The Seattle Coffee Shop Awards – Part 4
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.
Part 1 – Best Coffee Neighborhood, Most Popular, Most Underrated
Part 2 – Best Coffee Shops for Groups or You Want To Be Alone.
Part 3 – Best Seattle Coffee Drink Sets, Best Views
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 to Impress Visitors
We tried to pick cafes that are close to Seattle’s main attractions, but have really nice ambiance and atmosphere and would make any visitors Seattle coffee experience memorable. We wouldn’t mind taking our visiting parents or high school age nephews/nieces, because we think they’d feel comfortable in these cafes.
- Storyville Coffee in Pike Place Market – Secret place in Pike Place Market.
- La Marzocco Cafe – Located in the Seattle Center.
- Cherry Street Public House – In Pioneer Square near Occidental Park
- Mr West Café Bar– Wow, I want to hang out here.
- Café Allegro– Oldest cafe in Seattle and hidden in an alley
The number one spot(for now) goes to Storyville Coffee in Pike Place Market. It’s located in the number one attraction in Seattle and although the first Starbucks is also located here, we usually take our visitors to Storyville Coffee. It’s hidden from the crowds, it’s a very cozy and has an inviting atmosphere and the view of the market and Puget Sound can’t be beat.
The number two spot goes to La Marzocco Café. It’s in the major tourist attraction, the Seattle Center, so you’ll most likely end up near the café anyways. The Seattle Center includes the Space Needle, International Fountain, Chihuly Garden & Glass, Museum of Pop Culture, Pacific Science Center and the Seattle Children’s Museum. La Marzocco Café is a huge café that shares space with Seattle radio station, KEXP. It has a rotating coffee roaster that keeps things fresh, so multiple trips throughout the year will bring different experiences. This historic espresso machine maker was founded in 1884 and this is their only café in the world! Visiting here is like visiting a museum with their various espresso machine iterations.
Pioneer Square is another destination for visitor. It’s the oldest neighborhood in Seattle and the architecture of the buildings in the area showcase this. Right on the main walking thoroughfare of Occidental is the Cherry Street Public House. It’s bright and big and not only can you enjoy a coffee there, but they have alcohol and serve food there too. It’s a newer construction so the place is modern and well thought out. The owner actually won the US Barista Championship in 2014. Baller.
Mr West Café Bar is near the main shopping area in downtown and always impresses with their service, the décor, the seating arrangements(bar, window counter, patio, comfy chairs or separate tables) and atmosphere. They have a good selection of food as well as alcoholic beverages. I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s just a place you want to hang out.
Café Allegro is near UDUB(University of Washington). It’s the oldest café in Seattle and also has the “secret hidden” café thing going for it that visitors seem to love. Although there are throngs of students normally there, it’s a very big place with an adjacent seating section and an entire 2nd floor with a patio if the main café area is crowded.
Best Seattle Coffee Shops to Impress Visiting Coffee Snobs
So the previous award for Best Seattle Coffee Shop to Impress Visitors were for general visitors who want a nice café close to various Seattle attractions, enjoy the atmosphere/décor and want a good cup of coffee. The places listed below are for the visitors to Seattle who are coffee snobs and who say things like, “I keep hearing that Seattle is the Center of Coffee Universe and the coffee is all that. Well, prove it to me!” Location, café décor, service quality and atmosphere are all secondary. They want to be impressed by the coffee. This is where you should take them:
When we walk into these places, it just feels like they take their coffee game seriously. They all have that minimalist vibe to their cafes and we’d like to think it’s because they want you to really concentrate on their coffee with a minimum amount of sensory distraction. We have three roasters, one multiroaster and one coffee shop that makes coffee concoctions like a mad scientist.
Slate Coffee Roaster has three locations around Seattle-Near UW, Capitol Hill and one in Ballard. It’s home to the Deconstructed Latte, which is a good way to not only learn about the coffee, but also about the dairy they use in their drinks. They seem to really care about the experience of drinking their coffee and are enthusiastic about telling you all about it. I genuinely felt like I was in a Coffee 101 class.
