So you ride a cafe racer, but you don’t have any coffee shops you fancy riding to? Harley-Davidson hopes to fix that, at least in the GTA.
The Motor Company is branching out from con rods to cappucinos in Toronto, opening a coffee shop at 96 Ossington Avenue. It’s only going to be open seasonally — it closes in September, at a time when many motorcyclists put their rides away. Along with coffee and treats to buy, it will have motorcycle paraphernalia on display for customers to ogle while they get their caffeine and sugar fix.
While the MoCo’s marketeers talked about the connection between coffee and motorcyclists in terms of cafe racers, everyone knows that except for the ill-fated XLCR model, Harley-Davidson isn’t a name you’d associate with the Ton-Up boys.
However, it is true that motorcyclists do like to knock back a few mugs of joe now and then, and businesses like Portland’s See See Motorcycles offer a very interesting and fun take on the coffee shop model. Will Harley-Davidson’s new cafe, dubbed 1903, deliver the same? If a brave CMG reader is willing to venture down there, please let us know. Otherwise, we’ll keep hanging around the Starbucks parking lot, begging BMW riders for spare change so we can buy a latte. Or we’ll ride down to Tim Hortons, where most local Harley-Davidson riders seem to end up. Maybe they’re on to something this Toronto idea — call it vertical integration at its finest?
Overpriced American Crap.
“It’s only going to be open seasonally — it closes in September, at a time when many motorcyclists put their rides away.”
Its actually just a 3 month trial, what happens next season is anyone’s guess.
And who puts their rides away at the end of September ???