Detour opening downtown Hamilton café

After a decade of pouring coffee in Dundas, and later at the Hamilton airport, Detour is opening a new cafe on John Street South near Augusta Street.

It's been a long time coming for Detour Coffee Roasters, which has been searching for a downtown location for several years, according to regional manager Scott Tilly.

Before the pandemic, Detour was considering a number of options in the core, including a combined cafe-roastery. But faced with difficult and expensive renovations it narrowed its search to locations previously occupied by coffee shops, Tilly said.

Through a side project between parent company New Skew and the former owners of Salty Espresso, Detour realized the Salty owners were looking to let go of the space," Tilly said, and we stepped straight into it."

Salty closed in January 2022 after more than four years at 175 John St. S. Before that, the cafe was occupied by Pinecone Coffee Company.

The little cafe will serve coffee once again, hopefully by May 24, Tilly says.

Downtown Detour will differ from the familiar Dundas cafe.

The downtown Dundas spot opened - roastery only - in a back alley in 2009. When it expanded into the adjacent space on King Street in 2011, the roasting facility got the boot, making room for a kitchen. A new roasting facility opened in Burlington, before moving back to Hamilton in 2019.

With no kitchen, the new cafe will feature treats made by Dear Grain Bakery, another New Skew business, grab-and-go food made by Stipley Kitchen and beans from the Detour roastery. As well, it plans to serve local wines, beer and cocktails - and, of course, coffee.

Jeremy Kemeny is a Hamilton-based web editor at The Spectator. Reach him via email: jkemeny@thespec.com