Posted by TheShot on 24 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues
Opinions are like… Well, let’s just say that everyone’s got one. And when it comes to America’s best coffee cities, Travel + Leisure magazine recently published theirs: America’s Best Coffee Cities – Articles | Travel + Leisure. The article opens with a rather puzzlng personal endorsement of Steps of Rome in SF’s North Beach, where [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 May 2010 | Tagged as: Barista, Café Society, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting, Starbucks
We wrap up our brief series on Seattle’s espresso and coffee culture with a few observations. First, it had been way, way too long since our last visit. Twelve years in fact. Which is all the more ridiculous given the kind of coffee tourists we’ve become. It was 15 years ago that I attended graduate [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 26 May 2010 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
After David Schomer lost the original Espresso Vivace Roasteria location on Denny Way to an eminent domain seizure in 2006, when the city of Seattle decided to place a new rail line station at its location, Espresso Vivace needed a new home where they could showcase their coffee and techniques. This Espresso Vivace location opened [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 25 May 2010 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew, Quality Issues
No coffee tour of Seattle is complete without a visit to our last of the three V’s in town: David Schomer‘s famed Espresso Vivace. The subtitle for this location is “a sidewalk espresso bar,” which it most certainly is. We normally have more than a few gripes about sidewalk coffee kiosks, but this one is [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 24 May 2010 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Foreign Brew, Machine, Roasting
This Stumptown outlet opened in 2007. It arguably first represented the Portland chain’s global ambitions. At the time, there was much consternation among Seattlites about an interloper in their heart of their Capitol Hill coffee culture (not to mention the Northwest rivalry that ensued). Stumptown even opened up roasting operations in town. But things haven’t [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 23 May 2010 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Foreign Brew, Machine, Roasting
We continue our series on Seattle cafés with a visit to another another of the three V’s in town: this time it’s Caffé Vita in Seattle’s Capitol Hill district. This combination café and roaster is one of the bigger entities in this coffee-rich neighborhood. It has the bold Caffé Vita neon signage out front — [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 21 May 2010 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Foreign Brew, Roasting
Surely we jest about Seattle’s coffee culture being as dated as reruns of Frasier. Coffee journalists and jargonists alike often suffer from a tragic affliction that confuses experience for irrelevance. Infatuation with the over-hyped and under-substantiated pursuit of the next big thing has created a bit of hyperopia: a far-sightedness that makes one blind to [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 20 May 2010 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Café Society, Foreign Brew
We continue our series on Seattle coffee culture with a visit to a Victrola Coffee — one of the three “V’s” Seattleites refer to when seeking decent espresso. This location is the original Victrola, though the name here emphasizes their artistic roots and continued interests. It’s an older establishment that exudes some 1950s classicism — [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 19 May 2010 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew, Machine, Roasting
Now that we’ve been told Seattle espresso is passé — with self-proclaimed Third Wave aficionados holding their nose at the (former) Queen City’s “Oh So Last Wave” reputation — we recently visited a variety of Seattle espresso bars. This is the first post of a coming series on Seattle cafés. We hope this series will [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 29 Apr 2010 | Tagged as: Beans, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Local Brew, Quality Issues, Roasting
Good coffee cultures are exported. Starbucks grew by churning out a mutant strain of Italian coffee culture by the thousands. Fifteen years ago, we saw cafés in Prague that boasted “Seattle style lattes.” And while New York City is beating its chest lately over its recent coffee prowess — emulating one of its most famous [...]
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