Espresso from Starbucks’ 15th Avenue East Coffee and Tea
February 24, 2010 Leave a comment
illy Meets Vios
October 10, 2009 Leave a comment
Ok, before I start, I must get this out…. Vios Cafe and Marketplace serves really great Greek food and they have awesome deserts that would certainly go really well with an excellent espresso. This place is probably my second or third most favorite Greek restaurant/café/whatever.
What I also like about Vios Cafe is that it has a small marketplace very similar to that of Volunteer Park Café and Marketplace where you can by various Greek foodstuffs and ingredients you can take home to prepare your own meal.
What I also find interesting about my dining experiences with Vios though is that all these years (well there not that many but enough anyway) that I have been going there with family and friends for dinner, it was only the last couple of times I was there, maybe three or four months back that I actually did start ordering lattes… I don’t normally order lattes will dinner because I find them already filling, but I had to order at Vios because I was interested in seeing just to see how they stacked up to the coffeehouses in the area.
Vios has two locations, one in the Capital Hill area and the other in the Ravenna neighborhood. The one in Capital hill is a proper stand along cafe while the one in Ravenna is connected to Third Place Books, making it a fun place to visit as you can get your coffee and hang out in the bookstore if you are not interested in sitting in the dining area.
But I think the most interesting thing about Vios is the fact thatthey, i.e. both locations, serve illy coffee. Now just in case you don’t know illy, they are an Italian coffee roaster. Bein that Viso is a Greek restaurant, and a really great one at that, I would have thought that they would be serving the finest in Greek (or Greeek style) coffees… but they don’t.
Regardless, I think their coffee is actually decent. I have ordered it on quite a few occasions when having lunch or dinner there. And I have been relatively happy with the coffee that I got. It was nice and strong, good foam and well made. And being that this is Cafe Vita and Stumptown territory, it is nice to have outlets that serve something different. Illy is one of those coffees that I don’t get to try often, and this is simply because there are not too many places in the Seattle area, that I know of, that do serve that particular brand of coffee.
The main problem I have though is that Vios, at least the one on Capital hill, are not open in the morning, which is the time that I usually have my initial coffee cravings. As I have mentioned before, I tend not to like drinking lattes and such with dinner so whenever I go to Viso for dinner, lattes are usually the last thing on my mind. The other issue is Fuel. The original Fuel Coffee location is just a couple of blocks away from the Vios location and when I happen to be in the area looking for coffee, I find myself going to Fuel pretty much more often than I would go to Vios…. and so it pretty hard for me to go to Vios strictly for the coffee.
But I would certainly encourage you to give the place a try… and maybe ask for Greek style coffee and see what they say 
Fonté Coffee on 1st Avenue
August 9, 2009 Leave a comment
For a while now, I had been hearing rumors about Fonté Coffee Roasters opening their own retail location somewhere in downtown Seattle. Other than the fact that they would be having a retail location, I didn’t know anything about where this location would be, or even when they would actually be open. I guess I could have been a little more proactive and done some investigating but whatever…
Be that as it may, yesterday evening, I just happened to stumble upon the Fonté flagship retail coffee shop downtown, right on 1st avenue. They are located directly across the street from the Seattle Art Museum, next to a pretty famous Seattle landmark which I prefer not to mention. Since I was looking of a place to get dinner and not coffee, I decided that I was going to have to come back another day and check out the place.
But I was pretty excited to have found this location. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first being that Seattle’s downtown coffee scene is certainly becoming nicely represented with great coffee options. Long, long gone are the days when we mainly had Starbucks all over the place. It now seems that more and more new small and/or independent coffee shops are opening up especially in 1st avenue in and around the area close to Pike Place Market. And now when you consider that in the space of less than two blocks south of Fonté, we have Stella Coffee and Cherry Street Coffeehouse. And to the north, also in the space of less than two blocks, we have Seattle Coffee Works and DeLaurenti. These a great options right there. In actuality, there are more coffee shops when you go 4 blocks north or south of Fonté but I think you get my gist.
The second reason I am excited about this is because I would like to see more coffeehouses and coffee shops that serve beans from roasters other than the Seattle default i.e. Caffé Vita and Stumptown coffees. I personally think that there are not enough places here in Seattle that serves coffee from other roasters.
