Our Seattle Doughnut Awards
You already know Seattle is the coffee capital of the world. We have close to 100 coffee shop reviews on our website and 6 separate posts about our Seattle Coffee Awards. And we believe there is nothing that goes better with a coffee than a doughnut. Doughnuts and coffee make one of the tastiest and formidable combinations on the face of the planet.
If there is a food that all four members of our family clamour for, its doughnuts. When we make at the spontaneous decision to get doughnuts, you can hear cheers along with feet jumping up and down echoing through the house. And as parents, we’ve discovered the extreme power of doughnuts that can be used to bribe our daughters to do their chores, eat their vegetables and to get dressed quickly or else, “no doughnuts”.
Doughnuts are an affordable luxury where each member of the family can window shop and choose their own. We’ve pretty much visited every single doughnut shop in Seattle multiple times, so I guess you can say we are a family of authorized Seattle doughnut connoisseurs
Best Variety – The Donut Factory
Look at the picture above. That says it all. I never thought I’d say it, but they have more choices than Top Pot. From what I can tell the doughnuts on the right side of their display case are your standards like your old fashioned, raised glazed, sprinkle, etc and the doughnuts on the left are your fancy doughnuts. If the Donut Factory doesn’t have the donut you’re looking for then it probably doesn’t exist. As you can tell from the various pictures in our Donut Factory blog post, we go there quite often.
Best One of a Kind Doughnuts- Half N Half Doughnut Co
Get a load of these doughnuts — Banana Foster Filled, Pineapple Fritter, Apple Caramel Fritter, Georgette Cinnamon Twist, Sweet Potato Casserole Filled, Cherry Cola Old Fashioned, Mexican Hot Chocolate, Almond Joy Old Fashioned. You will not find these types of doughnuts anywhere else. These doughnuts have “special treat” written all over them. They have so many one-of-a-kind doughnuts and interesting combination of flavors that it’s difficult to choose. But damn, they good.
Best Mochi Doughnuts – Dochi
Located in the Uwajimaya food court, Dochi specializes in mochi doughnuts. The main differences between the dochi and your regular doughnut is the texture and its unique shape. It’s crispy on the outside and very chewy like mochi on the inside. We really love the shape of the dochi. It’s like 8 doughnut balls that are connected together. You can either eat it as a regular doughnut or tear it apart and divide the 8 little doughnut balls to share. The Strawberry Shortcake is our favorite.
Best Cream Filled Doughnuts – General Porpoise Doughnuts
General Porpoise Doughnuts is the overlord of Seattle cream filled doughnuts. They don’t have much variety at any one time, but they are very well executed. Here are some of the current fillings -Vanilla Custard, Chocolate Marshmallow, Lemon Curd, Raspberry Jam, Gingerbread Cream. They also have seasonal fillings like Rainier Cherry Jam and Peaches and Cream. It’s part of James Beard Award Winner Renee Erickson’s restaurant empire, so you know you’re in for a quality treat.
Best Small Batch Doughnuts – Raised Doughnuts
Best Local Chain- Mighty O
Most Popular Doughnut Shop – Top Pot
These two Seattle doughnut chains are the most well known in Seattle by far. They are joined at the hip when comparing Seattle doughnuts, so much so that we had a Food War blog post comparing their doughnuts one by one, side by side. We agreed that the vegan doughnuts of Mighty O were the better doughnuts, but not by much. The most popular chain is Top Pot which was visited by President Obama on a Seattle visit and also is known for former Seattle Seahawk Golden Tate breaking into a branch because he couldn’t control his urge for a Top Pot doughnut. Top Pot has 18 locations around Seattle compared to Mighty O’s five locations.
Biggest Loss in 2020 – Tempesta Coffee
What a blow to find out that Tempesta Coffee is closing permanently. When I first stumbled upon this coffee shop, I was presently surprised that they also sold doughnuts. And these doughnuts were not your standard doughnuts. It was one of the best kept secrets in Seattle. I never heard anybody ever mention Tempesta for their doughnuts though. I remember bringing a batch into work and people absolutely raved about them. Damn you, Covid 19!!!
