Katherine P.
Yelp
It could be that we picked the wrong day to visit, because the Orillia Jazz festival was going on. I really wanted to like this place, but the busy-ness and the chaos gave us a less than awesome experience.
So, We headed in on a very cold weekend up in Orillia. This place was a nice escape from the bitter weather outdoors, but the crowds and the noise made it very difficult to navigate.
I think in retrospect, this place is meant to be organized like a number of different vendors in one building, but neither of us realized this until later. There's a fudge/candy shop in the basement, which has their own listing, and we didn't really spend any time down there. So in the rest of the place, there are different counters, one of them is a decent espresso shop, and the rest sell various different types of pastries and sandwiches and other foods and drinks.
The espresso was pretty decent, but had we realized there was regular coffee at the other counters, we probably would have gotten that instead, because we really just wanted drip coffee. Lee grabbed a muffin, which was really delicious, with a nice soft crumb. I got a Chelsea bun, which was good, but I think it was a little bit on the stale side.
So, because of the Jazz festival and the cold outside, it was really really difficult to get a seat. A couple of places we wanted to sit got nabbed while we were ordering, and we had to spend a little bit of time cruising around for a spot. It was a little stressful for both of us, since we're introverts who don't love crowds.
Once we were able to secure seats, it was a much lovelier time. Being able to listen to the Jazz being played and being able to just people watch from up on the balcony was a very nice time. I think this is a great place, just be wary of it on festival type days.