Now in the case of Fonté, I know for sure at least two, maybe three places that use their coffee. These places include Joe Bar which is located at the Harvard Exit which is on the north end of Broadway up on Capital Hill. Then there is Chez Dominique which is funny enough about four blocks south of this Fonté coffee shop.
Anyway, later that Saturday night, I was in need of Wi-Fi access and where I was straying the internet connection was abysmal so I decided that I would go to a coffee shop and use the Wi-Fi there instead… and if I was going to a coffee shop, why not check out Fonté then?
I must say that I really liked the interior décor. Theirs is a more modern style and look and feel which I think perfectly suits the location at the new Pan Pacific hotel. And like a lot of the other coffee shops in Seattle, they also offer wine in addition to coffee. The baristas I met there were really friendly and helpful. They seem to certainly care about their customers.
I didn’t ask too many questions about their coffee about I can bet the farm that they use Fonté Coffee Roasters beans. I do enjoy Fonté coffee and my latte was good. I enjoyed it. I did spend a fair amount of time chatting with one of the baristas and so by the time I actually started to drink my latte it was a little cold. Next time I need to drink and chat, and not chat, chat, chat… then finally drink.
The other thing that I thought is great is that Fonté coffee is open till 10 at night, at least on Saturdays. So for those of you who want a more or less quiet place to enjoy a good late night espresso Fonté is certainly for you.
So here now is my dilemma. When I am downtown in the area around 1st avenue at Pike Place Market, should I go to Fonté, should I go to Stella, should I go to DeLaurenti or should I go to Seattle Coffee Works? I think these are good dilemmas to have to face once in a while.
Victrola & Seattle Coffee Works Inspiring Starbucks
August 5, 2009 Leave a comment
I have been going to Victrola coffee for a while now and as I have mentioned before, this is one of my favorite coffee shops here in Seattle. Personally I think these folks do a great job with their coffees. I really enjoy passing by every so often to get my espresso fix and once think I would certainly love to see is more coffee shops in Seattle serve Victrola Coffee beans.
I also thought it was rather funny that in addition to Seattle Coffee Works and I don’t know how many other places, that Starbucks sent a squad of observers to go scout out Victrola Coffee just to see what an independent coffee shop looked like and operated. One of the baristas at Victrola challenged 15th Avenue coffee and Tea aka “The Starbucks that’s not a Starbucks” to an espresso smackdown. I would love to see that happen… but I am certainly not holding my breath..
15th Avenue E Coffee & Tea. Inspired by Starbucks?
July 24, 2009 1 Comment
15th Avenue East Coffee and Tea opened their doors bright and early this morning and I was in the vicinity later that morning. As I drove by the store around 8 AM, and it was interesting to note that there wasn’t a huge crowd trying to get into the store to try it out. Yes it looked like there were a few folks in there placing orders, but nothing yet like I would have expected after all the publicity they had been getting of late. But then again, it was still early and the day was young. And there were probably folk out there like me who are not necessarily going to go in on the first day, but will certainly visit the place and give it a try… at the very least to be able to say, “Yeah, I’ve tried their coffee and I think it’s…”
Regardless, what I found to be actually more interesting to me was the signage on the door of the ‘new’ shop. The signage stated the name of the store then included the phrase “Inspired by Starbucks” Now that is what I thought that was pretty hilarious on a couple of fronts.
First, despite all the hoopla that has been made about removing the Starbucks name and brand from the store, they just couldn’t help but find a way to put that name in there somewhere, and right on the front door where it smacks you right in the face. A friendly slap in the face to remind you that yes, you are entering Starbucks property. But the second and even more hilarious aspect of that phrase was it brought to mind the question as to why an ‘indie’ store would really be proud of being inspired by Starbucks. I mean, even if this was indeed a truly indie store, would they really be inspired by Starbucks? I don’t know, to me it was a rather bizarre statement (or tag line) to put in. I think they should take out that piece of verbiage.