Best Overall – Family Donut Shop
When you talk about solid, cost efficient and consistent doughnuts, Family Donut Shop is the standard. As their name states, they are family owned and you can feel it in their customer service. Their apple turnover made it into our Top 2020 Seattle Dishes of the Year. It is that damn good. They have a few out of the ordinary doughnuts, but they really excel in your standard doughnuts- old fashioned, cinnamon rolls, vanilla sprinkle, maple bars, Bavarian cream, apple fritter, chocolate glazed, jelly filled, etc. They have a wide variety and their popularity is evidenced by normally having a line out the door. This is our favorite doughnut shop in Seattle.
Thanks for reading Our Seattle Doughnut blog post.
Related:
Winner of our Best Small Batch Doughnut Award: Raised Doughnuts
Recommended by: One of our friends recommended Raised Doughnuts after seeing our Family Donut Shop review.
Description on the Raised Doughnut’s website: WE START OUR DAY AT 2AM. Scaling ingredients and mixing our dough. It takes five to six hours for our doughnuts to be made from start to finish. The dough is mixed in small batches, hand cut, shaped, fried and glazed every morning! FROM SCRATCH Our glazes, toppings and fillings are made from scratch using whole ingredients. We don’t use preservatives, fillers, or artificial coloring! Because of this, our doughnuts are best enjoyed as soon as possible!
Neighborhood/Type: Central District
Address: 1101 23rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
What we ate/drank: See below
Comments: One of our friends told us we should try Raised Doughnuts. We’d heard great things about them since they opened up back in the summer of 2018, but we’d never visited Raised Doughnuts since it’s a bit out of the way for us.
We decided to go early on a Monday morning and made it there right before 9:00am. Even though we arrived early on a weekday, one of their doughnuts(the mochi sugar) was already sold out. They have 6 original doughnuts which they serve daily. They also have 4 monthly special doughnuts and have also have 3 weekend special doughnuts.
On this particular occasion we ordered each of the 4 monthly special doughnuts along with a couple of their originals, the maple bar and the apple fritter. The person serving us( I believe the owner) gave us a extra apple fritter for free because she deemed the fritter a bit on the small size. Score!
Before talking about the doughnuts, we wanted to talk about Raised Doughnuts. During the time we visited, dine-in wasn’t an option due to the Covid-19 situation, so we were met at the door with a menu posted on the wall for available doughnuts. Although we weren’t allowed inside we could see inside and it looks like it’s somebody’s house with doughnut shop inside it.
Finding parking was a bitch. I think they have two spots outside their building otherwise it’s street parking.
The owner worked at Macrina Bakery for 10 years, so she definitely has a pedigree. For those of you not familiar with Macrina Bakery, they are probably the most popular bakery in Seattle. And not only did she work there, she was actually the head pastry chef.
With that background, it’s no wonder the owner of Eastern Cafe decided to form a business partnership to make Raised Doughnuts into a brick and mortar business after having done numerous pop-ups around Seattle.
During regular times(non-Covid), Raised Doughnuts also offers classes for making doughnuts, cakes and cookies.
And here are some other interesting things about Raised Doughnuts from their website:
- ANTI WASTE There is a lot of food waste in our industry and we don’t want to add to it! We strive to avoid waste at all costs. This is why we choose to make one big batch a day and sell them until they’re gone! We also use every last bit of our dough, recycling the scraps into fritters and holes.
- WEEKENDS We bust out our maximum capacity. Which comes out to approx. 1500+ doughnuts a day on the weekend.
- WEEKDAYS Our weekday batches vary and are determined using our gut and past sales. Sometimes we sell dozens at a time and other days just a few per person. Because of this unpredictability, some days we sell out quickly while other days we last all day. We encourage preordering or calling ahead to put some aside. No minimum required! We just ask you to pick them up by 1PM!
