Caffe Umbria – Pioneer Square
Description on the Caffe Umbria website: Caffè Umbria’s flagship retail store is centrally located in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square. Occupying the very site first established by the Bizzarri family roastery in 1986, the café offers an authentic Italian bar experience complete with expertly pulled espresso drinks, pastries, panini, gelato and fine Italian beer and wine.
Neighborhood: Pioneer Square
Address: 320 Occidental Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
Music playing: None
What we ate/drank: Macchiato, Fruit Tart
Comments: Short story before the review. We just came back from Portland and did a lot of walking in the University District/South Downtown area of Portland and I just could not find a cafe to my liking. I must have gone to 5 different places and passed for various reasons-too small, not an inviting/comfortable atmosphere, not an impressive menu. I was definitely trying to find a uniquely Portland cafe to visit, but the majority of them only serve Stumptown beans, which I felt I could get anywhere. I wanted to find something I could not find back home in Seattle. Note: I did find one place called, Kiosko, that I wholeheartedly endorse. Anyways, back to the story. I was walking around with my daughter and was getting a little frustrated. I was close to just settling for whatever cafe we stumbled upon next, when lo and behold, a Caffe Umbria! This one was on Madison Ave. Of course it’s not a uniquely Portland cafe that I wanted, but I knew I’d get a great tasting drink, a nice ambience and a familiarity I needed at this point.
On to the review….
As mentioned in my Tempesta Coffee (RIP) the family that founded Caffe Umbria have a interesting coffee history in Seattle:
For those of you new to Seattle, Torrefazione Italia used to have cafés in Fremont and Pioneer Square. The founders then formed a relationship with Seattle’s Best Coffee where they shared a roastery. Then Starbucks bought both, Torrefazione Italia and Seattle’s Best Coffee. Although Starbucks decided to continue selling the coffee under the Torrefazione Italia brand, they closed the Seattle cafes along with the other Torrefazione Italia 15 cafes around the US and Canada. One good thing that came out of the demise of the cafes is that the family that previously owned Torrefazione Italia before being bought by Starbucks, went on to create another roaster and multiple cafes, which became Caffe Umbria. One final bit of trivia, the first Caffe Umbria location is the one in Pioneer Square. It was also the first location of the first Torrefazione Italia cafe.
The cafe really does have a European feel to it, not so much due to the interior, but more the location. It’s located on the Occidental pedestrian only area that’s a wide brick walk way lined with two rows of trees in the Pioneer Square neighborhood. It’s very different from their Westlake location, which is to be expected due to the neighborhood and size of the location.
The actual space is split into two spaces or three if you count the patio in the front. The interior is split between the ordering area where they make the drinks and prepare the food. The other portion is the seating area. The two spaces are divided by the de facto required detail of all Pioneer Square cafes, an exposed brink wall.
The seating area has a long upholstered bench, front window counter looking out on Occidental and at least 8 individual tables. The space can seat at least 50 people. The area is dark with the exception of front area near the windows, but there is lots of warm lighting. Dark wood chairs and dark blue walls add to the romantic dark feel. For this reason, we enjoy this atmosphere more in the dark winter days when we don’t mind being cozy and indoors than the few sunny summer days we have here in Seattle. The decor is highlighted by a big coffee roaster. Perugia is the capital city of the Umbria region in Italy and its symbol is the griffin which explains the big griffin displayed on the wall. Also displayed on the walls are Italian decorative platters. The magazine stand is also a nice touch.
The other part of the space where the ordering and drink making take place has a few standing tables and a counter near the barista where you can also stand and drink your coffee. The cordoned off patio area seats about 15 people.
In addition to pastries, there are also breakfast sandwiches. There’s also a gelato cart that i hadn’t noticed before though it’s hard to miss since it’s right next to the main entrance. They have a limited wine and beers selection, although the limited beer selection includes some of my favorites from Georgetown Brewing- Rogers’ Pilsner, Bodhizafa IPA, and Lucillle IPA.
One thing to point out is that on Fridays, if you buy a 12 oz bag of beans, you get a free drink.
Ratings(Scale 1-5)
Favorite Thing: Caffe Umbria’s education section on their website teaches you the proper way to brew your coffee using a Aeropress, French Press, Moka Pot, Chemex and Hario V60. I definitely used it to fine tune my brewing using my Bialetti
Atmosphere: 4.75
Service: 5
Food Options: 4.50
Overall: 4.65
Eavesdropping Convo: A guy and a gal appeared to be catching up after not seeing each other for a while. If I had to guess they either went to high school or college together. The guy was telling her that he was now an entrepreneur and created a business. I couldn’t really hear the details, but I could hear the gal very excitedly say the following intermittently throughout their conversation…..
Stop it! That’s amazing!
That’s definitely a dynamic market. Oh I didn’t mean to interrupt you, but go on!
Stop it! That is so cool!
Wow! That’s awesome! I’m so proud of you! So many people have ideas, but they die because the reality is that it’s a steep climb and people don’t put it into action
Love it!
If it’s not scary, it’s not worth doing , right?!
She sounded so excited for him and it sounded really genuine. I thought to myself, we all need more people in our lives like this gal-cheerleaders. She may not wholeheartedly agree with everything he’s doing, but she knows it takes a lot of effort and courage to start a business and is going to cheer him on. That’s what real friends do, cheer you on regardless of the circumstances