For a couple of reasons I decided I didn’t want to drop in for a drink and so I continued on my way. I passed by Victrola Coffee which had a couple of people sitting outside enjoying their drinks. A few doors down also on my left is Caffé Ladro which had at least 5 people in line waiting to place their orders. I eventually ended up at the Whole foods along Denny Way and there I got an excellent Allegro Coffee latte. The espresso was pulled by a really cool barista with tons of tattoos on her arms and legs. She frothed the milk and I noted how she carefully poured the milk into the espresso shots and completing it with a nice thick head of foam, topped off with a beautiful Rosetta. She then presented it to me with extreme pride… this was her art.
And as I was enjoying my latte, I thought to myself, this is what Starbucks is missing. Starbucks does not seem to have the baristas who are passionate about their coffee and their culture. For too long I think Starbucks baristas have their orders from corporate with procedures on how to do everything. In other words, this is corporate culture, not coffee culture.
Well, I can only say Starbucks really needs to step up its game and serve great espresso that looks like real espresso, and employ baristas who live and breathe the coffee culture not corporate culture. I don’t think Starbucks is going away, not by any means, but I do think that Starbucks has become a commodity and their little experiment will certainly fizzle out if they can’t reinvent themselves and bring that real coffee culture that seems to have slipped through their fingers.
The Modern Italian Style Macchiato Caffé
April 21, 2009 1 Comment
Macchiato Caffé or simply Macchiato, is located on the corner of Broughton St and Broad St (entrance) was the first official stop on my second coffee excursion in Victoria BC. I actually passed by Macchiato several times during my first trip to Victoria. I did not however go in there for a couple of reasons.
On first occasion I had just had lunch at lunch at Konpira and being pretty stuffed, I wasn’t in the mood for coffee. Konpira, by the way, which is only half a block away, is my favorite Japanese restaurant in Victoria. They are famous for their limited hand-made Udon noodles and extremely fresh sushi. The Japanese master who owns the restaurant makes only about 30 or 40 servings of the hand-made Udon noodles and so if you don’t get there early, you are out of luck. But I digress… back to coffee.
On a couple other occasions I passed by the place, they were already closed for the day… pretty early actually. So I decided that I would have to save the pleasure of checking out their espresso for my next visit to Victoria. And I am glad I did because when I wrote my series of posts on my first visit, I couple of folks suggested that I should try the place since they had great coffee.
On stepping into the place, the first thing I noticed was the modern look and feel to the interior design with plenty of metal and lighting. This was a modern Italian style of décor but somewhat reminding me of places like the Victrola Coffee on Pine St in Capital Hill or the Top Pot Doughnuts on 5th Avenue, downtown Seattle. Now I know some love that kind of décor, but I tend to like places like the original Top Pot Doughnuts on Summit Ave in Capital Hill or the original Fuel Coffee on 19th also on Capital Hill.
The other thing I noticed was that everyone seemed to know everyone else… and to some extent that seems like a very Victoria BC trait. I actually loved the vibe and sense of community the place had. The baristas (including the owner who actually pulled the shots) were nice and friendly. There was a bit of a miss communication issue with one of baristas but that was more of a Seattle coffee terminology vs. Victorian (Canadian) coffee terminology… but everything worked out great.
The coffee was actually pretty good. They served my favorite Caffé Umbria espresso blend, the ‘Gusto Crema’ blend, a great medium roast blend. The only downside was that they didn’t have whole milk, but I guess I could live with that.
I would say that I certainly would go back again for coffee. And I would certainly try out some of the sandwiches for which I guess they are pretty well known for… that is if I don’t go to Konpira first for udon noodles.
Volunteer Park Café and Marketplace Prefers Stumptown
April 14, 2009 8 Comments
I was somewhat surprised but not really when I went to Volunteer Park Café some months ago and found out that they no longer carried the Café Vita coffee beans but instead had switched to Stumptown coffee beans. I thought that was really interesting and at that time, the barista on duty could not tell me why they had done the switch. Though I have been there a few times since, I finally chatted with one of baristas who knew and told me the story.