Elm Coffee Roasters located in Pioneer Square does their roasting right on the premises, so you know it’s fresh. Roasting is done on Tues, Thurs and Sundays. You can get one of their combos here, the One of Everything, which gives you a chance to have a Macchiato, espresso and a brewed coffee. You’ve got their roasters mere yards away from where you’re drinking their coffee. What coffee snob, wouldn’t be impressed by that?
The Broadcast Coffee in Roosevelt is my personal favorite place to work on my laptop. And are they serious about their coffee? You can read our Broadcast Coffee blog post when the barista made my espresso three times because she wasn’t happy with the quality. Somebody left the door open, which she believes altered the pressure in the café that affected the espresso.
Milstead & Co are known nation-wide as a top notch multiroaster. They employ two La Marzocco espresso machines to keep things moving along and a rotation of featured coffee roasters to keep things fresh. You want to brag to your coffee snob visitor? You can tell them that Food & Wine rated Milstead & Co a perfect 5 out of 5 on the Coffee Snob Factor for Seattle cafes. To give you an idea, Slate only got a 3.
Ghost Note has a custom built espresso machine that with the push of a button attempts to replicate the characteristics of a pour over in only 90 seconds. That would impress the coffee snob in all of us, but they go a step further and serve their coffee in fancy glasses and have very progressive concoctions you might imagine that a coffee mad scientist created. For example, Sun Ship- Espresso, smoked grapefruit rosemary syrup, coconut water, sparkling water, lime. Cold. The menu notes…..”alterations politely declined” <<<
Elm Coffee Roasters
Best Seattle Coffee Shops to Make Visitors Feel Like Locals
The Best Seattle Coffee Shop to Impress Visitors Award was for general visitors near Seattle attractions. The second was for serious Coffee Snob Visitors. This one is for the visitor who perhaps has already been to all the Seattle attractions and just came to Seattle to visit us and just wants to relax and chill and catch up. They want to see what a normal day looks like as a regular Seattleite and where we might spend time drinking coffee in our normal life. These are the type of coffee shops that we enjoy taking visitors to the most. In a lot of ways, these places feel like an extension of our home.
- They are typically in the middle of neighborhoods off of main streets(Preserve & Gather, Analog Coffee, Lighthouse Roasters, Seven Coffee Roasters)
- You find that most people that frequent these spots are walking in from the neighborhood. No dedicated parking spaces for any of these places.
- You get the feeling there’s a real sense of community. It was not unusual to see multiple families with kids here. It was common for baristas greeting visitors by their first name and ringing them up without asking for their order, because they already knew it by heart.
- It felt comfortable to leisurely enjoy our drinks over conversation without being hurried.
- Most importantly, these places were vibrant and alive and not like a library full of zombies working on laptops in total silence.
- Analog Coffee
- Lighthouse Roasters
- Seven Coffee Roasters
- Zoka Coffee Roasters – Tangletown
l Diablo Coffee(RIP)- Preserve & Gather
Analog Coffee, Lighthouse Roasters and Seven Coffee Roaster all have that “neighborhood general store” vibe and are all right in the middle of neighborhood on side streets. Analog has that “stay a while” vibe with it’s newspaper and magazines available for your reading pleasure clipped against the walls, ample seats both outside and inside and the barista part-timing as a DJ on their turntable. We also can’t forget about their stack of comic books. You could be there all day.
In our original Lighthouse Roasters review, we mentioned how our time there felt like a scene out of the movie, Doc Hollywood(small town feel). You could tell it was part of people’s daily routine to come here for their coffee-the baristas greeted the customers by name, customers recognized other customers and proceeded to small talk, and so many people were there reading newspapers just passing the time.
Seven Coffee Roaster has that “general store” vibe because it really is a general store, but they also happen to be a coffee roaster. This really is one of the hidden gems in Seattle. There place is really small, but they do have an outdoor bench in front of the store and an attached patio. Because it’s a general store, we can enjoy our coffee, while we can get snacks or ice cream for our kids. Everybody’s happy!
Zoka Coffee Roasters in Tangletown has been around for as long as I can remember and they definitely have a loyal following. Although the space is huge by Seattle coffee shop standards, it’s always crowded. It’s pretty much the only coffee shop in this neighborhood which might explain it. This is one place that can get overrun with students and laptops, but the crowd and seating arrangements make it a prime spot for neighbors to just hang out.
