Are cafés the new bars?

It's a few days out from when a new series of morning pop-up DJ sets called Croissound is about to take over Cass Café. Since posting about it, co-organizer Lisa Rey and her partner Bassil Sawaya have seen 100,000 views with upwards of 100 people texting and DMing them for details.

"We found out that people in LA were doing events in coffee shops. Then our algorithm started pushing events in Toronto. Then you see someone did it in Dubai. So we were like, OK, if that works somewhere else, it should work also in Montreal," Lisa says.

But beyond being an imported trend, Croissound is tapping into something bigger—Montrealers, like so many others, are shifting the way they socialize. A night out is now weighed against rising rents, shrinking budgets, and a shifting sense of what’s worth the money. A $5 Americano and a DJ set? That’s an easy yes. A $20 cocktail and cover charge? Not so much.

At 27, Lisa and her partner aren’t drawn to nightlife anymore, but they still needed a way to channel their passion for house music.

"I don't want to go to nightclubs. I wouldn’t be able to tell you where I’d go if I had to. I don't want to stand outside when it's minus 20 outside, and even when party starts at 11, we're normally in bed by then," she admits.

"When I talk to my friends, they’re not into nightlife anymore either. Most of them are getting married or focusing more on sports. It's about mental and physical health, and newer generations aren't really about alcohol anymore."

Lisa’s experience is reflective of something happening across the city, and bars are seeing the effects of that recalibration. While places like Piknic Électronik and Igloofest still draw crowds, late-night spots are turning into pre-drink destinations rather than the main event.

Morning and daytime parties slide into this shift seamlessly—delivering the social energy of a night out without the sluggish hangover: Days after their interview, Croissound would fill up the 150-person capacity space inside Cass Café, and it's far from an outlier. Café Redwood, Café Paper Hill, Café Pick Me Up—the list of cafés that have seen morning DJ sessions has only grown since the trend's been picked up in Montreal.

But while cafés are catching this wave, they’re not the only ones. The same nightlife fragmentation that’s fuelled the rise of underground raves and secret-location parties is also making space for new forms of socializing. Where club nights once dominated, now you’ve got micro-scenes like these DJ sets before noon.

Social and experiential

But it's not only pop-ups that show how tastes have been changing. Cafés themselves are seeing new cultures arise in their spaces both directly and indirectly, providing budget-friendly and experiential alternatives for generational shifts in consumption.

"An influencer had put up a video of us on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon saying Alphabet was the new hottest club in the city, which I found funny," says Tony Argiropoulos, who co-founded the café with his brother Tom.

Funny, but not out of place: Tony and Tom know they're offering something traditionally reserved for bars with their business. They've gained a lot of traction from their Freddo cappucinos, but it's about more than offering a good product.

"One of the things that keeps people coming here is the experience. It's not necessarily the coffee," Tony says. "Our aim is to make the most unique café experience we can. The vibe, the service, hospitality, people, brands—people know they're coming into somewhere that means something, a place with purpose."

For him, this shift towards non-alcoholic spaces is inevitable in the generational sense, going so far as to hold 5 à 7s with mixologists and recipes with coffee and matcha.

It’s a shift that feels less like a rejection of partying and more like a remix of it. The ingredients are the same—good music, a curated space, a sense of community—but the format is evolving. Where bars and clubs once built their identity around excess, places like Alphabet and Croissound are channeling that same energy into something that feels fresh, intentional, and, crucially, hangover-free.

And when Tony was asked about whether cafés could supersede bars as places to gather and socialize? It comes down to what's on offer, be it booze or caffeine.

"I'm not saying that we're the only place that's able to do it. Clearly not. But the places that will last are the ones that have a vibe, and can amplify it with intent, whether that's with a party or a DJ. We have it, I think, and we just give it a little juice when we want to, turn up the volume," Tony says.

"There are a lot of nice places in the city that have that vibe, and could embrace a different facet of themselves like this."

Nightlife, or daylife?

Spouting steam wands replacing fog machines and the lower cost of caffeine and croissants instead of bottle service is by no means a novel thing. Montreal is definitely catching up with a longstanding trend. But it's about more than herd mentality that keeps people interested in these events.

All of this momentum behind cafés and other daytime experiences comes from a wave that's been building for some time now, as more and more people are aging out of nightlife as Montreal once knew it, trading in their 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. sessions of booze and stimulants for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. parties inside cafés.

It's part of a broader cultural shift in locals' sentiments towards partying late, cafés have been repurposed as early bird venues that align with nightlife habits found elsewhere in the world: Creating intergenerational and family-friendly spaces that are inclusive of all ages, opening and/or closing earlier, and just as therapeutic and life-changing as their nighttime forebears.

But there’s also something else at play. The way people experience nightlife is becoming less about the crowd and more about the individual. Where bars were once defined by spontaneous conversations and communal rounds of drinks, today’s partygoers are just as happy moving solo, locked into the music. The shift from bottle service to barista service isn’t just about cost—it’s also about control. No risk of over-drinking, no unwanted interactions, no blurry Instagram stories to regret the next morning.

The café party trend doesn’t just offer an alternative to nightlife—it offers a new way to experience it. When the social spotlight is less about the group and more about the individual, the scene shifts from crowded bar tops to well-framed latte art, music, and ‘I was here’ moments online.

Bar owners are echoing this change. Alcohol consumption is decreasing and their places of business are becoming more like pit stops on the way to someplace else. As indulgence is no longer the norm, the priorities of their younger clientele is changing as well: They prefer raves and connecting over social media over chance encounters and whiling away hours at bars; taking downer drugs like GHB and mushrooms instead of drinking; and the self-improvement of early-morning routines, fitness, and productivity to meet the demands of living a high-functioning, health-focused lifestyle.

And in a city where clout moves fast, being seen at the right event matters. A perfectly framed TikTok of Croissound at 11 AM hits different than a blurry club pic at 3 AM. The café party wave isn’t just a new way to go out—it’s a new way to be seen going out. Instead of blackout nights, the focus is on photogenic mornings. Instead of stumbling home, it’s about sipping an oat milk latte and heading straight into the day.

Are cafés the new bars?

It's hard to tell if daytime DJ sessions in cafés are drawing sizeable amounts of people away from nightclubs; they may simply be attracting their own crowds, now and then comparable to the underground rave scene.

But the shift towards cafés as social hubs speaks volumes about public sentiment towards bars, and unless bars pivot as needed, many will continue to struggle financially or close completely due to the cultural changes happening around them.

Cafés aren’t just stepping into the nightlife void—they’re reshaping the way people connect. As for bars, while they still have their place and purpose, many still the choice of either adapting, or fading out.

Or maybe bars and nightclubs just have to wait their turn to be popular again.