**********4/23/20- Oh No! Unfortunately, This Cafe Has Closed Down**********
Description on Caffe Vita’s website: We are pioneers of the Farm Direct movement, meticulously sourcing the best coffee available while developing long-term, mutually fruitful relationships with coffee growers in more than 11 countries. We work with and invest in farmers who are committed to sustainable practices. By creating an environment where the customer can see, touch, and taste the coffee they purchase, we provide a unique learning opportunity that allows our coffee to speak for itself. Caffe Vita is always fresh, imported directly from the farm and roasted on-site.
Neighborhood: Phinney Ridge / Greenwood
Address: 7402 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103
Music Playing: Yernin by Sevyn Streeter
What we ate/drank: Macchiato and Apple Fritter from Mighty O Doughnuts
Comments:
We’ve already reviewed our favorite Caffe Vita location in Pioneer Square where I made a fool of myself. We’ve also reviewed their Fremont location. We’ve also noted some of the most popular restaurants (Wandering Goose(RIP 2020), Portage Bay Cafe) in Seattle who serve Caffe Vita coffee. This is a review of their Caffe Vita – Phinney Ridge location. They also have Seattle locations in Queen Anne, Capitol Hill and Seward Park as well as locations in New York(Brooklynn and Lower East Side), Portland and Los Angeles.
If you are interested in the history of Caffe Vita and it’s owner, I encourage you to read this fascinating article from the Seattle Met Magazine. I had no idea the owner was also a restaurateur and behind Via Tribulani. It also references the relationship between he and the owner of Herkimer Coffee(a co owner of Caffe Vita at one time) and the owner of Espresso Vivace (a mentor).
The Caffe Vita – Phinney Ridge location leans more towards the smaller Fremont location than the huge double level location in Pioneer Square. It’s configuration is like many Seattle business with a long narrow set up that’s very bright in the front, but very dark in the back. It’s really dark from the mid-point of the space to the back, so much so that’s difficult to read any books or periodicals. If you bring a laptop you’re fine. They also have a patio in the back that might actually have more seating than the inside.
There’s also a small front outdoor seating area and a garage style door opening which does make the small indoor space feel a bit roomier. Like the other Caffe Vita locations, they serve a few pastries including Mighty O Doughnuts and their coffee is consistently good as always.
I had my coffee here, but in observing the clientele that came in while I was there, it’s more of a grab and go location, than a sit down and relax one.
Ratings(1-5)
Atmosphere: 4.25
Service: 4.75
Food Options: 3
Overall: 4.25
Eavedropping Convo: Guy and a gal sitting near me. The Beatles, “Blackbird” starts playing.
Gal: Ohhhhh, I looooove this song.
Guy: You know John Lennon wrote this song and people say he’s the best songwriter of all time, but I think he’s overrated. I just don’t believe it. Then he starts singing along – “…..Blackbird fly, blackbird fly. Into the light of a dark black night….”
Gal: If he’s so overrated, why are you singing along to the song? She starts laughing.
Guy: Just because I’m singing it, doesn’t mean I like it and it doesn’t mean I think John Lennon’s the best songwriter. I’m just singing because it’s catchy. I’ll probably have it stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Dammit.
For the record, I did some research. Paul McCartney actually wrote the song even though Lennon-McCartney are given credit. So Lennon didn’t write it or co-write it. Also McCartney is the only one that appears on the song. There are no other Beatles on the song. Also when it comes to the best songwriters of all time, according to Rolling Stone Magazine, the writing duo of Lennon-McCartney is ranked #2, John Lennon as solo artist is ranked #3 and Paul McCartney as a solo artist is ranked #5. Pretty damn good.
Related:
Seattle Biscuit Co.
Recommended by: One of our previous posts, The Battle of Seattle’s Best Biscuit Sandwich, pitted Morsel against Biscuit & Bean in what we believed were the two premiere biscuit sandwich purveyors in Seattle. They also had some history and almost identical menus, so it was easy to compare. A loyal reader(and friend) advised that thee best biscuit sandwiches was located in between Morsel and Biscuit Bean in Frelard(Fremont/Ballard) called, The Seattle Biscuit Co. Of course, we had to try it out.
Description on the Seattle Biscuit Co’s website: We make biscuits with our hands. We use a combination of local ingredients and our Southern roots to bring you a truly unique biscuit experience.