El Diablo is another neighborhood gem up on Queen Anne Hill. There is a plethora of coffee shop on the hill, but this one stands out for it’s unique quality of being in a house. The space is one of the biggest in Seattle and for us parents, the dedicated room for kids is a god send. It also has two patios one in the front and one on the second floor balcony. Yes, there is a whole second floor! It’s a perfect place for big gatherings(It won our Award for Top Coffee Shop for Groups). Perhaps it’s the quality of being in a house, that makes you feel your getting a local’s experience.
The last place is Preserve and Gather. We liked everything about this place-the fact that they made all their pastries in house, the numerous and varied types of seating, the general décor, how much pride the workers seemed to have in keeping the space clean and of course, the community feel. I believe it garnered one of our highest rating scores with a 4.9 out of 5.0. I have no idea the origin of the name, but we’d like to think they are “preserving” the act of getting together and catching up over coffee and are offering their space to “gather”. Clever, huh?
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 2 – Best Coffee Shops for Groups or You Want To Be Alone.
Part 3 – Best Seattle Coffee Drink Sets, Best Views
Part 5 – Best Seattle Coffee Shops for Food Options, Friendliest Service
Part 6 – Seattle Coffee With Most Character, Best Seattle Coffee Shops Overall.
The Fat Hen – Not Little Red Hen!
Recommended by: The cashier at Wandering Goose(RIP 2020)recommended Fat Hen as a suggestion. We’d heard of Fat Hen , but we’d never been there.
Description on the The Fat Hen’s website: The Fat Hen is a neighborhood café serving breakfast & lunch along with handcrafted coffee drinks, house-made pastries, tea, fresh squeezed juices, local & import beer and wine, mimosas, and more. The Fat Hen seats up to 25 guests, and reservations are not accepted. Please note that the menus below are sample menus only; please inquire about our seasonal specials and current menu highlights!
Neighborhood/Type: Phinney Ridge
Address: 1418 NW 70th St, Seattle, WA 98117
What we ate/drank: Alla Boscaiola 12.50 two eggs in house-made tomato sauce with sausage, mushroom & mozzarella. Chicken Sandwich 16.5. Buttermilk fried chicken breast, calabrian chili aioli, cabbage slaw, house-made spicy pickle. Served with small side salad. Cortado
Comments: Before we get into our review of The Fat Hen, we have a funny story to tell. About 5 years ago, friends of ours recommended The Fat Hen to my wife as a place we should visit due to their great brunches.
When my wife relayed the message to me, all I heard was “hen” and I assumed they were talking about Little Red Hen, which I’d never been to, but knew about as the de facto country line dancing establishment in Seattle. My wife was new to Seattle at the time, so she assumed I knew what I was talking about when I said, “Little Red Hen? Really?
I never knew they served breakfasts. And never heard anybody say they were great.” So of course we had to check out Little Red Hen for brunch. Those of you who don’t know Little Red Hen, it’s a lovable divey bar with the service to match. Here’s a picture of Little Red Hen:
So we go there on a Saturday morning at about 9:00. The place opens at 8:00. There is not a soul in the place. I said to my wife, “If this is such a great brunch place, why is nobody here”?
There was one lady there who was our host, server and bartender. She gave us menus and we ordered. If I remember correctly, it was your normal breakfast stuff-eggs, bacon, hash browns, white toast, etc.
We order and she says, “You guys will have to wait a bit. Our cook just called and he’s hung over and I just woke him up. He lives real close though, so he’ll be here shortly”.
We’re already there drinking Bloody Marys, so we just wait. He did come shortly and our breakfast was fine, nothing special. We ask the server for our check and she busts out a pen, grabs a cardboard coaster from a table and writes the price of our meal on the back of the coaster and hands it to us! That was our bill. We looked at each other and laughed.
A few weeks later we saw our friends and told them about our experience at Little Red Hen and asked them why they liked it so much? They looked at us like we were insane, “The Fat Hen, not Little Red Hen!”
On to The Fat Hen: Like Mike’s Noodle House, Il Corvo(RIP 2020), Wandering Goose(RIP 2020), The Fat Hen is small on space and big on popularity, so you’ll most likely be waiting for a table. But of these small places, Fat Hen is by far the tiniest. If you come with more than 2 people, good luck to you. If you come with more than 4, I’ll give you credit for being gutsy.
