City life for some people includes street coffee culture. The traditional motif is European – Paris, Moscow, or Rome has history steeped in the bean. The ubiquitous Starbucks was brought into being to recreate Italian coffee shop culture for North America. The whole “thing” of Zocalo is the idea of coffee in a greenhouse. I love drinking coffee surrounded by the greenery of the changing plants. Any greenery at this time of the year is welcome. Getting to the wonderful Muttart Conservatory can be a long, winding venture, while Zocalo is within the neighbourhood. Also, I am certain the conservatory would prefer that coffee consumption be kept out of the pyramids. I’m interjecting a little within the subject of coffee, but the environment of where you partake is a major thing.

Zocalo also offers tea and their amazing summertime feature is the espresso milkshake. The vanilla ice cream I have not tasted elsewhere and the flavour of the bean floats on a cloud of creamy sweetness. It is time-consuming to prepare. I have seen the barista wince.

A point of sight: once the coffee is being enjoyed it is the colour palette of Zocalo, not only in the colors of the plants but the assorted glassware and items of eclectic art for your home. I send my son Zocalo’s cards because of the art choices regardless of occasion, and we have used their cards for birthdays. Gifts for children have been successful due to the art appeal the store has, with the inspiration of plants and flowers.

I can be sitting with Keri listening to the street, drinking coffee with a European-tinged jazz and folk mix which has featured Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Louis Armstrong, and Emmylou Harris. Musical tastes are as individual as the eye for foliage and art.

I love the whole cocoon of Zocalo, a place I would have dreamed of when I was growing up on a freezing Manitoba farmyard, years ago.

Reinhardt lives in Boyle Street with his wife, Keri Breckenridge.