It turns out that the reason they switched was not because Café Vita coffee beans was bad or anything like that. The reason was pretty simple actually. On the one hand, and in their own words, Stumptown has excellent customer service and are a great supplier to work with and they have great coffee so switching for those reasons alone was not a problem. But the even bigger deal was the fact that the owner of VPC&M just so happens to be one of the co-owners of ‘Oddfellows’ up on Capital hill. Now Oddfellows was already serving Stumptown coffee and so for the owner, it actually made sense for her to switch and deal with just one supplier for both premises rather than have to deal with two different suppliers. Of course if they actually thought that Stumptown coffee was not that great, then I doubt that VPC&M would have switched.
Now for those of you not from the Pacific Northwest region, Stumptown Coffee is actually pretty famous in the Seattle and Portland area and even up in Vancouver and Victoria. I remember at least two summers ago when rumor had it that they were going to be opening up their first shop in Seattle up on Capital Hill (now they have two) everyone was excited that this Portland based Coffee roaster was expanding to Seattle. At that time, the summer of 07, I went to the Stumptown located at the Ace (boutique) hotel and licked their coffee… and there super cool espresso machine even better. And so it seems, I meet a lot of espressonatos who think that Stumptown Coffee is just something really awesome. But I’ve also met a few who are not too impressed with Stumptown and think there are other, much better options, available for those who love their espresso.
So was the switch worth it? Does it make sense to switch because you get great customer service and it’s also more convenient? Yes, I think so, but only if the coffee is at least comparable if not better than what you are currently serving. I certainly think that it does make sense from the ‘dealing with only one supplier’ perspective since having to work with multiple suppliers across multiple locations simply adds overhead and complexity.
Now you don’t very often get a chance to actually compare how well one particular coffee house does if they have serve coffee beans from different roasters. In this case, it would have been interesting to try and reflect back on the Café Vita that VPC&M used to serve and the Stumptown they now do. But alas, it was quite a while back since I drank Café Vita at VPC&M and to be honest, I don’t remember too well how it was compared to the Stumptown they serve now.
However, for some reason I am really leaning towards saying that in my dim memory, the Café Vita might actually have been better than the Stumptown. And I can tell you for sure, I recently ordered a double 8 oz latte at VPC&M and I didn’t think the double shot in an 8 oz cup was a good as it should have been. I do know that I have had a few good double 12 oz Stumptown lattes at VPC&M though and so this makes me wonder if in general I should simply stick to 12 oz cups when I’m ordering Stumptown lattes.
My Dilemma… Bauhaus, Victrola, Kaladi or Stumptown?
April 10, 2009 1 Comment
Coming back from the dentist and on the way to work, I wanted to get a latte for the road but I wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to get it from. The drive from my dentist’s office to the freeway would take me through a part of Capital Hill where there were at least four awesome coffeehouses.
These four coffee shops are Bauhaus Books + Coffee, Kaladi Brothers Coffee, Victrola Coffee and Stumptown. Kaladi and Victrola are both on Pike Street while Bauhaus and Stumptown are on Pine Street. Within a space of about 10 minutes, you can circle past all three coffee shops on foot, so the folks who live in that part of lower Capital Hill and love espresso are totally spoilt for choice.
Now right off the bat I didn’t want to go to Kaladi today because the last time I was there, I had a great chat with one of the barista and I promised that the next time I showed up, the following Friday, I would have my portfolio of espresso related photographs to share with them. Since I was not able to make it that Friday, I don’t want to go there until I have my photos printed and organized in a portfolio book. So for this morning, Kaladi Brothers coffee was out of the question.
Next in line for consideration was Stumptown. Now Stumptown is an interesting dilemma because a number of the places that I am been visited recently on Capital Hill do serve Stumptown coffee and I felt that I have been drinking quite a bit of the stuff in the recent past. The one thing I don’t like about Stumptown is that whatever coffee shop you go to that serves Stumptown, you are just about guaranteed to get the Hairbender blend. It would be nice if they actually did roast other espresso blends so we could fully enjoy a wider range of espresso blend flavors. Hence for this reason, I crossed Stumptown of the list.