The space seats only 25 people and even with just 25 seats, the space is so small it feels cramped. There were actually a few daring folks who came in with kids in bassinets and even that was a challenge to find any space to lay the bassinet down. The place is well lit and bright, though. If you are waiting for a table, they will take a drink order from you while you wait. I ordered a Cortado.
They have some small side dishes and salads, but there main dishes ate their Chicken Sandwich, Benedicts and Egg Bakes.
The latter two dishes have variations where you can change the ingredients. For example for the Benedicts you can have Dungeness crab, salmon, prosciutto, pancetta or Florentine. They don’t have a huge menu, but I think it allows them to really perfect the dishes they do have.
I ordered the Chicken Sandwich and my wife ordered what appears to be their most popular dish, Alla Boscaiola, which comes in a skillet and includes two eggs, sausage, mushroom and mozzarella in a their house-made tomato sauce.
As you can see from the picture of the chicken sandwich below, the chicken breast was bursting out of the bun. The chicken was tender and lightly seasoned and matched well with the tartness of the aioli and pickle and came with a side salad . I enjoyed the sandwich and would recommend it albeit at quite a hefty price tag of $16.50.
The Alla Boscaiola is definitely an instagrammable looking dish and not one I’ve seen anywhere else in Seattle. It’s simple ingredients make it one of those dishes that seems so simple to make at home, but difficult to replicate due to the superior ingredients used here and the expertise needed to cook it. The bread that comes with it is the perfect tool to dip and sop up all that sauce.
Summary: The space is really beautiful, but hard to enjoy when the seating is so close together and the rest of the available space is being taken by those waiting for a table. The food is also beautifully presented and tasty, but the prices a bit steep. The service was great. With such limited space, they do a good job of managing the number of parties waiting.
Of course they want to turn tables as quickly as possible, but we never felt hurried. We did feel guilty though about those waiting so we tried to balance enjoying our brunch, but being conscientious of those waiting. The Fat Hen would be a perfect place to visit on a weekday morning while catching up with an out of town guest one on one.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.50
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.50
Bang for the Buck: 4.00
Overall: 4.50
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
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- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
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- Most locals know about it
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- Locals “in the know” know about it
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- Only those who live close by know about it.
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- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: The person making coffee drinks and acting as cashier suggested as another popular brunch place nearby in Ballard- Porkchop & Co.
Related Articles:
The Seattle Coffee Shop Awards – Part 3
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 2 – Best Coffee Shops for Groups or You Want To Be Alone.
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 Drink Sets – Slate Coffee Roasters’ Deconstructed Espresso + Milk
These are the Seattle Coffee Shop versions of the McDonalds Happy Meals. Why just get one drink when you can enjoy a variety of preparations or combinations?
- Slate Coffee Roasters ($7)
- Kaladi Brothers Coffee ($6)
- Elm Coffee Roasters ($5)
- Cherry Street Coffee House ($3.35)
- Third Culture Coffee ($8)
Slate Coffee Roasters’s Deconstructed Espresso + Milk was featured in our Seattle Coffee Places For Each Stage of Dating post. We thought it was a great way to share a tasting. What makes this number one in our book is the extensive explanation of all the ingredients by the barista. You can also taste the quality of the ingredients. It was very evident, especially the milk. I think it was fun to taste the ingredients separately and together.
Kaladi Brothers Coffee has the most unusual drink set with their Brew and Brew, which is a very strange combination of a macchiato and a Rainier Beer. I’m not sure if you get drunk and use the caffeine to sober up or get hyped off caffeine and use the alcohol to come back down.
Elm Coffee Roasters has a few combinations, but the One of Everything has the most variety of coffee drinks. You get a macchiato, espresso shot and a brewed coffee for only $5.
Cherry Street Coffee House has a smaller version called the One & One, which is a solo macchiato and a solo espresso. Short and sweet, but you still get a variety to test the palette.
You’ve got to go all the way to Bellevue’s Third Culture Coffee to enjoy their Atalia combo set, which is an espresso, americano and a macchiato.
Best Seattle Coffee Shop View – Milstead & Co.