Neighborhood/Type: Frelard (Fremont/Ballard)
Address:4001 Leary Way NW, Seattle, WA 98107
What we ate/drank: Son of Slam – Fried Chicken, Thyme Waffle, Bourbon/Cane/Maple Syrup – $14, The Gus – Biscuit, Fried Chicken, Gravy, Egg, Pickle, Sweet Onions, Mustard – $14. 4 biscuits to go and enjoy at home. Butch Wilson – Braised Carlton Farms pulled pork, bbq daikon slaw, biscuit sandwich – $12. The End – Cheese grits, collards, pulled pork, pickled red onion, comeback sauce, fried bologna, over-easy egg, biscuits – $14
Comments:
The Seattle Biscuit Co. started out as a food truck in 2012 by owners who originated from Georgia and Mississippi. The brick and mortar location was opened in the Spring of 2018 and the food truck operation has ceased. Although their biscuit making expertise originated from the South, their ingredients are all locally sourced from Washington and Oregon.
You can give us a “pass” on never visiting Seattle Biscuit Co because it’s in the “no man’s land” industrial part of Frelard. And I’m sure we’ve passed it numerous times, but the outside is so non-distinct that we just never noticed it. We even went to a café down the exact same street after eating here and when we told them we had just come from Seattle Biscuit Co, they had no idea what we were talking about. The folks at the café had heard of Biscuit and Bean though. Anyways, we came on a Saturday morning right when Seattle Biscuit Co. opened and there were already a few people waiting outside at 8:00am. If we’re being truthful, the outside of the building is not much to look at. The inside is a whole ‘nother story.
It reminds me an old club house that you built in the woods when you were kids. You’d bring left over pieces of wood and old parts of furniture to create a club house shack. You’ve got the reclaimed wood slats on the wall, old church pews that make up bench seating, old bowling lanes that are made into table tops. As you can guess, the feel is casual. They had Johnny Cash playing which just added to that rustic/country feel.
We got here right as they opened so we were able to snag one of the few tables that could seat our family of four. There is plenty of seating, but most of it is counter seating so it’s not good for big groups. It’s best if you come solo or with two friends at the most. I do love how you can sit at the counter and see them prepping the food and baking the biscuits. This definitely helped pass the time for our 2 year old.
If you are hoping for a quick in and out experience, you won’t get that at The Seattle Biscuit Co. For whatever reason, legitimate of not, the wait time for our dishes were longer than normal. If you’re in a hurry, you might want to think about coming here, but we weren’t on this occasion and we’re not going to complain, because….
… ours meals were bomb! No doubt the dishes are on the expensive side, but the portions are massive. The Gus brings back memories of The Sawmill at Wandering Goose(RIP 2020). It had two perfectly fried pieces of chicken, between two fluffy biscuits with overflowing thick gravy and an over easy egg. The mustard was an unexpected twist to the sandwich. Unlike Morsel/Biscuit & Bean sandwiches, which you can eat with your hands, this was definitely a knife and fork endeavor.
The Son of Slam which is chicken and waffles was also really good. I like the fact that the waffles were a bit on the savory side with thyme. The portions on this were also notable especially when comparing it to a version of Watson’s Counter’s take on chicken waffles, which we really liked. The Watson’s Counter dish is more expensive with less chicken.
The Butch Wilson Biscuit Sandwich has braised Carlton Farms pulled pork, bbq daikon slaw, biscuit sandwich. These biscuits are pretty thick, but you can see from the picture below, the amount of pulled pork they slap on the sandwich dwarfs the size of the biscuit, so you’re assured of the biscuit not overpowering the pork and daikon slaw. The pulled pork has a slight kick that goes well with the tartness of the slaw.
The End – Cheese grits, collards, pulled pork, comeback sauce, fried bologna, over-easy egg, biscuit. The Ed N‘ Diane, named after the owner’s parents. I don’t usually order grits, but this was a winner and is definitely a contender for Seattle Best Dishes of 2019. The pulled pork, fried bologna and collards were perfect complements to the grits. The grits were not overly cheesy and the slight kick of the pork, the saltiness of the bologna and tart of the collards were a great spoonful of flavor. Our daughter devoured the thick fried bologna chunks and mini biscuit. We’re used to the sliced thin baloney, so when she saw the thick chunks, she seemed a bit surprised. Add the over easy egg with runny yolk and you’ve got a near perfect dish.
My advice. Eat here in the morning because it will take you all day to burn off those calories, but it will be so worth it. On this particular day, I skipped lunch and had one of my best 5k times in months after devouring The Gus.
It might be a bit unfair to bestow Seattle Biscuit Co with the title of new “Seattle Biscuit Sandwich King” when comparing their elaborately made sandwiches to the relatively simple biscuit sandwiches at Morsel and Biscuit and Bean. Perhaps Seattle Biscuit Co would be more fairly compared to the likes of Biscuit Bitch, Serious Biscuit or Wandering Goose.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.75
Service: 4.75
Food/Drinks: 4.85
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.75
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!
