The Seattle Coffee Shop Awards – Part 2

As you know Seattleites have the stereotype of being coffee drinking fools. This is no stereotype, we take our coffee seriously. And if you ask 20 different locals what their favorite coffee place is, you’ll most likely get 20 different answers.  These are our choices for Best Seattle Coffee Shop Awards. With two young’uns, we’ve had to trade in our frequency of night life in Seattle bars and pubs to morning life in a lot of Seattle coffee cafes. In doing so, we’ve gotten to revisit a lot of coffee shops we hadn’t been to in a while and also got a chance to visit a lot of new places that had always been on our radar but never been able to go to.  We Seattleites are so lucky to have so many varieties of roasters and cafes in such a condensed area.

You’ll notice in our Coffee Shop blog posts we rarely mention how good the coffee is in each place, because we feel like it’s a given we’re going to get exceptional coffee.  If we happen upon a coffee shop in which the coffee is not good, we will not review it. This might be the reason you may not see a particular coffee shop on our blog.

See our other installments of Seattle Coffee Shop Awards:
Part 1 – Best Coffee Neighborhood, Most Popular, Most Underrated
Part 3 – Best Seattle Coffee Drink Sets, Best Views
Part 4 – Best Seattle Coffee Shops to Impress Visitors, Impress Visiting Coffee Snobs, Make Visitors Feel Like Locals.
Part 5 – Best Seattle Coffee Shops for Food Options, Friendliest Service 
Part 6 – Seattle Coffee With Most Character, Best Seattle Coffee Shops Overall.

Best Seattle Coffee Shops For Big Groups –  El Diablo Coffee, Espresso Vivace-SLU, La Marzocco Cafe

These places are huge by Seattle Coffee Shop standards, but they not only have a lot of space, but also have areas for bigger groups to gather. Large coffee shops are a rarity in Seattle, so keep this list handy.

1. l Diablo Coffee(RIP) -Queen Anne
2. Espresso Vivace-Alley 24 -South Lake Union
3. La Marzocco Café -Seattle Center
4. Kaladi Brothers Coffee -Capitol Hill
5. Caffe Umbria-Pioneer Square

El Diablo Coffee not only has big front patio, a living room area and a kids room, but it also has an entire second floor that is big and another huge patio.  You will have no problem for a group meet up here. Espresso Vivace  also has areas conducive to group gatherings, but also has a separate room for groups.  La Marzocco Café has a radio station and a rotating group of roasters that take over the café, but it’s a wide open space and although it can get crowded, we think it’s good place for big groups.  Kaladi Brothers Coffee is another unusually large place and it’s in normally-cramped Capitol Hill to boot. They not only have a massive community table, but also a second floor perch that is also quite spacious. This particular Caffe Umbria location in Pioneer Square has a section for ordering and preparation with standing only counters/tables, but a whole separate section with tons of seating.

Best Seattle Coffee Shops For When You Want To Be Left Alone – Pegasus Coffee

This is the opposite of the above category. Sometimes you just want to be alone while enjoying your coffee. You might want to read a book or listen to a podcast or get some studying or work done. There’s a good possibility that you might bump into a colleague or a friend at some of the more popular coffee places. Whatever the reason or circumstances, here are some suggestions for coffee shops if you want to be left alone:

1. Pegasus Coffee
2. Tempesta Coffee (RIP)
3. Convoy Coffee
4. Caffe Ladro- The Jetsons Coffee Place

Pegasus Coffee is small standing room only coffee shop that used to be an old cigar shop. It has a counter with a seat for one person only on either side of the front door. So if you bump into somebody you know here, they’ll have to sit in the other seat across the door, so you can continue to enjoy your coffee solo. Tempesta Coffee (RIP)has one standing table for just one person. That’s it. Again, even if you bumped into somebody you know there, they can’t join you.  Plus as mentioned before they have a damn good Americano and even better doughnuts. Convoy Coffee is another small place, although it has a big seating area up the stairs.  I don’t think many people know about Convoy, so they go to the many more-established coffee shops in Pioneer Square, which is the reason you won’t bump into anybody hear. As mentioned in our previous post, it’s a very underrated cafe.  Caffe Ladro – The “Jetson’s” location. It’s near the Convention Center and some hotels, so it seems like it’s mostly tourists and taxi drivers who come here. It’s also in that weird spot between downtown and Capitol Hill, so I don’t think it has many regulars. This place is two blocks from my office and I have never seen another co-worker come here.

See our other installments of Seattle Coffee Shop Awards:

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Seattle Coffee Shops
Part 1 – Best Coffee Neighborhood, Most Popular, Most Underrated
Part 3 – Best Seattle Coffee Drink Sets, Best Views
Part 4 – Best Seattle Coffee Shops to Impress Visitors, Impress Visiting Coffee Snobs, Make Visitors Feel Like Locals.
Part 5 – Best Seattle Coffee Shops for Food Options, Friendliest Service 
Part 6 – Seattle Coffee With Most Character, Best Seattle Coffee Shops Overall.