Archive for February, 2010
Farewell Attibassi, Tutta Bella and Seattle, I'll Miss You
Attibassi at Tutta Bella, originally uploaded by andai. Here I was, at Tutta Bella in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle enjoying a straight espresso shot pulled from Attibassi coffee beans. Then all of a sudden it really dawned on me, that the days were drawing near. It was with a bit of sadness that I realized that I was coming to an end of my stay in Seattle. After having called Seattle home for over 10 years, I was now picking up my family and my belongings and moving to another land. I was moving to a land of espresso and raw sugar separated from Seattle by the vast Pacific Ocean, a land that I will make my new home for some time. And so here I am, sipping my espresso from a tiny ceramic espresso cup with the Attibassi crest and name emblazoned on the side and thinking to myself, this espresso shot is pretty nice actually. I was also thinking to myself that this is just about the last time for a while that I will be enjoying espresso in Seattle. And at the same time I was wondering what New [...]
Espresso from Starbucks' 15th Avenue East Coffee and Tea
15 Ave Coffee & Tea aka Starbucks, originally uploaded by andai. I can't believe it! I actually went to Starbucks with the sole intention of getting good espresso and not the usual stuff they have been serving at the regular stores... which by the way is what inspired the name of this blog. So I went to 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, the non branded Starbucks store. I remember very clearly when the Starbucks store on Capital Hill's 15th Avenue shut down. At first I thought they were gone as part of the restructuring going on at Starbucks when they closed a number of their stores. But I soon realized that something was up because they simply boarded up the place and soon after construction began behind closed doors. Now first forward a couple of months later and the rumors started coming out about the new Starbucks store that was opening on 15th. This new store was rumored to be different from the regular Starbucks stores we have all come to love or loathe depending on what type of a coffee person you [...]
Coffee at Columbia City Bakery
Columbia City Bakery Sign, originally uploaded by andai. One of the reasons I was somewhat looking forward to moving to Columbia City was that I would be close to Columbia City bakery. Now depending on which Seattle neighborhood you live in, you will probably be familiar with Columbia City Bakery since they are one of the two more well known bakeries that supply bread to a number of the cafes and bakeries in the area. The other bakery is Essential Bakery, which as two locations, the first in Wallingford and the second location in Madison Valley. The irony of bring just down the road from Columbia City Bakery was that where I was staying, a friend would bake fresh homemade bread every other day. So I really wasn’t interested in actually buying bread from the bakery, however I was more interested in their coffee. The other irony was that I only went there a couple of times for coffee. More often than not, I would go to Empire, Tuta Bella or some of the other ones on the ‘hill’ like the recently [...]