I’m mostly excited about having an Artigiano in Victoria because it has a better location and hopefully better hours than Victoria’s other 1st-tier coffee shops. I don’t expect better coffee, because Discovery, 2% Jazz, and Habit are, by all accounts, competitive with the best in Cascadia. In fact, I find Artigiano’s espresso to be a little bitter.

I’m sitting in Artigiano/Victoria for the first time. I’ve been in Artigiano/Hornby a few times in the last month, so this is a perfect time to contrast the locations.

Artigiano/Victoria is in a two-story-high hotel lobby, strictly partitioned from the hotel by a human-height wood and glass wall. I would have made the wall all-wood because the coffee shop is not so small that it would become claustrophobic without the glass and seeing the hotel is odd. Hanging from the soaring ceilings are huge, round lamps with soft light: they’re interesting, but a far cry from the cozy, fake-stone, lowered ceilings of Artigiano/Hornby. Overall, I’d be less likely to sit in this location than a Mirage or Habit – it feels more like a place to get coffee to go (which ruins the experience of a high-end espresso).

The coffee, however, is better than Artigiano/Hornby’s: more smooth and with a better flavor balance. It’s a shame Artigiano couldn’t get a better location for their first store in Victoria, but I’ll be back for the coffee.