- Milstead & Co. – Fremont
- Storyville Coffee in Pike Place Market
- Cherry Street Public House – Pioneer Square
- Caffe Umbria– Pioneer Square
- Victrola Coffee Roasters – 3rd &
Pine(Crime)
Milstead & Co is located on Troll Ave & N. 34th Ave a few blocks down from the famous Troll under the 99 Bridge. Because it’s on a corner with windows facing east and south, you get an unobstructed view of the 99 Bridge and Lake Union. They also have a pretty big patio, so you can enjoy your coffee outside and really get a the full effect of the view.
If you sit right next to the huge half circle windows at Storyville Coffee in Pike Place Market you can look down on the market and also see the Puget Sound. It’s a great place to take out of town visitors and the view is one of the main reasons.
Cherry Street Public House is located right in Occidental Park in Pioneer Square. As little as 7 years ago, this was a pretty shady park, but with new businesses hear and an upgrade to the park, it’s now a nice place to sit and enjoy the view.
Caffe Umbria is right down the block in Pioneer Square and located on the pedestrian only stretch on Occidental Ave. It’s a nice place to people watch during First Thursday in Pioneer Square or people going to the Mariners/Sounders/Seahawks game. This last one doesn’t have a nice view like the other four, but the view might provide a good bit of entertainment.
Victrola Coffee Roasters on 3rd and Pine, which we deemed, The Most Heavily Guarded Coffee Shop in Seattle. As mentioned in the post, this corner is notorious for it’s constant crime and hang out for shady characters. Sit back in the café and watch the drug deals go down.
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 2 – Best Coffee Shops for Groups or You Want To Be Alone.
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.
**********12/20-Unfortunately, This Restaurant Has Closed Down**********
The Wandering Goose – Best Breakfast in Seattle?
Recommended by: Our server, Marissa at the The 5 Spot recommended The Wandering Goose to try out. She advised they had breakfast everyday and had some of the best fried chicken in the city.
Description on the The Wandering Goose’s website: The Wandering Goose is a thirty seat Southern influenced cafe in the heart of Seattle’s North Capitol Hill neighborhood. The Wandering Goose is warm and inviting with bright natural light streaming in through the east facing windows. The demising wall between the neighboring restaurant is made from vintage leaded glass windows allowing for even more light and a sense of openness in this tiny but magical café. Offering Southern inspired breakfast and lunch fare including biscuits, cookies, layer cakes, biscuit sandwiches, hushpuppies, crock pot grits, country ham, sawmill gravy, country sausage gravy, greens, pimento cheese, chow-chow and fresh salads. All ingredients are seasonal and affordable fare. We will offer baking classes, cooking classes and retail sundries.
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Neighborhood/Type: Capitol Hill
Address: 403 15th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98112
What we ate/drank: Hangtown Fry-fried oysters, cured pork belly, poached eggs. Fried Chicken Plate w/collard greens, coleslaw, butter milk biscuit. The Sawmill Biscuit Sandwich-fried chicken, sawmill gravy, cheese, poached eggs. Machiatto using Caffe Vita coffee.
Comments: Update 9/22/19: Wandering Goose just made Seattle Met’s 100 Best Restaurant
Marissa at The 5 Spot did not let us down with her suggestion! We’ve now been here multiple times and The Wandering Goose is now in our rotation of breakfast places.
Wandering Goose has two similar characteristics of two other recently reviewed restaurants:
- Like Il Corvo, you line up, put your order in toward the back of the restaurant, pay and then take a seat. They’ll bring out the meals to you. Also similar to Il Corvo lines through the restaurant form regularly due to it’s small size and popularity.
- Like Citizen Cafe and The 5 Spot, it’s one of those rare Seattle restaurants that’s opens for breakfast at 7:00am not only on weekends, but on weekdays.
If there is anything you take from this post it’s if you have a group of four or more, you’d better get there as soon as it opens or you’ll be waiting awhile. The Wandering Goose only has 30 seats. We’ve only come on weekdays in between 7-8 am to ensure we get a table. We won’t even think about going on the weekends unless we do takeout. There’s basically two rows of long benches on either side of the restaurant with tables and adjoining chairs.