On to the doughnuts. The Cranberry Thyme had a nice thick glaze with sprinkled cranberries on it. It was nice and sweet and perfect with a cup of coffee, but couldn’t really taste the cranberry. Perhaps it’s mainly for aesthetics. Another of the monthly specials was the Gingerbread Fritter, which again had ample amounts of glaze and definitely had a festive look with red(peppermint?) and white toppings and was the favorite of our daughter. The Pandan Mochi is all about the texture. It’s light, but chewy like a mochi doughnut should. We both took a bite and were surprised by the chewiness. We’re thinking it’s harder to make a mochi doughnut in a traditional doughnut shape versus the connected little balls at Dochi.
White Choc Peppermint Bark Bar -$3.50
The White Choc Peppermint Bark Bar was my personal favorite. It was like eating a candy cane doughnut. Really minty fresh. Perfect for the holiday season. The apple fritter doesn’t look like your traditional round flat fritter. The fritter here is actually dense, shaped almost like a muffin. Fluffy with bits of apple, this was another winner. I’m not a huge fan of maple bars and usually maple bars may have a hint of maple syrup. The Raised Doughnut maple bar strongly tastes like maple syrup, so if you’re a fan, grab one of these.
The higher quality(and higher prices) and the one-of-a-kind doughnuts remind us of Half N Half Doughnut Co.
As mentioned Raised Doughnuts is a bit of a trek for us and the doughnuts are a bit on the higher priced side, but you just get the feeling a lot of thought, care and personal touch is put into these one-of-a-kind doughnuts. Our recommendation is to try the specials. The originals are good but, the specials are exceptional. If we have a hankering for doughnuts we’re likely to go to some of the donut places closer to home, but on special occasions or if we want to impress out-of-town visitors, we’ll definitely hit up Raised Doughnuts.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: N/A (During Covid 19, so no entry)
Service: 4.75
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!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future:
Related Articles:
Best One-Of-A- Kind Doughnut Award: Half N Half Doughnut Company
Recommended by: Nobody. We saw it on our way to Skillet Diner. Little did we know, it had just opened two days earlier.
Description on the Half N Half Doughnut Company’s website: We hope HnH doughnuts delight you. Our passion is creating beautifully crafted flavors for the products made right here in our kitchen. We value providing compelling taste and quality in equal measure. So, our products are always fresh, made from scratch, with Northwest organic whenever possible and always with a strong commitment to non-GMO.
Neighborhood/Type: Capitol Hill
Address: 516 E Pike St, Seattle, WA 98122
What we ate/drank: Banana Foster Filled($3.85), Pineapple Fritter($3.95), Vanilla Old Fashioned($2.75), Georgette Cinnamon Twist($3.25). Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit Sandwich($6.95)
Comments: We consider ourselves doughnut connoisseurs. It’s one of the few foods we feel we can call ourselves experts. You can see our review on the two Seattle doughnut empires, Top Pot and Mighty-O, the trendy, General Porpoise Doughnuts and the secret doughnut spot that nobody seems to talk about, Tempesta Coffee (RIP) We also have an upcoming post for the newly opened Donut Factory in the University District and Raised Doughnuts in the Central District.
We knew nothing about Half N Half Doughnut Company. We happened to wake up early one morning(having two kids under 3 yrs old will do that) and decided to have breakfast at Skillet Diner down the street. On the way to Skillet we saw some folks waiting outside Half N Half Doughnut Company and decided we’d stopped by after eating breakfast.
We found out that Half N Half Doughnut Company had only been open for two days and is the creation of one of the co-founders of Top Pot Doughnuts. As you will see, the doughnuts are a bit more experimental than Top Pot’s.
Half N Half Doughnut Company is right on Pike St in Capitol Hill so parking can be a problem. Look for the storefront with the moped and kid mannequins in the window.
The interior is small with no tables or chairs and has a 1950s soda shop vibe to it. They even have manual pull espresso machines. We’ll get to the doughnuts in a second, but first they also have cookies, biscuits, breakfast sandwiches and surprisingly, sous vide eggs. Cookies we understand. Biscuits and breakfast sandwiches is a little strange, but okay. Sous vide eggs? We’re not aware of any other establishments that serve sous vide eggs to go.
