Ryerson Alumni - Summer 2019 - 39

PROFILES

A whole latte love
Jimmy's Coffee brews success across Toronto
BY JENNIFER LEE, PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION (MASTER'S) '13

Phil Morrison says
good customer service,
good product and a
laid-back environment make
Jimmy's Coffee click.

when you walk into a Jimmy's Coffee
shop in Toronto, you will notice the
walls are adorned with framed images of
famous Jimmys-from Carter and Hendrix
to Kimmel and Durante. The one Jimmy
that's missing is the owner. That's because
his name isn't "Jimmy"-it's Phil Morrison,
Business Administration '90.
Morrison admits he didn't even know what
a latte was when he opened his first Jimmy's
Coffee on December 10, 2009. After graduating from Ryerson, he owned a few bars
and then ventured into f lipping houses,
which led to the very first Jimmy's Coffee
shop. Morrison bought an abandoned house
on Portland Street, intending to sell it after

making extensive renovations, but found that
he had fallen in love with the neighbourhood.
Then he met an astute store manager who
had helped Jamie Kennedy open Hank's Café
and they worked together to establish a coffee shop. When the store manager suggested
naming the coffeehouse "Jimmy's," Morrison
turned to his daughter and said, "You know,
I've never met a Jimmy I didn't like."
He credits the store manager for defining
the shop's vibe-good customer service, a
quality product and a laid-back environment,
with books and a fireplace.
Morrison sells his own line of coffee
beans-each roast is named after a famous
Jimmy. What's unique about each "Jimmy"

bean is that it is roasted locally using a
technology that produces zero emissions.
Morrison continues to keep the cost of each
coffee a quarter or 50 cents lower than the
prices at competing coffee shops. "Quality
coffee shouldn't be pretentious," he says. "It's
the number one drink in the world."
Today, Morrison owns eight Jimmy's Coffee
stores. He plans to open a few more shops
until "it stops being fun," he says.
"My real success has been not pushing, and
letting things go naturally. When Jimmy's
opened, something just clicked. It's not something I did, it's something magical that happens that people receive. And when they do,
I say thank you, we hit the right nerve."
Summer 2019 / Ryerson University Magazine

Ryerson Alumni - Summer 2019

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