The Wandering Goose specializes in Southern comfort food and has the decor to match. It feels like a diner in a small farm town – branded wooden tables, weathered window panes, ceiling fans with long downrods, lamps made of burlap sacks, old cases behind the cashier. It has that laid back country feel, which is a nice departure from the modern hip restaurants that permeate the Seattle landscape.
Here are some of the yummy dishes we’ve had. There aren’t many places that serve a Hangtown Fry(typically eggs, bacon and oysters) in Seattle, so whenever I see it, I normally order it. Usually the ingredients are all scrambled together or as an omelette. I like Wandering Goose’s variation on the dish. You have a poached egg, so you have the runny yoke. You have the pork belly instead of bacon. Take a look at the picture down below to see how thick the piece of pork belly was. Whoa. Lastly you have fried oysters on top of a bed of potatoes in a skillet. Lots of savory flavors in this dish. I added a bit of their house made “sweet heat” sauce too. As with all their dishes, the portion size will leave you full.
Note: There are two entertaining origin stories of how the Hangtown Fry came into existence. The first was a gold prospector hitting it rich and going to a hotel in California and ordering the most expensive things on the menu which in those days were eggs, bacon and oysters. The other story is that a condemned man was due to be executed and for his last meal he specifically ordered oysters, because he knew it would take more than a day to get them, so he gained an extra day of life.
Fried Chicken Plate w/collard greens, coleslaw, butter milk biscuit. Their fried chicken definitely deserves mentioned when talking about the best fried chicken in the city. Perhaps Wandering Goose will enter the fray in the war over who has the best fried chicken in Seattle between Ezell’s and Heaven Sent. Crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The seasoning on the crispy skin was flavorful, but not overly seasoned like many other places. Our two year old devoured the drum stick like the Tasmanian Devil from WB. The Fried Chicken Plate also came with collard greens which were sweet and spicy and cole slaw which was crisp and fresh. It also came with one of their biscuits.
The Sawmill Biscuit Sandwich-fried chicken, sawmill gravy, cheese, poached eggs. Like the Fried Chicken Plate, The Sawmill may give another Seattle Food War a new combatant. Wandering Goose may give Morsel and Bean & Biscuit a run for their money for Best Seattle Biscuit Sandwich. Take a gander at the pictures of The Sawmill below! Your mouth is salivating, ain’t it? I opted for the addition of a poached egg for extra. How could I not have some runny yoke with this bad boy?
This is not really a traditional sandwich you can eat with your hands. You’ll need a knife and fork. The biscuits are huge and fluffy. I always expect biscuits this big to be dense. Everything about this dish is substantial from the size of the biscuit and chicken to the amount of thick gravy. The sandwich was delicious and despite it being so substantial, I finished it. Needless to say, there was no need for lunch that day. I think the next time I order this, I’ll try it without cheese. The cheese melted into the gravy, making it cheezy. It was still delicious, but I’d like to taste the gravy on it’s own.
The Sawmill – **Before**cutting into it $13.00- fried chicken, sawmill gravy, cheese add poached eggs $1.25. Score: (5.0/5.0)
Summary: Are we ready to crown The Wandering Goose as our favorite breakfast spot yet? Not quite yet, but it’s a front runner. I think if we were to put it in a category, it would be our favorite breakfast spot when playing hooky from work. Due to it’s small seating capacity and popularity, I think we’d only come here during early morning weekdays.
If you want to learn more about the history of The Wandering Goose you can read about it here.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 5.00
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 5.00
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.85
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: The cashier recommended Fat Hen as a suggestion. We’d heard of Fat Hen and have a funny story about it, but we’d never been there. Stay tuned for our visit and review of Fat Hen and the funny story connected to it.
Related Articles:
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.
l Diablo Coffee(RIP) -Queen Anne- Espresso Vivace-Alley 24 -South Lake Union
- La Marzocco Café -Seattle Center
- Kaladi Brothers Coffee -Capitol Hill
- 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:
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.
The 5 Spot – Seattle’s Best Diner?
