This guest post was written by Mack, an Edmonton-based geek who fancies himself a part-time foodie. You can find him online at his blog, and on Twitter.
Tonight Transcend Coffee held a friends and family soft launch at its new downtown location at 10349 Jasper Avenue. I stopped by to check out the new space, formerly occupied by Axis Café. The space is largely the same, though it did receive a new paint job and some Transcend-specific touches such as the lovely artwork. The new fireplace on the second level is a welcome addition too.
Entering the café.
Looking down from the second level.
The new location offers a similar drinks menu to other Transcend locations, but will also feature “a small selection of remarkable beer and wine” beginning this spring. Transcend Jasper will also introduce an expanded hot food menu at that time, featuring made-in-house South American street food created by Chad Moss, who is a Red Seal chef.
The boardroom upstairs.
The basement space.
The boardroom that was available at Axis remains open for rental at Transcend after receiving some upgrades. It contains a large board table, a high-resolution projector and screen, and flip chart paper and other resources. Rates start at $20 per hour or $100 for the day. Transcend Jasper also has a great space in the basement – they are exploring various concepts for it, including a live-music program. Stay tuned for details on that.
Yum, Transcend-roasted coffee beans!
Putting up the sign outside!
The crew pictured above was putting up the sign as a I left the space tonight around 6pm, so like all good openings Transcend Jasper was down to the wire! It’ll be open for regular business starting tomorrow morning at 7:30am. You can follow the new location on Twitter at @TranscendJasper. You can see a few more photos of the space here.
Join me in welcoming Transcend to Edmonton’s new coffee district!
Only Here for the Food 
Transcend makes great coffee but diversity is the spice of life.
I’m extremely disappointed at their hours for T3! The reason I never went to Axis Cafe prior was they had the same hours, only open Monday to Friday, no evenings or weekends. Working on the south side, but living downtown, I was extremely excited about the thought of being able to get Transcend on a weekend or evening, close to my place.
T3’s hours will only catch the downtown work crowd, 7:30am – 6pm, Monday to Fridays. I think they’re missing a huge market! Not to mention the fact that I’m thinking the beer and wine addition might not be that big if they’re only open til 6pm. I certainly wouldn’t be drinking on my lunch break, but after hours would like some. Considering a lot of people work til 5pm, that’s not leaving a lot of time for people to sit, enjoy a drink, and have a snack.
I hope they consider expanding their hours very very soon. It’s a huge let down to have spent the last month so excited for something that I won’t get to experience.
Great for them for expanding, but bad for us who live downtown and were looking forward to spending leisure time there.
Do they have the clover machines at this location?
As far as the hours are concerned, we hear you. Right now, we are extremely stretched in terms of staffing, and while we have hired an amazing new crew of dedicated coffee folk, they simply aren’t ready to be on their own yet. So it will take some time. As such, we have to have some reduced hours for the next number of weeks. We will expand our hours, but we won’t do so at the expense of quality, or the sanity of our existing staff. So bear with us, and trust that we will integrate ourselves into the downtown community, but only when we are confident that we can do so in accordance with our existing standards. Hope that helps.
Yes Wally, we have a Clover downtown. We also are brewing Fetco batch brewed coffee, which is also delicious, if you don’t have time to wait the few minutes for a individually brewed Clover coffee.
Poul – Thanks for the explanation! Definitely wouldn’t want to sacrifice quality. I hope that that in the coming year, it’ll be a place that us downtown dwellers can hang out at night and weekends! Until then, I’ll continue visiting T2 when possible.
Eva, if you are looking for coffee Credo is open till 9 Monday to Thursday. Also the newly opened Queen of Tarts is open into the evening a few nights a week. Not to mention Corso32 and MRKT are open late (sorry if you are aware of all this but thought I’d put it out there).
Thanks Megan. I’ve been to Credo a few times, but I do prefer Transcend.
As for Corso32 and MRKT, I was under the impression they’re more places to eat than just hang out as their spaces are very small, or do I have wrong information?
Eva you are correct, both Corso32 and MRKT are places to enjoy a great meal, not to hang out at for an extended period of time.