‘Biohacking’ Butter Coffee Trendster Opens First Seattle Cafe

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.