Recommended by: When we asked our server(Brian) at Citizen Cafe for other breakfast spots in Seattle, he recommended The 5 Spot right up the hill in Queen Anne as a suggestion.
he 5 Spot’s website: Home of the “American Food Festival Series“, 5 Spot’s menu offers big flavored food and kitsch from all points of the continental U.S. Our menus are inspired by our nation’s cultural roots and history that’s found on kitchen tables across America. Our roaming menu might find us parlez vous-in’ down Bourbon Street, two steppin’ into Texas, or soakin’ up those lazy, languid days along Florida’s Gulf Rim. Not feelin’ like goin’ too far outta town? 5 Spot highlights its regular Melting Pot Meals from 5 defined regions (or spots) year-round for those who like to stick with a sure thing.
Neighborhood/Type: Queen Anne
Address: 1502 Queen Anne Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109
What we ate/drank: Bag O’ Beignets, Kids Waffle and Fruit, The Big Nashty Sandwich, Enchilada De Desayuno, Coffee
Comments: First thing we want to point out is The 5 Spot is not to be confused with The 5 Point, which we mentioned as our “Drive Off the Date Bar” in our Seattle Bars For Each Stage of Dating post
Now that we have that service announcement out of the way let’s get to The 5 Spot. Brian at Citizen Cafe recommended The 5 Spot. It has been over 10 years since I’d been there and my wife had never been. The 5 Spot is out of the way for us being up on Queen Anne Hill, but after going here my wife may insist on putting it in our restaurant rotation.
As mentioned I’d not been here for over 10 years, but it’s been a Seattle institution since I can remember. More than 20 years? The 5 Spot’s claim to fame is their roaming menu of American cuisine, so you can always get new dishes no matter how many times you’ve been there. Also, if there is a particular dish you’ve enjoyed, you better go back quickly if you want it again because it might be gone once they change the menu. They do have their standard dishes that always remain on the menu though.
The 5 Spot is one of the bigger diners you’ll find in Seattle. It doesn’t matter, you’ll most likely be waiting for a seat due to it’s popularity. In totality, it probably seats over 100 people.
Another thing you’ll notice is that it’s very kid-friendly. They provided our two year old with crayons and a kids place mat. They provided a car seat stand to put our 4 month old in. And they have a kids menu, which is greatly appreciated for us parents on a budget. More than half the parties at the 5 Spot on a Monday morning had kids, so it shows you how kid-friendly they are.
One of the nice things about many of the brunch/breakfast places we’ve visited lately is that they are open on the weekdays. The 5 Spot is no exception opening every day at 8:00am. They are also open til 11pm on the weekdays and til midnight on the weekends.
The atmosphere is nostalgic diner. It has the old-style coat hangers at each booth and also has individual lighting at each booth. It’s bright, airy and busy.
On this particular visit they have a Nashville theme going on. So a huge Elvis cut out met us at the door and guitars hung from the ceiling.
At home, the best our 2 year old gets are microwaved French toast, so getting real ones was a treat for her. The Enchilada De Desayuno is from their normal menu and was prepared in an iron skillet. It came with black beans, pepper jack and Oaxaca cheese and two over easy eggs with massive potatoes on the side. I also went with an addition of smoked pork. The portion is huge, but you definitely pay for it at $16.50($13.50 for the dish + $3.00 for the addition of the smoked pork). It was a delicious dish overall and I think the potatoes paired well with the enchilada sauce, pork and cheese.
We agreed the definite favorite was the Big Nashty off the Nashville menu. It’s a “Big ass shpicy breakfast sandwich” with chicken thigh, bacon jam, vinegared greens, pair of over easy eggs, and pickles on Ciabatta. Take a look at the picture below. As you can see the chicken is massive and impossible to fit in your mouth. The sourness of the vinegared greens and pickles mixed with the bacon jam and chicken was so flavorful.
Although the portions were big, there were no left overs. The sign of a delicious meal. Bag of Beignets accompanied with a chocolate dipping were a good way to top off the meal, especially with a coffee.
Below are our the ratings of some of our dishes from our visit.
Egg dipped and griddled golden brown slices of country white bread with Vermont maple syrup, powdered sugar and fresh fruit. Score: (5.0/5.0) <<<based on our daughter’s empty plate
Enchilada De Desayuno $16.50. Score: (4.75/5.0)
The Big Nashty $13.50
Score: (5.0 / 5.0)
Summary:
The food is a bit on the expensive size but the service was top notch and over accommodating to our family and the atmosphere and everchanging menu is a very rare treat in Seattle. So the higher prices are justified in our opinion. This is a great places to bring visitors out of town and any large group. The size of the diner and the number of choices on the menu means you can accommodate all.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 5.00
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.25
Overall: 4.75
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
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- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
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- Most locals know about it
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- Locals “in the know” know about it
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- Only those who live close by know about it.
