Café Alphabet, a family-run coffee shop in Montreal’s Mile-End neighbourhood, has lineups down the block every weekend.
Recently a few-high profile visitors were even spotted enjoying the café’s signature Freddo cappuccino.
“That’s the best coffee I’ve had all year,” exclaimed Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a video posted to Café Alphabet’s Instagram.
Trudeau dropped by along with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis who was in Montreal to celebrate Greek Independence Day.
Café Alphabet is the vision of two brothers, Tony and Tom Argripoulos.
As Montrealers of Greek origin, the Argripoulos brothers are continuing a family tradition. Their uncles owned a Greek bakery in the 1970s just three blocks away.
A visit from the Greek Prime Minister is a rare occasion in Canada and for the Montreal business, it was memorable.
“It was the first time in 41 years that a Greek PM officially visited Canada, and it was beautiful moment for us as a Greek-Canadian business,” the Instagram post reads.
The storefront opened in July and has already made waves online with its Freddo cappuccinos, a Greek-style iced coffee topped with foamed milk.
On top of the praise from the prime ministers, the Freddo also caught the attention of actress Blake Lively.
The Hollywood star made an appearance at the coffee shop last week.
“She told me that this was her first stop in Montreal and she’s been meaning to come for a long time. She saw us on Tik Tok and on Instagram,” said co-owner Tony Argripoulos on Global News Morning.
The coffee shop is an extension of the brothers’ roasting company, Ambros Coffee, which they have been running for four years.
While some might be deterred by the long lines, Tony says their coffee is worth the wait.
“There’s music, there’s tempo, there’s youth,” he said. “We find that there’s worse places to wait in the world.”