Ada’s Technical Books Cafe

Ada’s Technical Books Cafe

Description on  Lighthouse Roaster’s website : One of Seattle’s original roaster cafes, Lighthouse has spent more than twenty years creating a loyal following of coffee lovers by treating the coffee buying, roasting and drink-making as a noble calling.

Description on  Ada’s Technical Book Cafe’s website : Everything we serve is made in house and prepared to order. Tasty. Thoughtful. Wholesome.

Address: 425 15th Ave E, Seattle, WA 98112

Music Playing: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Frank Sinatra

What we ate/drank: Cortado

Comments: 

It’s not often we come to this stretch of coffee shops and restaurants on 15th Ave E. in Capitol Hill, so this was the first time visiting Ada’s Technical Book Café.  Ada’s Technical Books Café was founded in 2010, but moved to it’s current location in 2013.  It reminds me of Meg Ryan’s children’s book store in You’ve Got Mail, except Ada’s is a STEM-centric book store. It’s got that community feel in a niche book area.

Ada’s is bright and airy, coffee and food, books to browse, display tables to discover. It’s the type of place that you can stay for hours and come back over and over. Ada’s is named after Ada Lovelace, a mathematician, who is considered the first computer programmer ever. She lived from 1815 to 1852. Her silhouette is the logo of Ada’s Technical Books.

Their pastries are cooked in-house and they also provide various vegetarian meals, such as Spicy Southwest Black Bean Burgers, Seasonal Potato Hash, Biscuit & Country Mushroom Gravy and Ada’s Breakfast Sandwiches.

So where do we begin. Once ordering your coffee(and meal) you can grab a seat at one of their various display tables.  Oh, no tipping policy by the way.  Each one is unique and interesting. It’s like sitting at a museum display case. Check out the one below with various old locks and lock picks. We truthfully wanted to go from table to table to see each one. You could come back multiple times and just sit at their various display tables and be entertained each time.

They have an area dedicated to puzzles and books for youngsters. When my daughters are old enough, we’d love if Ada’s became one of their favorite place to come to.  Because this was a former residence, in addition to all the technical books there are separate rooms to sit down in. The first room off the main store area has a long bench and some counter seating along with a huge checkboard.  There’s also an area called the Lab that offers a rentable event space in which cocktails can be served. That’s not all. There’s also an area called The Office, which provides desks that can be rented daily or monthly with 24 hour access.

Check out Ada’s Technical Books Cafe website for more details and their events.  Some examples of classes that definitely foster a neighborhood feel – More Than You Ever Really Wanted to Know About Coffee, Seattle Music Machine Salon(discussion on aspects of making music with computers/electronics), Aphrodisiac Tincture Making Workshop(making aphrodisiac potions).

Ada’s Technical Books is definitely one of the more memorable cafes in Seattle. The geekiness of it, the fact that it’s for all ages, the interesting décor from the display tables to the hanging collage to the maze of rooms. It’s really unique.  I’ll admit Ada’s might become our new Coffee Place to Impress Seattle Visitors.

Breaking News-5/21/20:  Ada’s has acquired the three Fuel Coffee branches. You can read about the details here.

Ratings(1-5)

Favorite Thing:  Everything!

Atmosphere: 5.00

Service: 4.75

Food Options: 4.50 (only because we like meat, but admittedly they have a good variety)

Overall: 4.75

Eavesdropping  Convo:  Guy and a gal who seemed to be doing a long distance relationship.

Guy: I can’t keep traveling back and forth.

Gal: Can’t you take sick leave?  If you said you needed time off for your mental health, I don’t think they’ll say no. It’s not their culture.

Guy: Alright let’s see how it goes.

Gal: You never really thought about that in the beginning, so don’t just dismiss it.

Guy: I don’t feel right about it. It’s dishonest.

Gal: Ok then……..pouts. Where do we go from here?

Guy: Let’s see how things go.

Gal: Looking demoralized. Ok, but I’m not feeling optimistic though. I gotta tell ya.

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