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- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: Our server Marissa suggested Wandering Goose(RIP 2020) in Capitol Hill to try out. She advised they had breakfast everyday and had some of the best fried chicken in the city.
Related Articles:
The Seattle Coffee Shop Awards-Part 1
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.
Part 2 – Best Coffee Shops for Groups or You Want To Be Alone.
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 Shop Neighborhood – Pioneer Square
There are only really two choices. Capitol Hill and Pioneer Square. South Lake Union has ton of satellite branches of local Seattle cafes, but they’re mainly in the lobby of Amazon buildings and don’t have the atmosphere that most cafes have. I also don’t consider Downtown Seattle a neighborhood. We’re giving the nod to Pioneer Square. You’ve got Convoy Coffee, Slate Coffee Roasters, Elm Coffee Roasters, Zeitgeist Coffee. In our opinion you have the best Caffé Vita, Caffe Umbria and Cherry Street Public House locations in Pioneer Square. You also have a wide variation of styles. You’ve got the old cafes with tons of character in Caffé Vita and Zeitgeist Coffee. You’ve got the more modern cafes with great views in Caffe Umbria and Cherry Street Public House. You’ve got the bright little start up spot of Convoy Coffee. You’ve got the hardcore roasters of Slate Coffee Roasters and Elm Coffee Roasters.
Most Mentioned/Most Popular Seattle Coffee Shops – Espresso Vivace and “The Caffes”
When talking favorite coffee shops with local friends, there four names continuously pop up. These are the granddaddies of the Seattle Coffee Shop scene.
This actually makes sense because they all have an empire of multiple locations and all have been around for a longggggg time. And of course they have great coffee and roast their own beans. In no particular order……
- Espresso Vivace– 3 Seattle locations. Established 1988.
- Caffé Vita– 6 Seattle locations. Established 1995.
- Caffe Ladro– 15 locations in the greater Seattle area(incl Bellvue, Kirkland, Edmonds, etc). Established 1994.
- Caffe Umbria– 3 Seattle locations. Established 2002 , but family behind Umbria has been involved in Seattle cafes since 1986.
Caffe Umbria
Most Underrated Seattle Coffee Shops – Tempsta Coffee, Convoy Coffee, Ghost Note Coffee
These are the exact opposite of the popular coffee shops. We never hear anybody mention these coffee shops.
Tempesta Coffee(RIP)- Convoy Coffee
- Ghost Note Coffee
- Realfine Coffee
- Seven Coffee Roasters
- Anchorhead Coffee Co
- Analog Coffee
We believe these places are never mentioned, because they have never been visited by most people. There are a lot of reasons why. Here are our theories. In the case of Tempesta Coffee (RIP), they’re in a super small unassuming space in the middle of Belltown. It’s so small there’s not even a single seat, but damn, do they have good Americanos. Convoy Coffee is also a small place and might be drowned out in a sea of great more established coffee places in Pioneer Square(see above). Most people know them as the bicycle coffee bar at the University and Ballard Farmers Markets. Ghost Note Coffee is off the main streets of Pine and Pike in Capitol Hill and is relatively new. And although Realfine Coffee is not new to West Seattle, it’s very new to Capitol Hill and perhaps just gaining it’s footing. Seven Coffee Roasters is roaster in the middle of the Ravenna neighborhood and is disguised as a general store. Most people pass it and don’t even know it’s a roaster. Anchorhead Coffee Co is probably the most Instagrammable of the bunch, but it’s also relatively new being open for only two years. Lastly, I think Analog Coffee has actually gotten a lot of accolades and publicity, but nobody ever seems to mention it. Perhaps because it’s also in the middle of a neighborhood and not on a main avenue. We’re totally fine with these places being underrated and undiscovered, so we have them all to ourselves.
Next: Stay tuned for our next installment of The Seattle Coffee Shop Awards.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Seattle Coffee Shops
Part 2 – Best Coffee Shops for Groups or You Want To Be Alone.
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.