Sparrow Windmill is a neighbourhood cafe built around proper filter coffee, freshly baked pastries, and the kind of unhurried morning you keep meaning to have.
Flat whites, cortados, long blacks, and a rotating guest espresso. We use a La Marzocca Linea PB and grind to order on a…
Batch brew runs all day. We also do pour-over by request on the V60 or Chemex, depending on the bean. Worth the extra five minutes.
Served until noon. Sourdough toast with seasonal toppings, a rotating egg dish, and a grain bowl that changes weekly. Nothing…
A short menu: one soup, two open sandwiches on house bread, and a daily special that usually involves whatever came in from the…
Croissants, pain au chocolat, a rotating seasonal slice, and the brown butter banana loaf that people keep asking about. Baked…
Sourdough loaves available Thursdays and Fridays. White, seeded, and a rye-wheat blend. Pre-orders by Wednesday noon are…
Every year around the second week of September, the summer menu stops making sense. The tomatoes are still technically in season but they've lost their point, the cold brew feels wrong before 9am, and the grain bowl needs something heavier. The chalkboard comes down, gets wiped, and goes back up with a different set of words on it.
Read more →Most people who ask about the sourdough starter at Sparrow Windmill want to know one of two things: how do you keep it alive, or why did mine die? Both questions have the same answer at their root, which is that a starter is a living culture of wild yeast and bacteria, and it behaves like one.
Read more →Filter coffee is less forgiving than espresso in one specific way: there's nowhere to hide. No milk, no pressure, no crema to soften the edges. What you taste is the bean, the water, and the grind, and not much else. That's either a reason to be careful about what you buy, or a reason to stick to instant. We'd argue for the former.
Read more →Answer three questions and we'll point you to the right part of the menu for your visit.
We don't take reservations. It's first-come, first-served, and on busy Saturday mornings the wait for a seat can be ten or fifteen minutes. The window bench tends to free up faster than the main tables. If you're coming in a group of more than four, a quick email ahead is appreciated so we can plan the space.
The loaves are baked Thursday and Friday mornings and are best within two days, though they toast well for a day or two after that. Pre-orders are taken by Wednesday noon by email or phone. We can't always guarantee a loaf if you turn up without ordering, especially the rye-wheat blend, which tends to go first.