier since they always seem to be sold out of the best brands. Forget buying retail - although you can get the cups at IGA, Costco, Walmart and Staples...selection is limited and prices are very high. Just when we were starting to regret our purchase, our good friend Lawrence Levinson put us on to Gran Sasso, and we've never looked back.
Cafe Gran Sasso is run by Joe and Marianne, a great entrepreneurial couple who welcome customers with open arms and a generous loyalty program. Up until last year they served businesses only from their Griffentown offices. When they relocated to their current Ville St-Laurent locale, they decided to open a small store front to serve walk-in clients who want to stock up for personal consumption. They have over 100 varieties of K-cups to choose from, including all the best brands and a mind boggling array of flavours, from the traditional Donut Shop style breakfast blends and powerhouse french roasts, to organic and free trade blends, half-caf and decaf options, as well as teas.
We strongly recommend that you go. Start with a couple of boxes (24 cups to the box) or build your own mix by choosing individual cups. When you rack up 9 full box purchases, the 10th is half price; and trust me - this is not hard to attain - we head over there every three months or so and buy 10 boxes each time.
