In The Spotlight
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Bakery Review
Review: A Piece of Heaven in Seattle – Macrina Bakery
Macrina Bakery in SODO offers warm and tasty bread, quiche, and plenty of pastries. I do believe that in my afterlife, the heavenly angels that will be flying around will not have any harps among them. Instead, they will be wea... -
Capitol Hill
Local Hot Spot: Volunteer Park Café & Market Place
The part I love most about writing a blog about coffee in Seattle is when I’m discovering an “off the beaten path” café – real community jewels that complements a community. Sure, I like to frequent some of the more popular pla... -
Pikes Market and Area
More Than Meets The Eye at Market Ghost Tours & Espresso
In a city like Seattle with a rich history of folklore and coffee, there’s no question that the two are eventually bound to meet. In quite possibly the most intriguing café in Seattle – and possibly the Northwest –... -
Downtown
Exploring Seattle’s Coffee Scene By Foot: The Coffee Crawl
One of the best ways to see any city (except maybe LA) is on foot. Seattle is no exception. Its walkable streets and tight-knit neighborhoods make Seattle a great town to explore with a comfortable pair of shoes (and an ...
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Bakery Review
Review: A Piece of Heaven in Seattle – Macrina Bakery
Macrina Bakery in SODO offers warm and tasty bread, quiche, and plenty of pastries. I do believe that in my afterlife, the heavenly angels that will be flying around will not have any harps among them. Instead, they will be wea... -
Capitol Hill
Local Hot Spot: Volunteer Park Café & Market Place
The part I love most about writing a blog about coffee in Seattle is when I’m discovering an “off the beaten path” café – real community jewels that complements a community. Sure, I like to frequent some of the more popular pla... -
Pikes Market and Area
More Than Meets The Eye at Market Ghost Tours & Espresso
In a city like Seattle with a rich history of folklore and coffee, there’s no question that the two are eventually bound to meet. In quite possibly the most intriguing café in Seattle – and possibly the Northwest –... -
Downtown
Exploring Seattle’s Coffee Scene By Foot: The Coffee Crawl
One of the best ways to see any city (except maybe LA) is on foot. Seattle is no exception. Its walkable streets and tight-knit neighborhoods make Seattle a great town to explore with a comfortable pair of shoes (and an ...
The Seattle Coffee Scene
Seattle Coffee Scene
Review: A Piece of Heaven in Seattle – Macrina Bakery
Macrina Bakery in SODO offers warm and tasty bread, quiche, and plenty of pastries. I do believe that in my afterlife, the heavenly angels that will be flying around will not have any harps among them. Instead, they will be wea...
Capitol Hill
Local Hot Spot: Volunteer Park Café & Market Place
The part I love most about writing a blog about coffee in Seattle is when I’m discovering an “off the beaten path” café – real community jewels that complements a community. Sure, I like to frequent some of the more popular pla...
Seattle Roasters
Catching Up With Slate Coffee, Seattle’s Newest Coffee Roaster
If you haven’t heard of Slate Coffee Roasters, that’s okay because my bet is that you soon will. Even though this family-owned business are on the cusp of launching their café and roasting operation, they are making a bi...
Downtown
Exploring Seattle’s Coffee Scene By Foot: The Coffee Crawl
One of the best ways to see any city (except maybe LA) is on foot. Seattle is no exception. Its walkable streets and tight-knit neighborhoods make Seattle a great town to explore with a comfortable pair of shoes (and an ...
Queen Anne
Warm Your Bones: El Diablo Coffee in Queen Anne
During Seattle’s short winter days and long nights, we can feel good that there is a place that is always warm, welcoming, and offering their best cup of coffee to regulars and newcomers alike. That place is El Diablo ...
West Seattle
Great Seattle Cafes and Coffee Ideas for Valentine’s Day
Whether you have a special someone in your life at the moment – or whether it’s complicated – there are a few pleasurable things we can do this Valentine’s Day here in Seattle – all with coffee, of cour...
In Case You Missed It
Bakery
Review: A Piece of Heaven in Seattle – Macrina Bakery
Macrina Bakery in SODO offers warm and tasty bread, quiche, and plenty of pastries.
I do believe that in my afterlife, the heavenly angels that will be flying around will not have any harps among them. Instead, they will be wearing large white baking hats and carrying Macrina’s flakey croissants to and fro. Certainly, clouds of fluffy dough made just right would rise and fall in wonderment as I bask in the warmth of freshly baked bread for eternity.
Ahh, yes, but until then I'll have Macrina Bakery.
