Fonte Coffee Roasters Cafe
Description on Fonte Coffee Roasters Cafe’s website :Our story begins in 1992 in the Pacific Northwest coffee capital of the world — Seattle, WA. It was here that founder and owner Paul Odom followed his passion and started Fonté Coffee Roaster. Our name is Italian for source. We help coffee lovers brew the freshest cup of coffee.
Neighborhood: Downtown
Address: 1321 1st Ave, Seattle WA 98101
Music Playing: Always Forever by Cults
What we ate/drank: Macchiato
Comments: Fonte Coffee Roasters Café is connected to the same building as the Four Seasons(I actually used their wifi while at Fonte), right across the street from the Seattle Art Museum(SAM) and two block aways from Pike Place Market, so similar to Seattle Coffee Works there are a lot of tourists as opposed to locals that come here. It’s always crowded because of it’s proximity to the aforementioned places, but also because it’s right on First Ave. Anybody walking along this main avenue going to Pike Place Market to Pioneer Square or vice versa will pass Fonte Coffee Roasters Cafe. It’s also one of the few places open at 6am in the area, so you see a lot of business people or a lot of people with suitcases getting ready to head to the airport having breakfast here.
The morning is not so bad but by mid-morning on, it’s normally crowded. Caffe Ladro , which is right around the corner doesn’t have this problem, because it’s not directly on 1st Ave and also doesn’t have the food options or drink options or space that Fonte Coffee Roasters Café has.
For Seattle standards the cafe is rather large. It has a modern-romantic vibe due to the warm lighting and use of dark materials-dark woods, dark leathers, and a dark ceiling. One really cool feature is the dark wood two by four lighting running the length of the cafe. For contrast most of the upholstered seating are a light tan.
As you enter Fonte Coffee Roasters Cafe you’ll notice they have two small elevated patio areas on either side of the door. Once you enter, on the left are upholstered seats that run along the store front and and individual chairs and tables that probably seat around 15 people.
On the right the high upholstered seats with a foot rest continue along the store front and then forms an “L” along the north wall. There’s a group table in the middle and then booth seats that round out the area. This area probably seats about 30 people.
Kudos for making a concerted effort for wheelchairs/stroller access both having ramps inside and out on the patio. One qualm I had was the cleanliness. As you can see from my pictures on this particular day and time, it was not busy in the cafe, yet many of the tables were not clean and there were newspapers all over the floor near the ordering counter.
There is a huge variety of food-For morning options they have pastries, but also savory dishes for breakfast -breakfast burrito, vegetables hash, scambles, french toast, omelettes, frittata. For lunch options there’s Italian sandwich, baguettes, salads, grilled cheese, chicken club. fried chicken Caesar wraps. Food is brought to table after ordering, but drinks are called out at the counter for pick up, which can be confusing. Nice touch of self serve water in recappable bottles that you can take back to your table. They also have beer, wine and mixed drink option.
As you can tell by their name they roast their own coffee. Actually, the person in charge of roasting at Fonte Coffee Roasters was one of the first roasters trained under the original owners of Starbucks and earned the title of Master Roaster before coming to Fonte.
I don’t mean this to be a slam, but Fonte’s not a place I’d hang out at for relaxation, but it is a place I’d bring my parents or non coffee drinking out-of-town friends. It’s not because the coffee is bad. It’s really good and they do have some coffee drinks you can’t find anywhere else such as Desert Rose Latte, Aztec Mocha Latte, Turkish Latte. It’s just that usually it’s too packed/busy with tourists to relax or meet up for a nice conversation. To prove a point, just go to their Yelp reviews. Look at the last 10 reviews. You could look today or a year from now I’d bet the majority of the reviews are from out-of towners. The reason i’d bring my parents/non coffee drinking out of town friends is due to the fact that it’s a very nice place and has a lot of drink options besides coffee. It also has a lot of snack options and is in close proximity to places I’d take out of town guests-Pike Place Maket, SAM, Pioneer Sq.
Ratings(1-5)
Favorite Thing: High upholstered seats with foot rest. This might seem like a weird favorite thing, but it makes a huge difference to have the foot rest.
Atmosphere: 4.25
Service: 4
Food Options: 5
Overall: 4.35
Eavedropping Convo:
Guy 1(G1) – I’ve been going to Barnes & Noble a lot lately and reading a bunch of investments books. I’m addicted. It’s the only type of books I buy now.
Guy 2(G2) – No fiction or any other non-fiction? Only investment books?
G1- No, just investment books. I thought it would be mundane, but it’s really interesting. It’s all I read now
G2- Why are you into it?
G1- I never really was interested in finance, but I’m working now, saving some money finally and I want to put it to work. You know? I want to get to a point where I can buy a house too.
G2- Good luck with that(sarcastically)
Related: