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Seattle Coffee Guide: Coffee Carts
What began nearly 30 years ago as a coffee cart gracing various city sidewalks (at one point it was
Monorail Espresso What began nearly 30 years ago as a coffee cart gracing various city sidewalks (at one point it was situated beneath the monorail) now operates as a walk-up counter near the Banana Republic store on Pike Street. Friendly baristas suggest offerings made from Mukilteo Coffee Co. beans and take orders at a window…
Seattle Coffee Guide: Starbucks and Tully’s
The Changing Face of Starbucks After being shunned by the cool kids for seeming too corporate, Starbucks wants to be popular again. Over the past year, the chain has been trying on new outfits faster than a teenage girl getting ready for the prom, especially in the coffee epicenter of Capitol Hill. Kambiz Hemati, Starbucks’…
Seattle Coffee Guide: The Independent Shops
Caffè Umbria Pioneer Square SHOP founded in 2005 (Company founded in 2002)Beans: Caffè UmbriaMost popular drink: AmericanoWi-Fi: None (gasp!)Caffè Umbria is a split shot: one part Pioneer Square (exposed brick) and one part Perugia (Italian tile and ceramic). OK, make that two parts Perugia: Not only is the espresso machine imported from Italy, so is…
Seattle Coffee Guide: The Iconic Shops
From Bauhaus to Zeitgeist, our picks for Seattle's iconic shops
Bauhaus Books & Coffee Capitol Hill, founded in 1993Beans: Lighthouse (exclusive house blend)Most popular drink: Americano Wi-Fi: FreeUsing the name Bauhaus demonstrates, to use a German term, cojones. Are you comparing yourself to history’s most famous design school, history’s most famous Goth band, or both? Bauhaus, the coffeehouse, is flirting with legendary status itself: As…
Seattle Coffee Guide: Locally Roasted Beans
The bean has arrived. Once a mere commodity, coffee beans in the past decade or so have been treated
The bean has arrived. Once a mere commodity, coffee beans in the past decade or so have been treated like wine grapes—coddled, encouraged and coaxed into their full potential. Now, more than ever, the coffee bean’s pedigree is everything. As with many culinary offshoots, the coffee world has adopted the term “terroir”—the special characteristics of…
Seattle Coffee Guide: Seattle Coffee Shops
Given the throngs of people filling Seattle’s countless coffee shops morning, noon and night, it’s a
Given the throngs of people filling Seattle’s countless coffee shops morning, noon and night, it’s a wonder any of the city’s office buildings are occupied at all. The phenomenon speaks to our sincere love of java, but also our fervent belief in the essential “third place” between work and home. The Independents Shops: Given the…
Seattle Coffee Guide: What the Locals Order
We asked some of our city's celebs to reveal their morning-coffee rituals. Here's what they told us.
P Smoov, Hip hop artist with Mad Rad and Fresh Espresso Quad shot Americano with soy milk, preferably at Caffé Vita, but he’ll go anywhere that has cute, flirtatious baristas. Linda Derschang, Queen of clubsCappuccino, straight up Jesse Jones, KING 5 News consumer reporterHomemade (by his wife) double-shot caramel latte using Fidalgo Bay coffee Rick…
Seattle Coffee Guide: The Evolution of Coffee
As coffee roasters and drinkers ride a new wave of obsession with single-origin beans, small-farm so
One of the unequivocal pleasures of living in Seattle for most of the past 17 years has been my coffee drinking. I am jingoistic about Seattle coffee, and push it mercilessly on visiting friends and family. I’m sure I’m not alone in this regard; we are obviously hooked, as a city—the coffee-drinkingest town in all…
Seattle Magazine’s Ultimate Coffee Guide
A celebration of Seattle's caffeinated culture
For many of us, it’s the first word we croak in the morning: Coffee. Not a question, nor a command (though sometimes a plea), but most often a statement—a fact of daily life, especially in Seattle, where, as you may have heard, we drink a lot of coffee. Lately, our beloved local ritual of going…
Health: An Expert’s Advice on Mammograms
A year after a federal task force issued a controversial advisory on mammographies for women in thei
Dr. David C. Grossman, senior investigator at Seattle’s Group Health Research Institute, has served nearly three years of a four-year term as one of 16 members on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which last year was at the center of a controversy arising from its new recommendations on mammography screenings. News reports have indicated…