Anyways, on to the main attraction, doughnuts. The selection is not as robust at Top Pot, Mighty O or Donut Factory, but the choices are all very “experimental” and none that you have ever tasted before. You won’t find your standard doughnuts like maple bars or chocolate glazed. You will find doughnuts such as Churros, Smores and Banana Foster filled. They also have mini doughnuts which they call, “bombs”. We ended up getting the following:
- Banana Foster Filled($3.85) -Score: 4.75/5.0
- Pineapple Fritter($3.95) – Score: 4.65/5.0
- Vanilla Old Fashioned($2.75) – Score: 4.65/5.0
- Georgette Cinnamon Twist($3.25). Score: 4.25 /5.0\\
- Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit Sandwich($6.95) <<we got this for our friend who we were visiting after. We didn’t try it but he loved it.
The people there were very good about explaining each of the doughnuts and were very willing to advise their favorites, which we appreciated. As you can see the doughnuts are all different prices. We have to say, the doughnuts at Half N Half Doughnut Company do seem to be bigger than your normal doughnut, but so are the prices.
We enjoyed the fact that you will not find these types of doughnuts anywhere else. The banana foster filled was our favorite, but the pineapple fritter was a nice spin on your normal apple fritter and their vanilla old fashioned was also better than your normal old fashioned.
Due to it’s location it does take some effort to come to Half N Half Doughnut Company, but the unique types of doughnuts they have has a “special treat” type feeling to it. Even the packaging with individual wrapping for each doughnut and sturdy boxes have a “special treat” feeling to it.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.25
Service: 4.75
Food/Drinks: 4.65
Bang for the Buck: 4.25
Overall: 4.45
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: As mentioned in our quest to find the best doughnut in Seattle, we visited The Donut Factory out in the University District after our neighbors told us about it replacing a long standing donut shop that closed down.
Related Articles:
Best Cream Filled Doughnut Award: General Porpoise Doughnuts
Recommended by: After our Top Pot vs Mighty O post and our post on the doughnuts at Tempesta Coffee, a co-worker advised me that General Porpoise Doughnuts puts all of these places to shame. Let’s see.
Description on the General Porpoise’s website: Made fresh doughnuts—filled with handmade curds, custards, creams, and jams—paired with remarkable coffees from roasters near and far.
Neighborhood/Type: University District/Laurelhurst
Address: 4520 Union Bay Place NE, Seattle WA 98105
What we ate/drank: Chocolate Marshmallow, Vanilla Custard, Peaches & Cream, Rainier Cherry Jam and a Macchiato.
Comments: As mentioned above, I told my co-worker that I found a place called Tempesta Coffee that had perhaps better doughnuts than either Top Pot or Mighty O. She then told me although she’d never been to Tempesta Coffee, there’s a place called General Porpoise Doughnuts that puts Top Pot and Mighty-O to shame. We’d heard of Renee Erickson’s new doughnut place that had opened in Pioneer Square and Capitol Hill, but we never made it out. We’re big fans of Renee Ericsson’s sea-themed restaurants such as The Whale Wins, The Walrus & Carpenter, Barnacle Bar, so we were looking forward to trying General Porpoise.
We’d see the beautiful pics of the filled doughnuts on Instagram and salivated. Then we heard a branch was opening near University Village, which is closer to where we live. It finally opened in late July, so one Saturday morning we took the family to see if my co-worker was right.
As mentioned the new location is near UW/University Village off Union Bay Place that has only a few parking spots, so beware. The interior is super minimalist and more conducive for taking out and enjoying the doughnuts at home than eating there although we ordered enough to do both. General Porpoise doesn’t have your traditional doughnuts with the hole in the middle. They specialize in cream/jam filled doughnuts. We ordered four doughnuts
- Chocolate Marshmellow
- Vanilla Custard
- Peaches and Cream
- Rainier Cherry Jam
It wasn’t hard to pick since they only had 5 types to choose from. We ended up eating to there and taking the other two to eat at home later in the day. All were really delicious, but the four doughnuts totaled over $18+, which includes a 10% service charge, so it’s pricey.
On one of our visits, they had a group of doughnuts that did not pass their standards, so no filling was inserted. These doughnuts were only $1.00 a piece and we don’t know why they didn’t pass muster, but they were perfectly fine to us.
They have locations in Capitol Hill, Pioneer Square and within the Amazon Spheres, but this location is only open to Amazon employees. It is open to the public on every other Saturday from 9am-3pm by reservation only.
On General Porpoise’s website you can pre order online the day before pickup. You can’t pick doughnuts individually like Mighty-O, but you can ask for favorites, but it’s ultimately the bakers choice. The orders come in increments of 10 doughnuts up to 50 and can be ordered up to one week in advance.
Although the doughnuts are creative and tasty, the price will stop us from making this a regular stop. For now we’ll stick to Top Pot, Mighty O and Tempesta. We will reserve visits to General Porpoise to special occasions,such as visitors from out of town or special birthday desserts.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.25
Service: 4.50
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 3.75
Overall: 4.35
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: None
Related Articles:
Battle of Seattle Doughnuts(or Donuts?)- Top Shop vs Mighty O
Coming from Los Angeles, there seems to be a donut shop on every corner. When I arrived in Seattle in the 90’s, I was shocked how little donut shops there were. My go to was Winchell’s on 45th in Wallingford, but it went out of business and is now currently Rancho Bravo Tacos. There are now a few mom and pop doughnut shops, but for the last few years, Top Pot and Mighty O have ruled over the Seattle doughnut landscape.
I don’t like cake, pies, cookies or most pastries, but I love donuts. I can’t say i’m a connoisseur of many things, but I definitely feel I can speak to the quality of donuts.
Let’s get to it. In this corner….
Mighty-O: Mighty-O’s distinction is that they make their donuts with certified organic ingredients, they contain no cholesterol because there are no chemical preservatives, no animal derived ingredients, no colorings or artificial flavors.
And in this corner….
Top Pot: From their website-“With over 40 different types of donuts, Top Pot Doughnuts invites you to join us on our delicious journey of good taste. From our uniquely designed cafés to our hand-roasted coffee and hand-forged gourmet doughnuts, we’re committed to doing things the old fashioned way—beautifully, warmly, and with unfailing attention to details. Our exceptional quality, vintage aesthetic, and personal customer service offers a fresh take on the old “coffee and doughnuts” routine “
Here’s the tale of the tape:
- Spelling: Mighty O Donut vs Top Pot Doughnut. The first thing you notice is that each spells donut/doughnut differently.
- Distance from our house: Mighty O: 1.2 miles vs Top Pot: 1.6 miles
- Locations:
Mighty O: 4 locations: Ballard, Green Lake, Capitol Hill, Denny Triangle
Top Pot:23 locations: Including Capitol Hill, Downtown x 3, Wedgewood, Queen Anne, Ballard, South Lake Union, First Hill
- Price for half dozen( Sprinkles, Maple Bar, Apple Fritter, Glazed, Chocolate, Jelly Filled):
Mighty O: $12,99
Top Pot : $15.39
- Pick Up/Delivery Options:
Mighty O: Order online and pick up option. Also Amazon Delivery and Caviar Delivery
Top Pot: No ordering online option. Postmates will deliver.
- Claim to Fame:
Mighty O: Creating certified organic, non-GMO, cholesterol-free donuts, without chemical preservatives, hydrogenated oils, trans fats, artificial coloring, or flavors. Also cornering the market on supplying local coffee shops-Broadcast, Vivace, Victrola, Vita, Elm Coffee Roasters, Analog Coffee, Zeitgeist. Also Mighty O won a Donut Challenge on Food Network:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlC8sDrhkDQ
Top Pot: Golden Tate(former : Wide Receiver) breaking into a Bellevue Top Pot because he had a hankering for a maple bar. “They’re irresistible” quoted Mr Tate to the Seattle Times. (link https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/the-great-maple-bar-caper-seahawks-golden-tate-caught-in-3-am-visit-to-top-pot-doughnuts/). Also, Pres Obama got his fill at Top Pot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L0k90VXnGo
- Donuts – To be fair we ordered the same 6 donuts from each place to make sure we were comparing apples to apples. We got a maple bar, sprinkle, jelly filled, glazed, apple fritter, and chocolate. We decided to grade each donut on the following criteria.
1) Appetizing/Appearance
2) Glaze/toppings/frosting
3) The dough
4) Filling(when appropriate)
5) Taste
Maple Bar
1) Appetizing/Appearance -Top Pot
2) Glaze/toppings/frosting -Top Pot
3) The dough – Mighty O
4) Filling(when appropriate) – N/A
5) Taste – Top Pot
Winner-Top Pot
Sprinkles
1) Appetizing/Appearance -Top Pot
2) Glaze/toppings/frosting -Top Pot
3) The dough – Mighty O
4) Filling(when appropriate) – N/A
5) Taste – Mighty O
Winner- Mighty O. Taste as tie breaker.
Jelly Filled -Sugar on Top Pot, glaze on Mighty
1) Appetizing/Appearance – Mighty O
2) Glaze/toppings/frosting – Mighty O
3) The dough – Mighty O
4) Filling(when appropriate) – Mighty O
5) Taste – Mighty O
Winner – Mighty O
Glazed- Old Fashioned Glazed vs Good O’l Glazed
1) Appetizing/Appearance -Top Pot
2) Glaze/toppings/frosting -Top Pot
3) The dough – Mighty O
4) Filling(when appropriate) – N/A
5) Taste – Top Pot
Winner-Top Pot
Apple Fritter
1) Appetizing/Appearance -Top Pot
2) Glaze/toppings/frosting -MIghty O
3) The dough – Top Pot
4) Filling(when appropriate) – N/A
5) Taste – Mighty O
Winner-Mighty O. Taste as tie breaker.
Chocolate-Double trouble vs Lots O’ chocolate
1) Appetizing/Appearance -Top Pot
2) Glaze/toppings/frosting -MIghty O
3) The dough – Mighty O
4) Filling(when appropriate) – N/A
5) Taste – MIghty O
Winner- Mighty O
Summary: So by a score of 4 to 2, Mighty O is the Winner!!! One of the amazing things about Mighty O is that with the use of specific ingredients, you’d think that it would sacrifice taste or texture of the donut, but their donuts are near perfect. We consistently felt that Top Pot donuts look very appetizing both in overall appearance and glaze/toppings. And we also consistently felt that Mighty O won in the texture of the donut and taste. Truthfully you can’t go wrong with either one and when visitors come to town we often get a dozen from either one to show them some local flavor.
Related Articles:
- Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Seattle Coffee Shops
- Morsel vs Biscuit & Bean – The Battle of Seattle’s Best Biscuit Sandwich
- Ezell’s vs Heaven Sent – Battle of Seattle’s Best Fried Chicken
- Battle of the Best Caribbean Sandwiches-Paseo vs Un Bien
- Battle of the Best Seattle Ramen Restaurants
**********12/20-Unfortunately, This Business Has Closed Down**********
Description on Tempesta Coffee website: Truly great coffee meets truly great donuts
Neighborhood: Belltown
Address: 2103 3rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98121
Music playing: None
What we ate/drank: Glazed Sprinkle Donut and a Torrefazione Italia Americano, Chocolate Doughnut, Vanilla Seahawk Doughnut
Comments: I have a future post coming up that settles the score once and for all who has the best donuts(or doughnuts) in Seattle, Top Pot or Mighty-O. I may have been a little too hasty, because a new challenger appears. Tempesta Coffee may have the best donuts of all.
I happened upon Tempesta Coffee by accident. I had to drop my daughter off at daycare and took the E bus into work, which I don’t normally take. One positive about taking a new bus route is it takes you past places you don’t normally see. On this occasion it took me through a part of Belltown I haven’t been to in a while. I noticed one block prior to my stop, the bus passed a little coffee shop, Tempesta Coffee.
I believe this used to be a one chair barbershop if I remember correctly. I decided to check it out. The place is tiny. It will give Pegasus Coffee Bar a run for its money as the Smallest Coffee Shop in Seattle. There’s no chairs and one cocktail table that might serve two standing people, so it’s definitely a grab and go type of place.
It’s the type of place you’d stop on your way to work or stop in for a short coffee break in the afternoon before heading back to the office. It would be great if they could somehow expand so you could enjoy your coffee and donuts right on the premises or perhaps add a few chairs/tables outside.
I see it’s connected to what appears to be a couple of garages/store units that they could possibly expand into, but it may not be owned by them. I found out that Tempesta Coffee is from the same folks who own Orfeo next door, Steelhead Diner and Blueacre Seafood.
The coffee they used is from Torrefazione Italia. The 12 oz comes with 2 shots and the 16 oz comes with 4 shots for all you caffiene fiends. I’m not aware of too many coffee shops that use this coffee, but whether it’s the beans or the person preparing it, it’s exceptional. I went two days in a row, because I thought the first drink I got was an anomaly, but the next day was just as good. You noticed, I don’t really discuss the quality of coffee in my reviews because I figure all drinks are superb at any Seattle coffee cafe that I would frequent.
I’ve got to say, their Americano is soooo good. I had their Americano in the morning and had one in the afternoon at Espresso Vivace. I don’t know if it was an off day for Vivace and an exceptional day for Tempesta, but it was not even close. It wasn’t a standing 8 count, it wasn’t a TKO, it was a bonafide knockout with Tempesta as the victor. It was that huge of a disparity.
History Lesson: For those of you new to Seattle, Torrefazione Italia used to have cafés in Fremont and Pioneer Square. The founders then formed a relationship with Seattle’s Best Coffee where they shared a roastery. Then Starbucks bought both, Torrefazione Italia and Seattle’s Best Coffee. Although Starbucks decided to continue selling the coffee under the Torrefazione Italia brand, they closed the Seattle cafes along with the other Torrefazione Italia 15 cafes around the US and Canada. One good thing that came out of the demise of the cafes is that the family that previously owned Torrefazione Italia before being bought by Starbucks, went on to create another roaster and multiple cafes, which became Caffe Umbria. One final bit of trivia, the first Caffe Umbria location is the one in Pioneer Square. It was also the first location of the first Torrefazione Italia cafe.
The donuts are made there onsite. I believe it might be Orfeo’s kitchen. $2 for small batch donuts? Sign me up. For some reason, I love that the donuts look imperfect. The glaze was uneven and not a perfect circle, but it just confirms that the donuts are small batches and not mass produced. Some of the donuts from other Seattle donut institutions are so perfect looking they’re made for instagram, but perhaps it just confirms that they are made in mass?
These donuts are not too soft and airy like Krispy Kreme, but also not super dense and of course super delish. In addition to the donuts they also have a breakfast sandwich, a ham and cheese sandwich and get this, a mufuletta sandwich! How random. I’ll definitely have to try it. If the donuts are any indication of the quality to expect, I’m super curious. It appears they are creating an online order process on their website, but it’s not functional at the moment.
The service was friendly and knowing it was my first time, she gave a lot of information about the drink, the donuts and the mufuletta. A couple of insider tips, if you are going to come in for a dozen donuts or more, call in and they can prepare it for you. While I was there she was trying to prepare a 3 dozen and a dozen donut order. Because this is small batch, I wonder if there is only a limited amount of donuts available each day? I’ll have to ask next time I’m in. Also for the muffuletta, call in 10-15 minutes prior to pick up and they can make it ahead of time so you don’t have to wait.
Ratings(1-5)
Favorite Thing: The small unassuming Tempesta Coffee makes me feel like I’m in on a Seattle little secret(for now) for great donuts and a rarity in Seattle, mufuletta sandwiches.
Atmosphere: 3.50
Service: 5
Food Options: 5
Overall: 4.50
Eavedropping Convo: None