Archive for March, 2009
My Qwest for Appassionato
Appassionato Espresso Stand..., originally uploaded by andai. This past weekend I was at Qwest Field to check-out the Sounders rout the New York Red Bulls 2-0. It was a great game, although I missed the first score because I was in the middle of ordering an extremely salty, relatively tiny but expensive hotdog and complaining to the lady behind the counter about the exorbitant prices and the fact that I was a captive audience. Checking the price listing, I saw they had drip coffee for $5.00 but no espresso. When I asked them about espresso, they pointed me to an espresso cart that I had walked by without really noticing. Well, at least they had an espresso cart, but then I wondered, if they were selling drip for $5.00, than how much more would they add to the prince of espresso drinks? Shockingly, the prices were actually very reasonable considering the location, captive audience and all that. They actually had 16oz lattes for only $5.00. Ok, I can buy that, no problem.. The second surprise, which in [...]
FCC's 'Free' Wireless Strategy
I am currently hanging out at Fremont Coffee Company (FCC, not to be mistaken with that other FCC) in the Fremont area of Seattle, enjoying an great 8 oz latte before I head on out to conduct some personal business here in the Fremont area. Since I have my laptop with me, I thought I might as well pull it out and get online and check out twitter since I am rather early and I have a few minutes to spare. Now if you want to use the wireless here, you have to buy something like a coffee or some goodies. You can then ask the barista to give you a user name and password that you can use for the time you are here. Behind the barista is this machine that actually generates user names and passwords that are valid for a period of 4 hours and that's what you use to log on to FCC's wireless. I think that is pretty smart idea. On the one hand you provide 'free' wireless to your actual customers as opposed to folks simply hanging out and enjoying free wifi and on the other hand, you also don't get someone buying one [...]
Allegro Coffee @ Whole Foods
One thing I don't like about Whole Foods is the fact that they do not allow people to take photographs within the store. Now I'm not talking about taking photos of the shelves and stock, that I can sort of understand, but simply no where in the store including in the 'cafe' area of the store. I don't think that is cool. So what happens if you are with friends at a table enjoying a meal or even a snack and you wanted to take a pic of you and your buddies... no go! Anyway, who cares... lets talk about coffee instead. Well it just so happens that I needed to go to Whole Foods anyway to get a couple of things. In addition to a bit of shopping, I also wanted to make sure I grabbed an Allegro latte since most of the other times I find myself at Whole Foods, it tends to be at those times of the day when I have already had a latte so I haven't really had the right opportunity to check out their espresso drinks. So today was great simply because I had not yet drunk my morning latte. So after I got done with my [...]
Fonté Coffee at Chez Dominique
Chez Dominique, originally uploaded by andai. Chez Dominique bills itself as a European style cafe serving European Pastries. Ok, I have to say that is a bit of a stretch... and even though I don't really want to go into the details about what foods they serve, I will go there every so often to get a sandwich at lunchtime. I will also get their fruit cup and/or freshly squeezed orange juice which is really great. And some no doubt, do not go there because the food is super yet every time I go there, there's always plenty of people in there ordering food. But who cares about the food anyway, we are here to talk about espresso. Chez Dominique is the first place where I consciously discovered Fonté Coffee. When I first started going there, it was clear that the coffee they served certainly had its own distinct flavor that I did not recognize, and thus my love for Fonté was born. I am not sure what they serve for their drip coffee, but for their lattes and other espresso drinks they serve Fonté's Italian [...]
Caffè Appassionato by Fisherman's Terminal
At least twice a year, I go down to the area by Seattle's Fisherman's Terminal to conduct some very necessary business. And every time I'm there, one of the ladies who runs the office will offer me a cup of coffee... which is your ordinary everyday drip coffee with sugar and the powered creamer. And I graciously accept the cup. And every time I drive down there, it just so happens that I drive right by the Caffè Appassionato flagship coffeeshop and roasting plant and I don't even think to stop by and get my coffee from there instead. Well, this year I decided that things were going to be different. There was no point in me passing up perfectly good latte in lieu of regular old office drip (no offense H) and so I stopped by the Caffè Appassionato coffee shop right on 21st Avenue West. It was actually a pleasant visit. At the time I entered the shop, there was only one barista behind the counter serving both those at the counter and those going through the drive-in. She was very apologetic for having made [...]
Cafe Pettirosso the Red Breasted Robin
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 [...]
Morning Espresso at Tutta Bella
I don't normally go to Columbia City often... but there are three main reasons I go there. 1. Whenever the latest Harry Potter movie comes out, we go to the Columbia City theater. 2. During the summer for the Columbia City art work and 3. For great pizza at Tutta Bella. Then there's the forth reason that I will pass by and that is to go to the Department of Licensing... which just happens to be the reason I recently found myself going there first thing in the morning. It was on the way back from the DOL that I planned to stop at one of the coffee shops in Colombia City before heading on to work and so as I was driving through the main street, I noticed the signage advertising Attibassi Espresso right next to Tutta Bella's signage. Since I had never heard of Attibassi before and I'm always looking to try out a new espresso roast and/or blend, I knew I had to stop and get my morning latte there. It was only after I stepped into the 'coffee shop' that I realized, "wait, this is Tutta Bella". It was a bit of a [...]
MezzaLuna, Great Coffee in Judkins Park
After reading this article in yesterday's Seattle Times titled, "Owners of small coffee shops take plunge during recession" I was intrigued by pieces on Soho Coffee and MezzaLuna Bakery & Bistro and made a mental note to check them out. It turns out that I ended up going to MezzaLuna for brunch early that afternoon, mainly with the aim of getting something for lunch and... of course to try out their coffee. It was a relatively easy place to find, located in the Judkins Park area of Seattle. The three owners, Andre, Kim and Larine were there taking orders, cooking and serving customers. When we sat down to order, the waitress told us that they had been really busy that day, mainly due to the above mentioned newspaper article. Since this is a coffee blog, and I don't feel like, I will not dwell on the food.. but just in case you are a little concerned, I can tell you that for sure I will be going back to try out a couple more menu items. So what about the coffee anyway? Well, they do serve the [...]
Of Recession, Starting Indie Coffee Shops… and Coffee Blogging
Looks like the Seattle Times finally realized that Seattle does have coffee shop other than Starbucks. Its about time. I was on twitter this morning and someone posted a link to this the small business article titled, "Owners of small coffee shops take plunge during recession" that I thought was an interesting read. There were three coffee shops mentioned that actually peaked my interest. The first, Tougo Coffee which opened a second shop in the Westlake area... I have been to their shop in the Central District which I like. The second and third were MezzaLuna Bakery & Bistro in the Judkins Park and Soho Coffee which is in the Central District area of Seattle. After reading this article, I decided that I wanted to checkout MezzaLuna and Soho and see what they really were all about. Early that afternoon we actually stopped by MezzaLuna for brunch. It was interesting to talk to our waitress who told us that they had been really busy because a lot of the folks who came in today had actually read the [...]