This then left me with two choices, Victrola and Bauhaus. Now this was a rather tough decision for me. I started leaning towards going to Victrola but as I was driving right by the place and looking at an empty parking space right outside the store, something in me told me to drive to the corner of the block, make a right and go to Bauhaus instead. What happened?? I think there were two things that helped me make that quick, snap judgment and go with Bauhaus rather than Victrola. The first was that I tend to like the older, darker feel that Bauhaus has with the wall to ceiling bookshelves and books that sort of down-to-earth feel about the place. This is very similar to places like the original Top Pot, the original Fuel and even the original Victrola coffee. The Victrola on pike has a much more modern interior décor. But the other and probably the factor that swung me towards Bauhaus’s favor was that I hadn’t been to Bauhaus in a while and I had been to the Victrola on 15th at least three times in the recent past… so the decision was to go to Bauhaus and get my breakfast latte there.
Cafe Pettirosso the Red Breasted Robin
March 12, 2009 Leave a comment
So here is something I am a little embarrassed to admit. Cafe Pettirosso has been around on Capital Hill for at least 12 years and I have never really noticed the place, at least in a way that it stuck in my memory… that was until just a couple of weekends ago.
And its not that I have never driven down that side street because I have several times. This particular day, I had not had my morning latte and it was now afternoon and I had a headache. I needed a latte and I needed it now! So there I was, needed to run an errand near Cafe Vita and I thought this would also be a great time to pop into Vita for a latte. As I was driving around looking for parking I happened to notice the Cafe Pettirosso sign which is that of a latte in a cup, and a heart shaped rosetta and the first thing that came to mind was, “hey a new coffee shop… must try it out once I get my errands done”.
When I finally got to Pettirosso, I immediately noticed that there was something rather familiar about one of the two baristas.. As I was staring at her with a puzzled look, it finally struck me who she might have been. On telling her that she looked rather familiar, she replied that I too looked familiar… and she actually remembered me because I frequent Le Fournil, the French bakery where she used to work. I also remember her even more so because she once refused to allow me to take a picture of their espresso machine which had a lot of blinky lights… I don’t know if she thought that would be like uncovering trade secrets or something. But I decided not to remind her since I was hoping to take a picture or two inside Pettirosso.
I asked her about the name Pettirosso. What she told me is that Pettirosso is Italian for Red Breast… in the sense of the Red Breasted Robin. Hence, the name is basically an idiom for Robin or Cafe Robin. She told me that the cafe has been around for 12 years, and something about 20 years. I don’t remember if she was saying that the cafe has been around for 20 years and has been owned by the current owner for 12? Next time I decide to drop by, I’ll have to ask her again.
And what about the coffee. Well, the latte was ok. The first few sips wasn’t anything to write home about, but after a few sips it tasted a little better, certainly not earth shattering. She told me that they get their beans from Caffé Vita, just round the corner. They use the Cafe Del Sol blend… Caffé Vita does not make any custom roast blend for them.
And to be honest, I think next time I’ll probably pass by the Robin and continue on to Caffé Vita. Those folks certainly do pull a mean latte… Actually, I should head on over sometime soon so I have put up a post about it
Kaladi Brothers’ Caffeinated Red Goat
February 10, 2009 2 Comments
Kaladi brothers coffee company is an Alaskan based coffee roaster and retailer. They have twelve retail locations in Alaska including one on the little town of Wasilla. And it just so happens that they have a only one retail location outside Alaska, and that coffee shop is located up on Capital Hill. It is also this store where I was first introduced to Kaladi Brothers and their awesome coffee…
The first thing I noticed about Kaladi Brothers coffee was simply their name. The name, Kaladi simply did not speak “Alaska” to me and at first I thought the name was more Middle Eastern sounding… or at least Mediterranean sounding. After poking around a little bit on Kaladi Brother’s website it turns out that the name was chosen from the legend of Kaladi, a goat herder from the land of Arabia Felix, who discovered the stimulating effect of coffee beans… via his goats. This is also how they came up with their logo… which is not a reindeer or an antelope but a goat, a red one at that and presumably, slightly caffeinated…
And what about the coffee? Actually it turns out that all the roasting is done at their roasting plant in Alaska, and shipped once or twice (I forget the actual number of times) a week to Seattle. Surprisingly, the coffee is actually pretty good especially since you don’t really think of Alaska as that great bastion of coffee roasting in the US. The serve what I believe is a medium roast that is at the edge of being a dark roast. The name of this blend is the Trieste Caffe. Its actually quite good.
