It’s 11 p.m. on a weekday, but Qishr Yemeni Coffee House by Sankofa Square is still busy. The 10 p.m. rush of exiting theatregoers next door mixes with TMU students setting up makeshift workstations. Visitors wearing football kits from different nations trickle in. A guy with a gym bag slung over one shoulder carries a tray of pistachio cheesecake and an iced Yemeni latte spiced with cardamom, cinnamon and honey as a post-workout treat.
Despite coffee shops regularly closing by the late afternoon these days, people’s coffee cravings persist. A dark roast mellows out dessert. Caffeine gives students a jolt of confidence to bluff their way through an essay due in six hours. A slow and intentional sip fills the dead air on a first date, and should either party sense plummeting romantic prospects, an early exit and a half-finished latte is less of a sunk cost than a two-hour meal.
That’s why cafés like Qishr are betting there’s still demand for a proper late-night coffee house. Not a café that turns into a bar at sundown, or a bubble tea spot, nor a dimly lit lounge where kids are implicitly unwelcome, but rather a place where anyone can hang out after the restaurants have closed. While the pandemic shortened hours across much of the industry, a handful of cafés across Toronto are extending them again, hoping to revive the late-night coffee house as a place to study, socialize and linger.
If you build it, they will come
“When people think of places to hang out they either think of a bar or a restaurant,” said Qishr manager Mohammed Kaid. The café opened in early June and has already extended its weekday hours to midnight and 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays to accommodate nearby students, hospital workers, hotel guests and condo dwellers and, judging by a few visits, first dates and emergency heart-to-heart talks with friends. “Some people just want a place to chill where the lighting isn’t too dark because they want to socialize, work or study; or they want a break from the dorm; or they’re families that need a meeting place where they can bring their children. That was what was missing in this area.”
He added that hybrid work created greater demand for cafés that double as work and meeting spaces. Taking over what was once a long-vacant jewelry store in a heritage building, the 5,000-square-foot café seats 100 and includes a counter with electrical outlets overlooking its giant coffee roaster. For those going to the office, Kaid said there’s a daily cohort of commuters who come to the café to wait out traffic in the late afternoon.
The business model contrasts with many restaurants and cafés that shortened their hours and eliminated seating to cut down on costs. By staying open later, Qishr founder Khatab Hameed said the café will build a loyal customer base. One TMU student told him it was her third visit in a week.
“The rent (at Sankofa Square) is high, and a lot of people ask us how we can make money with coffee,” said Hameed, who also owns an outpost of Michigan-based Yemeni coffee chain Matari Coffee Co. in Mississauga’s Ridgeway Plaza. ”(The restaurant industry) moved so much towards just grab-and-go, but we want to prove you can also offer space where people can still sit and interact with each other. Yes, we have to make money, but we also want to increase the standards of coffee and bring back quality time.”
More than just coffee
Late night cafes aren’t just relegated to the downtown core. In Scarborough, Edill’s Coffee House (1412 Kennedy Rd.) is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Even when the café stays open later during Ramadan, owner Edill Hassan said people from all backgrounds still come through the doors, not just those breaking fast.
“Things are expensive now and going out to eat isn’t as accessible,” said Edill, who started her East African coffee roastery in 2020. “But here, people can get an Americano for about $4 so it gives people the ability to go out. Right now, there’s a lot of people who want that third space. We get students, a philosophy group that comes in on Wednesdays, people working from home or on their passion projects, it’s pretty cool.”
In 2023, she expanded her café into a 5,000-square-foot space with communal tables, smaller tables and a dedicated laptop area, making it one of the few non-chain cafés of its size in the area. “Scarborough is home to many mom-and-pop shops and takeout spots, but often there isn’t a place to sit down. That was one of our driving factors.”
Location, location, location
While a residential street is unlikely to support a café that’s open until midnight, Qishr and Edill’s both opened in existing high-traffic areas. The same is true of Indian coffee house Shambhu’s Coffee Bar and Restaurant, which opened in 2024 on the exterior of Albion Mall (1530 Albion Rd.) at the Toronto-Etobicoke border. The GTA location of the Indian coffee chain is currently open as late as 1 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends, surrounded by the mall’s empty parking lot.
Owner Hardik Metha said in India, people go out on holidays rather than stay home and, since many people don’t consume alcohol, they prefer going to a café after dinner. The café specializes in dessert-inspired coffee drinks and shakes, which help reduce the caffeine content and give groups of friends and families more options than a plain latte. Like Edill’s and Qishr, Shambhu’s also offers food for the peckish late-night diner, helping justify the long hours.
Metha said weekends after 10 p.m. are their busiest times. If the restaurant’s 60 seats are full, customers end up eating in their cars in the otherwise empty mall parking lot. “We’re next to the LRT and there’s no issue with parking because everything else is closed, it’s the best place to hang out in the summer,” he said.
While many cafés responded to the pandemic by shrinking their hours and dining rooms, a handful are betting there’s still a business case for staying open later, and that Toronto still wants somewhere to linger over a cup of coffee after dark.