Macrina Bakery and Cafe is one of Seattle’s premier bakeries and baking hot spots in the Pacific Northwest and offers customers a little bit of heaven (it’s true).
Come in during any time of day, during any time of year and your eyes will nearly always be bigger than your stomach. You simply can’t help wanting it all – it is truly heavenly.
On a rainy day last week, I stopped by to finally pay homage to Macrina’s bakery &am...
Pioneer Square
Zeitgeist Coffee in Pioneer Square
Every neighborhood needs a great coffee house. A place that lights up a corner – one that opens up early and waves farewell to people on their way to work. A coffee house that stays up late with us and offers us a warm place to take off our jacket and forget about the world outside – if only for a fleeting moment. Zeitgeist Coffee is that place.
In a beautifully designed and spacious café, lined with red brick and lightly stained wood cabinets, Zeitgeist Coffee fits the bill. Whether you want to chat with a friend, get work done, or simply stop in for a coffee to go, Zeitgeist Coffee offers you great coffee, affordable prices, friendly baristas, and an assortment of pastries to try.
Zeitgeist has a loyal following. One of the baristas told me that despite the construction in recent months, customers will go out of their way to come inside and sit down. I can see why. The place offers an easy-on-the eyes setting ...
Pikes Market and Area
More Than Meets The Eye at Market Ghost Tours & Espresso
In a city like Seattle with a rich history of folklore and coffee, there’s no question that the two are eventually bound to meet. In quite possibly the most intriguing café in Seattle – and possibly the Northwest - patrons can get a glimpse of the city’s ghostly past and see a side of Seattle that not many get to see – all while sampling Seattle’s locally roasted coffee.
“Market Ghost Tours & Espresso” can be found at Pike Place Market and offers daily tours that, well, bring the past to life.
The charming café just off Post Alley has a sordid past of its own. The 142 square foot café was originally an entrance to the public restrooms at the Market. The space was eventually sealed up and closed for decades.
In steps Mercedes Yaeger, the owner, lead tourist guide, barista, and local author, who took the once-creepy space and filled it with aromatics of fresh brewed coffee and rich storytelling in the heart o...
Poplular
Caffé Fiore in Queen Anne
If you have ever taken your favorite sweater out of the dryer and put it on, you’ll know how it feels to walk into Caffé Fiore in Queen Anne - it's warm and comfortable. The cafe is beautiful, warmly lit, and has mellow vibe where babies and au pairs alike can fall asleep soundly.
Serving their own coffee blend which is roasted by Caffe Vita along with doughnuts and other munchies, Caffé Fiore is a charmer. Come in and squeeze yourself down with the other campers or simply perch yourself outside in one of their many wooden lounge chairs – either way you’ll be happy you came.
Seattle has many wonderful communities and Queen Anne is one of them. Caffé Fiore blends in quite nicely here and is situated on a sleepy street just off the main drag, making this the perfect place for meeting up with friend, family member, or one of your classmates to get that project done.
With four locations throughout Seattle, Caffé Fio...
Featured
Seattle’s Best Coffee Shops of 2012: The Top 20
Seattle Coffee Scene's Very Best Coffee Shops of Seattle 2012
Coming up with a top ten list for Seattle’s Coffee Scene was practically impossible, So I expanded the list of “Seattle’s Best Coffee Shops” to twenty – and even that was a feat. Lucky for us, there are a lot of great coffee shops in Seattle serving amazing locally roasted coffee and who certainly are an integral part of our daily routines. To be fair, coffee shops can’t really be placed in a “one size fits all” category like, say, stretchy headbands, so coming up with “The Best” is slightly disingenuous (that’s my disclaimer). Rather, I wanted to create a list that embodies the great diversity of coffee shops that we have in this city. They all have something in common: they strive to build a sense of community, they serve great espresso, and they consistently display great customer service (After all, what’s the specialty coffee industry without great se...
Poplular
Rock, Paper, Scissors: Customer Service Always Wins
There are a just few things that annoy me:
Wet socks.
Accidentally swallowing a gnat on my walk home.
Seeing the ER letters on my CD player (Yes, I still use one sometimes).
And of course, poor customer service.
Each of us has experienced bad – if not horrible customer service – at some point in our lives. It’s an experience that can quickly get under our skin, push our buttons, and sometimes get our blood boiling.
But why is that?
Why are customers so emotionally-invested in the service they get? Isn’t the "product" by itself good enough?
I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s because we know that we have choices in our purchasing – and unless we are buying from a self-checkout station, we have certain expectations about the everyday interactions in our lives. Don’t we?
You probably already know that most of our purchases aren’t based on rationality but rather on emotion, particularly when it c...
