Archive for October, 2008
I Preferiti di Boriana or Simply Boriana's Corner
Last fall while I was visiting San Fransisco, I stayed at a hotel that was within walking distance to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. It was there that I discovered Boriana's Corner, a delightful little stand owned by Boriana S Dimonte. Her products are imported from Montepulciano in Tuscany where she spend quite a bit of her childhood. The store, of which the sign labels the place as "I Preferiti di Boriana" which can be translated as "Boriana’s favorites" turned out to be one of my favorite little Italian specialty food shops in San Fransisco. Both times I went there, I didn't really pay too much attention as to where she got her coffee beans from. One thing that I did know was that the lattes there were great... I enjoyed the latte enough and actually bought a couple of pounds of beans that I brought back with me to Seattle. And so I find it interesting that on this particular website, Boriana's has been getting really bad reviews for their bombolonis and also their customer service... yet that is [...]
Sip & Ship and the Dancing Goats
Ballard Mail & Dispatch Sip & Ship in Ballard (of course) is a great place to stop by and get a great latte. As the name would suggest, offers mailing and world wide shipping and packaging services... and as the name sort of hints, serves espresso drinks... I don't often hang out in Ballard, but when I do go there, I will sometimes stop by here to get my usual latte, time and hunger permitting. I like the place for one because they always seem to have baristas who not only make good coffee, but also engage in pleasant conversation. The last time I was there a few weeks ago, I inquired about the source of their beans. The barista told me about Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters, whom they get their beans from. I think Batdorf & Bronson are pretty interesting cause the name does not really jump out to you as a coffee roasting company but one thing I can say for sure, they do make some good coffee blends. But what I think is even more interesting is their Dancing Goats coffee blend... the name [...]
Joe Bar, Coffee Good
Joe Bar is this small, almost quaint little place that is somewhat across the street from the Harvard Exit Theatre... this is on the north end of Broadway on Capital Hill... I tend drive by it a lot since it is the easiest route for me to take when I am headed down to South Lake Union, Eastlake or even Queen Ann. I have only been there three or four times, not because they have bad coffee, but because of the parking situation. Sometimes you're in luck and can get great parking, sometimes you may have to park a little further out. Regardless, Joe Bar is actually pretty popular with its regulars. You will always find folks sitting indoors enjoying their coffee and other goodies... and certainly when its sunny, seated outside in the shaded, tree lined narrow sidewalk enjoying the company and the view. Thus you know they probably do have good eats in there. Checking out Yelp, I find that the general consensus is that the coffee and the food is excellent and the baristas are great! I couldn't agree more... at [...]
Bauhaus Books for Great Coffee
Bauhaus Books + Coffee is an old favorite coffeehouse of mine. Located on the lower part of Capitol Hill, this used to be one of my coffee hang out spot especially since it was only about 3 minutes walking from the condo I used to rent. I remember how the place used to rather dark and scary, and people would hang out upstairs drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. Five minutes in the place was enough to get the smell of coffee and cigarettes clinging tightly to your clothes. What was even scarier were some of the people who used to hang out there. After a while it also got to me so rather than hanging out there, I would simply walk in, order my latte then walk out... still smelling of cigarettes. But then, all that changed. The management at Bauhaus decided to ban smoking indoors and the place literary changed overnight. Then maybe 4 or 5 years ago, I was rather surprised because I remember walking into the place after not having visited the coffeehouse for a while and the place actually looked [...]
Top Pot for Good Coffee and Exceptional Doughnuts
This past Saturday morning, I had just woken up and was lying in bed and watching The Travel Channel. They had on a show called Donut Paradise which was basically about the best doughnuts in the US. As expected, their featured doughnut shop in Seattle was Top Pot, which is my favorite Seattle area coffee AND doughnut shop. After spending close to an hour checking out all the different types of doughnuts from the various famous doughnut shops (Voodoo Doughnut in Portland was another pretty interesting doughnut shop) I suddenly had the cravings for Top Pot doughnuts and I thought, maybe today was a good day for donuts! So I took a quick shower and headed out to the Top Pot store located on Summit Avenue on Capital Hill. Now typically I would go to Top Pot with my wife and I would wait in the car while she popped in to buy doughnuts and coffee to go so even though I had eaten their doughnuts relatively recently, I had not been in the store for quite some time. It certainly felt good to be back at there after [...]
Cafe Umbria in Pioneer Square
The last time I had coffee at this particular location was late in 2004. At that time, this location was the main coffee store for Torrefazione Italia. Since then things have changed, Starbucks through some acquisitions ended up owning Torrefazione and eventually shut down the stores*... I don't know what possessed them to do so but they decided in their infinite wisdom that was the best course of action to take. Regardless, this location is now the flagship store location for the Caffe Umbria Coffee Roasters... which it just so happens used to be affiliated with the Torrefazione brand. If you have been reading my blog, you'll know that Caffe Umbria is one of my favorite coffee roasters and I have been meaning for a while now to pop into this store to try it out. So it was nice after all this time that I happened to be in the area and I was able to finally drop in for a latte. The place had changed somewhat from the way Torrefazione had been designed. Gone were the huge wooden tables I remember and in [...]
Frontier Cafe for Espresso and Barbecue?
I discovered Frontier Cafe quite by accident about three Fridays back while I was walking around the Pioneer Square area of city. It so happened that I was actually looking for Salumi so I could get one of their famous cured meat sandwhiches. Now Salumi was co-founded by Armandino Batali, who just happens to be Iron Chef Mario Batali's dad. Now those of you who are pretty familiar with Seattle's Pioneer Square district know just how confusing the maze of streets are and so the bottom line is that I couldn't find the place so I decided to go get a falafel sandwich instead. As I was walking back via a different street, I happened to walk by Frontier Cafe and as you probably know me by now, I couldn't resist walking in the coffee shop to see what roast they were serving... and even more important, if they had coffee cups with logos that I can add to my collection of coffee cups. The interesting thing about this place was that it reminded me somewhat of the fish & chips type places I used to frequent [...]