Second Cup Opens Inside Oakville GO Station

Commuters at Oakville GO can pick up a coffee without leaving the station. Second Cup Cafe, which soft launched inside the station back in August, held its grand opening this week, and the first 100 customers through the door got a free drink.

Yaling and Quan Ma own the franchise. The couple have run Second Cup locations for years, starting when Quan opened their first at Square One in Mississauga about 18 years ago, and they have owned roughly five since. "We are Oakville residents," Yaling said. "We wanted to serve the community."

Getting a cafe into the station took time. Yaling called the opening five years in the making, and the space it now fills used to hold the Gateway Market convenience store, which has since relocated to Burlington.

The cafe is smaller than a standard Second Cup because of the room available inside the station, but it carries the full menu of sandwiches, baked goods and hot and cold drinks. Seasonal additions are on now too, including pumpkin spice lattes hot or iced, an iced matcha latte topped with pumpkin cold foam, and pumpkin spice muffins.

Mayor Rob Burton, Councillor Jeff Knoll and Yesenia Morillo, representing MPP Stephen Crawford, turned out for the ribbon cutting, and Burton and Morillo presented the owners with certificates. Staff spent the morning handing out iced lattes, ginger molasses cookies and lemon loaf, and anyone buying that day got 10 per cent off, with 15 per cent vouchers available for the next trip through.