I also like the barista where. Pretty mellow fellows who seem to know what they are doing… and pretty friendly too. I try to go there one in a while even though I don’t often hang out in that area of Capital Hill… I think they are certainly worth a try…
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I remember very clearly when the Starbucks store on Capital Hill’s 15th Avenue shut down. At first I thought they were gone as part of the restructuring going on at Starbucks when they closed a number of their stores. But I soon realized that something was up because they simply boarded up the place and soon after construction began behind closed doors. Now first forward a couple of months later and the rumors started coming out about the new Starbucks store that was opening on 15th. This new store was rumored to be different from the regular Starbucks stores we have all come to love or loathe depending on what type of a coffee person you are. This was going to be the first of the non branded Starbucks stores which were essentially going back to their roots. A time when they were more indie, less commercial and espresso was not done using an automated espresso machine.
I think it’s interesting that Starbucks chose 15th Avenue as the location for their first concept store. 15th Avenue has a number of independent café/coffee shops. These include Insomniax Coffee and Juice, Caffe Ladro, North Hill Bakery, The Bagel Deli and one of my favorite Seattle coffeehouse and roaster, Victrola Coffee. This to me sounded like Starbuck laying down the gauntlet especially to Victrola and Ladro. And there certainly was quite a bit of reaction to the news and rumor.
There was quite a bit of fanfare on the opening morning. Personally, I wasn’t interested in waking up to go stand in line at 6:00 am the morning of the opening, I decided that I would give the place a week or two just so they get settled down into their regular routine, then I would go there so try the espresso. And so I did…
The inside was interesting. At first glance the place looked like some indie coffee shop that bought used, well worn and weathered outdoor furniture to provide sitting for the customer. But then on second glance you quickly realize that the place was clearly designed by some highly paid interior decorator to have that look and feel. Thus it reminded me almost like a staged house ready for sale, and I think here they were trying a little too hard to look retro. Yet, they did have some nice stuff on the walls i.e. old, colonial style looking boxes for shipping coffee and gunny sacks.
But what I really appreciated was they do actually have a La Marzocco machine so they are actually hand pulling the coffee by hand as opposed to pushing buttons. This machine is a rusted looking, copper colored plating which gives the machine an old ‘I have been making espresso for years’ kind of look. This actually is once again in line with the interior decor which has a lot of old (or recycled) looking furniture.
Oh and they also have a Clover, which I haven’t yet tried… yet…
15 Ave Coffee & Tea Coffee Cup, originally uploaded by andai.
The latte I got was actually pretty decent. This was the first latte in years I can honestly say that I have enjoyed from Starbucks… even though they were trying to hide that they were indeed Starbucks. It could have been a tad bit stronger but it was much better than I would have thought.
In an effort to find out what the deal was here, I had an Interesting conversation with the barista. I asked her why they had the “Inspired by Starbucks” tag if they were trying to get away from the old image of Starbucks… and she explained that they were actually trying to do was to get back to the old Starbucks image of being passionate about their coffee and the community. I take this to mean that the store was inspired by the Starbucks of old, the original Starbucks when it was really all about the coffee. Fresh roasted coffee pulled by a real barista.
This barista also told me that they order the coffee directly from the roasting plant in Kent so their coffee is not more than 4 days old, whereas the coffee at the regular Starbucks stores can be up to a month old! They serve the regular Starbucks espresso blend and also the decaf blend. But then they also have a single origin bean that they serve. At the moment (at the time I was talking to them) they are serving Ethiopian Sidamo coffee of which she gave me a whiff… I must say it smelled great.
One think I do have to say that made me happy about the place is thank goodness they don’t wear the silly green aprons with the even goofier baseball caps that US fast food franchises love to dress their employees in. And also none of the “Welcome to Starbucks may I take your order please” type of greeting you find at some of these places. The baristas don’t wear uniform and although they are friendly, it actually felt more genuine.
I have to give credit where credit is due. I think this was a step in the right direction for Starbucks. The only problem that remains is to see how they duplicate this concept and make each and every new concept store different and fresh.