Thursday, Feb. 29, is the last day they will be regular fixtures on the menu but the ‘Freddo Amour’ will make a comeback for one day only on International Women’s Day.
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Tom Argiropoulos seems like the happiest barista in the world.
Bopping his head to the INXS song Need You Tonight with a big smile on his face, the co-owner of Café Alphabet on Clark St. in Montreal churns out coffees, teas and other drinks with flair.
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“The smile is subconscious,” he told a reporter Wednesday. “I feed off the customers’ energy, and I like to put a smile on their faces to give an individual style to everyone’s drink. When I leave here, I can’t wait until tomorrow.”
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The café he co-owns with his brother, Tony, prides itself on pouring its beverages in front of its customers to give them a personal experience.
Lately, Montrealers and tourists have been lining up, sometimes out the door and around the block, for the coffee shop’s signature drink — a Freddo cappuccino, with a pink twist.
Café Alphabet has been serving Freddo cappuccinos since it opened last summer. The coffee shop uses beans from Ambros Coffee, the roasting company also owned by the brothers. It’s a Greek drink served with cold, textured foamy milk on top of espresso, inspired by the frappé, which uses instant coffee.
As a special drink for Valentine’s Day, Café Alphabet’s owners decided to modify the drink by adding some pink colouring and vanilla and strawberry flavouring to the milk (the exact recipe remains a secret). It’s called the Freddo Cappuccino Amour — pink foam floating on top of dark brown espresso — and the matcha tea version is the Freddo Matcha Amour, which is the same foam on top of green tea.
The plan was just to serve the drinks for a few days, but then videos on TikTok and Instagram went viral and were seen by the millions.
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“It really hit, so we decided to keep it for the entire month of February,” Tony said. “I know at least 10 million people have seen videos about this. People are coming from far and wide. I’ve had people tell me they made the trip from Boston, Ottawa, Toronto and parts of Quebec. We’ve been staffing like weekends every day.”
Both drinks are equally popular, and the pink foam isn’t overly fruity or sweet.
“It exceeded my expectations,” said Frédérik Houle, who made the trip from the TVA Building on de Maisonneuve Blvd. where she works as a researcher to try the matcha beverage. “I saw it on TikTok and wanted to taste it right away, like everybody, I see.”
Her colleague Patricia Charbonneau got the coffee version.
“It looks so nice, and the workers take the time to make it well so we could video it and take pictures,” Charbonneau said.
“We have a lot of pictures,” Houle said with a laugh, showing the photos on her iPhone.
Tom serves them up with a sprinkle of either green matcha powder or ground cinnamon, which he pours from two feet above so that the powder floats through the air before landing on the glasses.
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Tony explains that the Freddo cappuccino is nothing new. The brothers grew up drinking it in Greek cafés and on vacation when in Greece.
“Greeks are always out, and this drink takes time to drink. It’s something you can drink for 45 minutes,” he said. “There’s like a marriage that happens between the coffee and the milk. It’s something that takes time to happen. It’s kind of like the anti-espresso, where Italians stand up and drink it quickly.”
The Argiropoulos family are no strangers to the Mile End. Their uncles Nick and Jimmy ran Mrs. Montreal, a Greek bakery three blocks away on Bernard Ave. and their father, Steve, also worked there. Exactly 50 years later, Steve helped his son open Café Alphabet at the corner of Bernard and still pulls a regular shift at the shop.
Tony said it means a lot to him to see his coffee shop succeed in the neighbourhood where his father grew up. However, despite the popularity of the pink drinks, Thursday is the last day they will be regular fixtures on the Café Alphabet menu.
“We don’t want to lose the essence of our café,” he said. “We don’t want to be the pink drink café. I think it’s important to take control of something before it controls you.”
The Argiropoulos brothers intend to bring the drinks back for International Women’s Day on March 8 and donate proceeds to a women’s shelter. After that, they will return for special occasions.
“We will bring it back out, and we have some other really fun things in the pipeline,” Tony said. “The Freddo Amour will be back.”
jmagder@postmedia.com
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