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Caffe Umbria – Ballard
Description on Caffe Umbria Coffee’s website: Caffè Umbria is a full-service, wholesale coffee roaster based in Seattle, Washington. But the family’s roots in roasting go back to the 1940’s, when Ornello Bizzarri built his roastery in Perugia, Italy. The Arco Etrusco in our logo is a landmark of the Umbrian city.Caffè Umbria is currently served in hundreds of cafés and fine dining establishments throughout North America, from the Bellagio Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas to the Culinary Institute of America in Napa. To each of our customers, we guarantee unmatched quality, freshness and professional service.
Neighborhood: Ballard
Address: 5407 Ballard Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
What we ate/drank: Doppio Macchiato
Comments: This is the last of the Seattle Caffe Umbria locations that we’ve written about. We wrote about Caffe Umbria in Pioneer Square that made it to our Seattle Coffee Awards for Best Coffee Shops For Big Groups and Best View. We also visited the smaller Caffe Umbria in Westlake. They do also have two locations in Portland and two in Chicago.
The Caffe Umbria – Ballard location is right in the middle, size-wise to the huge Pioneer Square location and the small Westlake location. Located right on Ballard Ave in the old part of Ballard, the ceilings are much higher here, than in normal Seattle buildings, so the floor to ceiling windows let in much more light than normal height spaces. The height of the windows even make the back of the space quite bright.
They have a few pastries available, but not a full menu. Some of the stand out features of the space are the chandeliers and the huge exposed brick wall. There’s various types of seating- a few outdoor seats, counter seating at the front window that look out on Ballard life, counter seating where the drinks are made, bench seating with single tables and a “living room” type seating area.
Like Anchored Ship Coffee, try not to come here during the Sunday Farmers Market if you can help it. It’ll be packed and drinks may take awhile.
Ratings(1-5)
Favorite Thing: A modern space with some vintage touches in old Ballard.
Atmosphere: 4.75
Service: 4.75
Food Options: 4.00
Overall: 4.50
Eavedropping Convo: Two ladies talking at the table next to us. At first they were talking as if they were friends, but it became clear they were conducting a job interview.
Interviewer: So what is you ideal work environment?
Interviewee: Well traveling is my jam, so anything involving travel, especially overseas travel I’m on board with. Comment: Yes, she really did say that “traveling was her jam” on an interview.
Interviewer: Ok. Well, you know this position doesn’t involve any travel with the exception of conferences domestically. With video conferencing and screen sharing there really is no need for face to face for the job.
Interviewee: My belief is that so much more can be gained by face to face conversations. Trust and bonding with the client for instance.
Interviewer: Agreed, but there is a cost involved with travel, especially if it’s absolutely not required.
Interviewee: Truthfully, if a company doesn’t see the value you in it, I can live with it. I don’t mean to be rude, but I’d be hesitant to work for a company that couldn’t afford for their employees to travel.
Comment: At this point the interview was for all intents and purposes over. The interviewer just went through the motions of asking the remaining questions with no follow up questions. We would have loved to know what industry and position this was for.
Related:
Joule – The 3rd of the Trinity of Relay Restaurant Group Restaurants
Recommended by: Nobody. After visiting Trove and Revel recently we decided to revisit the last of the three Seattle restaurants belonging to Relay Restaurant Group.
Description on the Joule’s website: Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi opened their first restaurant, Joule, to critical acclaim in 2007. The food—a confident, beautiful blend of Korean flavors and classic technique—earned them a reputation as culinary innovators and creative forces. In 2013, they reimagined Joule as a contemporary Korean steakhouse serving nontraditional cuts of beef, and reopened it in an expanded space. The same year, it was named one of the Best New Restaurants in America by Bon Appétit magazine.
Neighborhood/Type: Fremont
Address: 3506 Stone Way N, Seattle, WA 98103
What we ate/drank: Beef tartare, Asian pear, spicy cod roe aioli $12, Bone marrow, spicy anchovy butter, leek $13, Geoduck fried rice, seaweed, pork rind $17, Peppered wagyu steak, ramp, maitake mushroom larb, 6 oz $29, Crispy eggplant, pickled garlic, black bean sauce $11.
Comments: Update 9/22/19: Joule just made Seattle Met’s 100 Best Restaurant
Joule is part of the Relay Restaurant Group created by Chef couple, Rachel Yang and Seif Chirichi. In addition to Joule, Relay Restaurant Group includes Revel right down the street and Trove in Capitol Hill .NOTE: It was just recently reported that Trove will unfortunately be closing. They also have a restaurant in Portland. Rachel Yang and Seif Chirichi actually appeared on Iron Chef on the Food Network, so that should tell you something about their popularity and skill.
