Ventoux Roasters – Ravenna
Description on Ventoux Roaster’s website: Providing the highest quality coffee, and promoting our love for cycling in everything we do. Nestled between Seattle’s University District and Wedgwood neighborhood, we’ve supported our community in the Bryant neighborhood with specialty coffee and a gallery of fine racing bikes for 3 years. Come by and meet your neighbors!
Neighborhood: Ravenna
Address:3404 NE 55th St, Seattle, WA 98105
What we ate/drank: Cortado, Macrina Fresh Fruit Muffin
Music Playing: Sade – Hang On To Your Love
Comments: Ventoux Roasters is on a small quiet corner of 35th Ave NE & NE 55th Street. As soon as you walk in you can tell the owner’s love of cycling. There are hanging bikes from the roof and on the walls, cycling jerseys displayed and bike-themed posters. The cafe name is derived from Mont Ventoux, which is one of the stages in the Tour de France.
Their name implies Ventoux roasts their own coffee beans, but on this particular day they were using Everett-based Veltons coffee. They had a small variety of Macrina Bakery pastries. We got the Fresh Fruit Muffin. There’s definitely a neighborhood feel to Ventoux Roasters and I get the feeling most of the people hanging out here are regulars.
The space is long and narrow, so you’d expect the seating to be limited, but surprisingly there’s a lot of seating. You’ve got the store front Adirondack chairs, counter seating looking out on 55th and in towards the back, a few individual tables and bench seating. As you would expect the front of the space is very bright from the store front windows, but unlike many other long and narrow spaces, there is actually windows that let in a bit of natural lighting in the back too. One thing I did notice is that they have electrical outlets all over the place, so if you’re planning on working on your laptop here, you’re covered.
I have a question. There seems to be an inordinate amount of coffee places in Seattle that are bike-themed. In addition to Ventoux Roasters, there’s Meiter in First Hill, Peloton in Capitol Hill, Rapha in Capitol Hill and Good Weather Bicycle also in Capitol Hill. This cannot be a coincidence. I also have a friend overseas and his two passions are coffee and cycling. What is the relationship between coffee cafes and cycling? Perhaps I’ll research and create a post on my findings. I’m curious now.
Here’s a Youtube video that best describes Ventoux Roasters:
Ratings(1-5)
Favorite Thing: Quaint neighborhood spot with a distinct bike theme. Least Favorite Thing– Owner is a SF Giants fan ;). Go Dodger Blue!
Atmosphere: 4.25
Service: 4.50
Food Options: 4.25
Overall: 4.30
Eavedropping Convo: Two older gentlemen talking right after the 2019 snow storm in Seattle
Gentleman 1(G1) – You still got snow at your place?
Gentelman 2(G2) – Yup. I also live on a slope, so it was a bitch getting in and out of my place. My idiot neighbor tried driving in the midst of it all, hit an ice patch and nearly hit my parked car. No chains, no nothing. Luckily he only hit the curb and slid down the hill until hitting a level area. What a moron!
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