Tasting Notes: Seattle’s New Pour Houses
An urban influx gives wine lovers a city rich in pour houses
The wine buzz around the Puget Sound area has been all about the explosive growth of wineries and tasting rooms in eastern Washington and Woodinville. But urban wineries are blossoming, too, bringing closer to home the opportunity to taste—and buy—an impressive array of Washington wines. “We thought about looking in Woodinville, but it’s pretty saturated,”…
Reviews: Flying Fish, Marjorie & Fatty’s Corner
Allison Austin Scheff reviews what's new in Seattle dining scene
Flying Fish Owner/chef Christine Keff’s Flying Fish, which opened in Belltown way back in 1995, built a reputation on great seafood but, boy, did the interior need an update. Instead of spiffing up the old girl, Keff moved her to South Lake Union in May to start over in a neighborhood with new life (and…
Key Ingredient: Alum Powder
How-to get your fried foods even crispier
ALUM POWDER In the quest for a crisp finish to her Chinese doughnuts, Lorna Yee relies on an old culinary standby WHAT IT IS: Alum powder (crystallized potassium aluminum sulfate) is an astringent white substance commonly used in pickling recipes to retain crispness. You can find it in the spice aisle of grocery stores. It’s also…
Food We Love: Double Chocolate Figs at Fran’s
Our latest chocolate obsession
FIG HEAVEN On a whim, I stopped into the Fran’s Chocolates Bellevue store (10036 Main St.; 425.453.1698; franschocolates.com), figuring I’d treat myself to a truffle and be on with my day. But there under a glass dome—beside neat rows of the single-malt-whiskey dark chocolate truffles, the milk chocolate caramel truffles and President Obama’s beloved smoked…
Cravings: Seattle pear dishes
Nothing tastes quite like a ripe, in-season pear on a crisp fall day.
PAIR The pancetta-wrapped pears at Pair (no pun intended) constitute a decadent pre-entrée bite. Served in a wine and ginger reduction and topped with a sprig of parsley, this savory/sweet combination celebrates the pear in all its glory. $6. Ravenna/Montlake, 5501 30th Ave. NE; 206.526.7655; pairseattle.comCITIZENThe melt-in-your-mouth caramel pear brûlée crêpe starts with a…
The Foodies Calendar: Oyster Fest
October 3, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. OysterFest Mason County Fairgrounds, 751 W Fairgrounds Road, Shelton; 360.426.2021; oysterfest.org ? Ahoy, seafood fanatics! Set sail for Shelton on the Olympic Peninsula and catch OysterFest, the 29th annual West Coast Oyster Shucking Championship and Washington State Seafood Festival. The event offers a taste of Washington’s best oceanic hors d’oeuvres,…
Meet the Producer: Proper British Bacon and Meats
Got the fever? Proper British Bacon & Meats has the cure
Last year, when a Scottish friend of Robin Halbert’s began spreading word around the Microsoft campus that Robin and his wife, Calli, were creating British-style bacon, the orders started pouring in. The couple began making regular deliveries to Redmond, and the word kept spreading. In February, the Halberts created a website: properbritishbacon.com. In April, they…
Style: Parisian Flair with Carolin Meesier
Restaurateur Carolin Messier adds dramatic European finesse to her locally gathered vintage wardrobe
WHY WE LOVE IT: From her bright red lipstick to the ever-present pearls, north Capitol Hill resident Carolin Messier would have looked perfectly at ease in a 1940s French film noir, sipping café coffee in a sassy, tailored suit and Mary Jane heels. The spirited sometime pastry chef and full-time owner of the Harvest Vine…
Spotlight Shorts: City Arts Fest, 100 Ways & more
Local art that matters
ARTS FESTS Two new arts events erupt all over town this monthJust when you thought it was time to crawl into your winter cave, gloomy October is proving itself to be quite the festive month for artsy goings-on in Seattle. The first City Arts Fest (10/20–10/23; times, prices and venues vary; cityartsfest.com), helmed by Michael…
Spotlight: Next of Kindle
What does the ink-and-paper landscape look like in the city that spawned the hugely successful e-rea
The Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair takes place this month (October 9–10; seattlebookfair.com), enticing local book lovers with the promise of fragrant and crumbly yellowed pages, and at the same time prompting the question: Aren’t all ink-and-paper books becoming a bit antiquarian? In an interview with Newsweek last December, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos praised the physical…
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