Joule is the scene of a memorable experience I had about 6 years ago. It’s the first and only time I ever had a shot of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon. At the time, it was a bourbon that was in high demand and low supply and if I remember correctly the Seattle Times at the time mentioned there were only 3 places in all of Seattle that had any. Joule happened to be one of them. I met a somebody at Joule for brunch around that time and told them that I had just got engaged. I was gifted a shot of Pappy Van Winkle as an engagement “present”.
Anyways, back to the present and 6 years later. My wife and I had a rare date night without the kids and thought Joule would be the perfect place. Luckily, we were able to grab a table at 5:00 on a Sunday evening. We had the choice of patio seating, the chef counter or a regular indoor table. We chose to be inside.
On to the dishes. As mentioned in our Kokkaku review, we love tartare and a tartare dish actually made it on too our best dishes of 2018, so of course we had to order the beef tartare as a starter. The combination of a tart cod roe and the tartare was an unexpectedly nice combo of flavors.
We were expecting a bit more from the geoduck friend rice. The odd pairing of geoduck and pork rind is what drew our attention, but although the pork rind was there it, was lost in the dish. As a fried rice dish it was still good, I just wish there was more geoduck and pork rind in it.
This was our veggie dish. My wife loved this dish much more than I, but I still thought it was good.
This was a home run! I don’t know if there is always this much marrow on their bones or if I just hit the jackpot, but usually there’s not much marrow whenever I order . This dish had so much marrow, I couldn’t believe it. Served with bread the marrow was perfect turning into a rich pudding that tasted like beef flavored butter. Add in the generous topping of leeks and you’ve got FIRE!
This was another home run albeit a rather expensive one. It’s one of those dishes where you may cringe at the price, but once the first bite is in your mouth, you understand why and say to yourself, “i would’ve paid double”. Tender, just the right amount of char and spice and coupled with the mushroom larb( w/ fish sauce?) was perfect.
A miss, but a few hits and a few homers. If you can get a few homers in one sitting, that’s a successful night in our book. We also had a couple of beers with our dinner. Like Revel and automatic 20% gratuity is included in the bill. It was a packed house on the Sunday evening we went with lots of buzz. It was fun hearing the comments of nearby tables when tasting many of the dishes that they definitely won’t find anywhere else.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.75
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.25
Overall: 4.65
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!
Related Articles:
- Our Top 15 Best Seattle Dishes of 2018 (Part 1)
- Our Top 15 Best Seattle Dishes of 2018 (Part 2)
- Kokkaku
- D’La Santa
Linda’s Tavern – The Last Place Kurt Cobain Was Seen Alive
Recommended by: Nobody. We talked about Viretta Park (aka Kurt Cobain Park)and It’s history with Kurt Cobain. Linda’s Tavern is the last place anybody saw Kurt Cobain alive.
Description on the Linda’s Tavern website: A nice place for nice people.
Neighborhood/Type: Capitol Hill
Address: 707 E Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122
What we ate/drank: Manny’s, Black Raven Pale, Pfriem Pilsner
Comment: Linda’s Tavern is supposedly the last place that Kurt Cobain was seen alive before he tragically took his life. I’m not sure this is well known about Linda’s Tavern amongst Seattleites. Linda Tavern has been a mainstay in Seattle(est 1994) for such a long time, it’s generally known for it’s low key Western-themed quirkiness.
According to Wikipedia, Linda’s Tavern has made servers Thrillist lists including “Seattle’s 26 best Boozy Brunches”, “The 21 best dive bars in America 2014”, “14 Seattle Bars That Are Open on Christmas Day”, The Best Dive Bars in Seattle” (2016). Those accolades should give you better picture of the type of tavern this is.
If you are interested here’s the booth that Kurt Cobain was last allegedly seen:
We’ve never eaten at Linda’s Tavern, but we’ve definitely done a lot of drinking here over the years. With so many high-end cocktail bars, clubs and craft breweries in Capitol Hill, Linda’s remains one of those rare places that’s laid back. It doesn’t take itself seriously. Just take a look at their “Hippies Use The Side Door” sign, the massive buffalo head above the bar, the Laura Palmer(Twin Peaks) high school photo, the stage coach wagon chandelier , the large print of cow herding.
There’s also some blasts from the past. They have some old school arcade games, their jukebox is full of CDs, not the digital jukeboxes you see in all bars nowadays. You get the feel like Linda’s Tavern is stuck in time-the song playing when we came in was “No Excuses” by Alice in Chains.
Linda’s Tavern has three main sections- the bar area, the elevated seating area where the jukebox and arcade games are and the huge outdoor patio that has it’s own bar. This is definitely a hidden gem during the warmer days and nights.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.50
Service: 4.50
Food/Drinks: Not rating. Never eaten and have only had beers.
Overall: 4.50
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!
Related Articles: