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‘Biohacking’ Butter Coffee Trendster Opens First Seattle Cafe

Health fad guru and best-selling author Dave Asprey opens his first local Bulletproof Cafe.

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Dave Asprey has developed something of a cult-like following in the health-nut world. A former techie who once weighed 300 pounds, Asprey obsessively monitored his weight-loss attempts with science-y gadgets too expensive for the average jogger. He became lab rat No. 1 for a heavily criticized diet he created around eating healthy fats (steak, avocado, butter) while shunning carbs and mycotoxins contained in things like raw kale and spinach, quinoa and gluten.

Besides shedding pounds, Asprey claims his so-called Bulletproof Diet, which he describes as “biohacking” and promotes like a motivational speaker, raised his IQ by more than a dozen points, making him feel sharper and more alert. While his books have become New York Times Best Sellers, critics have dismissed the diet as “a caricature of a bad fad-diet book.”

Love it or hate, at the crux of the diet is Asprey’s signature Bulletproof Coffee—essentially grass-fed butter coffee made with low-mold beans and a dose of “Brain Octane,” a trademarked oil extracted from coconuts. (Presumably it’s not the same juice Starbucks uses in its new Zombie Frappuccino).

Although his Bulletproof company is based in Bellevue, Asprey’s first two coffee shops/retail locations were in the Los Angeles area. On Friday, however, he opens his first Seattle café in South Lake Union. Beyond the spendy (if SoCal pricing ventures north) coffee that drinks like a meal, Bulletproof’s new flagship shop will peddle grab-and-go food, broths, protein bars and other eats complying with Asprey’s obsessive diet.

The fact that the “toxin-free” 1,100-square-foot shop (307 Westlake Ave. N.) touts a $1,500 vibrating stepstool that supposedly helps you “hack your strength and hormone balance” through “good vibrations” should tell you something about the extremity of Asprey’s regiment.

Whether this all sounds intriguing or utterly insane to you, some are forking over serious cash. In 2015, Asprey raised $9 million from a venture capital firm to boost his budding company.

 

Opening Night: Is Ethan Stowell’s Cut Club Happy Hour Going to Solve the Affordability Crisis?

Opening Night: Is Ethan Stowell’s Cut Club Happy Hour Going to Solve the Affordability Crisis?

At Cut Club, the longtime Seattle restaurateur is going old-school, with steaks made for sharing, no service charges, and a happy hour where $12 still buys dinner. 

Cut Club, the new steakhouse inside downtown’s Hotel Max, feels like a restaurant from the not-too-distant past. The menu leans comfortable rather than ambitious or world-spanning. It serves a typical lineup of steak cuts, some traditional sides like oysters, prawn cocktail, and wedge salad, and some cocktails that are between $15 and $20. There’s a…

Outside the Box: Gourmondo Founder Launches Olivina

Outside the Box: Gourmondo Founder Launches Olivina

Alissa Leinonen’s new venture brings her seasonal, Northwest approach to weddings, milestone celebrations, and elevated events.

After 30 years, Alissa Leinonen—founder of renowned catering and box-lunch company, Gourmondo—has launched a new venture. Called Olivina, the new luxury catering and events company focuses on highly personalized, elevated experiences ranging from weddings or other milestone celebrations to corporate gatherings. What started with $4,000 from a refinanced car (and a tiny café in Pike…

7 Washington Fall Festivals Worth the Drive

7 Washington Fall Festivals Worth the Drive

Autumn is back. Celebrate with fresh-hop beer, apple harvests, returning salmon, cranberries, and more. 

Explore 7 fun Washington fall festivals worth the drive, from Leavenworth's Autumn Leaf Festival and Issaquah Salmon Days to CrabFest and Fresh Hop Ale.

Restaurant Roundup: Brunch With a Side of History, Cardamom Lattes, and Chiew Chiew

Restaurant Roundup: Brunch With a Side of History, Cardamom Lattes, and Chiew Chiew

Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.

Hope you’re hungry for a history lesson. Oliver’s, the cocktail lounge inside downtown’s Mayflower Park Hotel, was a Bartell Drugs store during Prohibition before becoming the city’s first hotel bar in the late 1940s—the Carousel Room, named for the carousel horses hung from the ceiling. When Washington repealed the rule forbidding the service of hard…