By the time many Ottawa cafés switch on their grinders, the espresso machine at Birling has already cleared morning rush.

The skateboard shop on Somerset Street West opens at 8 a.m., hours before anyone comes in asking for hardware or grip tape, and pulls coffee shots for regulars on their way to work, most of whom have never felt the jolt of a board underfoot.

“At that hour, it’s not skaters,” said Birling co-owner Kyle Robertson. “It’s people who just came in once or twice and realized we make a really good coffee.”

The drink program is an open secret , shared by regulars, invisible to passersby. Letters spelling out “coffee” only recently joined “skateboards” on a pillar at the front of the building.

Across the city, hybrid setups pairing a serious coffee program and a different

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