The Seattle Coffee Shop Awards – Part 5

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 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 6 – Seattle Coffee With Most Character, Best Seattle Coffee Shops Overall.

Best Seattle Coffee Shop For Food Options

This speaks for itself. These are the best coffee shops with regard to food options. Menu links are attached for each place. All places have a good variety of not only your normal cafe pastries, but also savory hearty dishes which provides more options to people especially if the people in your group want different choices.

1. Cherry Street Public House  (menu)
2. Zeitgeist Coffee  (menu)
3. Cloud City Coffee   (menu)
4. Cafe Hitchcock  (menu)
5. Fonte Coffee Roasters Cafe  (menu)
6. Mr West Café Bar  (menu)
7. Anchorhead Coffee Co (menu)

Best Seattle Coffee Shop With Friendliest Service

I find the stereotype of the surly, snobby Seattle barista to be just that, a stereotype.  For the most part all employees at the coffee places we’ve been to have been cordial, efficient and plain decent human beings.  On the particular days we visited these establishments, the service happened to be extra special.  This might be the first, last or only time we ever visit these places, but on the day we went, it left a lasting impression on us.  So much so that they made it on to our Best Seattle Coffee Shop With Friendliest Service list.

1. Cafe Vita – Pioneer Square
2. Realfine Coffee
3. Slate Coffee Roasters
4. Pegasus Coffee
5. Storyville – 1st Ave

I find it amusing that out of 60+ Seattle Coffee Shop reviews from our website that the most viewed coffee shop review of all time Caffé Vita’s in Pioneer Square.  It’s popular because I made a fool of myself there. Here’s the backstory. I like to find out about the origin of the logos and/or names of the establishments.  I went into this particular Caffe Vita one morning and forgot where I was and asked the barista about Caffe Ladro’s logo like an idiot.  The cashier at Caffe Vita(bless her little heart) didn’t correct me or look at me like a moron and tried her darndest to come up with an answer about Caffe Ladro’s logo. It wasn’t until I had ordered and gotten my coffee that a realized my faux pas.  I actually did finally get my answer from Caffe Ladro about their logo.  She was so nice in trying to answer my question. There was a co-worker standing right next to her who just listened. She must have also thought I was crazy.

I deemed the owner/cashier/barista at Realfine Coffee, The Master of Small Talk.  She really engaged each customer with small talk and she was one of the best I’ve ever  heard.  It didn’t matter if you were a regular or a new customer or if you were in a good mood or bad mood, she really knew how to interact with people.

When I ordered the Deconstructed Espresso at Slate Coffee Roasters the cashier/barista asked if I had ever had it before. I thought it was strange at first, but I understood why, when he brought the three cordial glasses of espresso, milk , macchiato to my table. He went into great detail explaining each ingredient-where it came from, what type of notes I would taste, suggestions on how to drink each ingredient and in what order. I could tell he really took pride in the ingredients, it’s presentation and felt like he really wanted me to have a great experience trying it. And because of him, I did.

Pegasus Coffee in the Seattle Tower on 3rd could well be one of the smallest coffee shops in Seattle. For this reason, if you stay there to drink your coffee, you will undoubtedly strike up a conversation with the cashier and barista. It would be too awkward to be is such small quarters in close proximity to each other and not make small talk.  Both gals I spoke to that day were really friendly and I could tell they were really into coffee. When I asked what cafes they hang out at when not working at Pegasus, their eyes lit up and they seemed so excited to tell me where they like to go. They had some good ones too-Zeitgeist, Caffe Vita, Victrola Coffee Roasters, La Marzocco.

On the particular day going to Storyville on 1st Ave, the cashier had a standard question of asking where each person ordering was from to see if they were from out of town.  This would then lead to more banter. You can read about a conversation she had with a Philadelphia coffee novice in my review. They also bring you a cup of water as soon as you sit down and bus your dishes and cups for you. This is unheard of in Seattle.

Realfine Coffee

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 4 – Best Seattle Coffee Shops to Impress Visitors, Impress Visiting Coffee Snobs, Make Visitors Feel Like Locals.
Part 6 – Seattle Coffee With Most Character, Best Seattle Coffee Shops Overall.