November 16, 2009 by andai
I popped into the coffee shop which I noted was not called 7 Roasters Coffee, but was actually called Makeda Coffee. As I ordered my latte, I asked the barista about this discrepancy. According to her, the coffee shop used to be owned by the guy who owns 7 Roasters Coffee which is a small Seattle based coffee roasting company. Apparently the chap wanted to get out of the coffee shop business and focus on roasting coffee beans so he sold the coffee shop to Prashanthi Reddy & Charlie Anthe. Not surprisingly the new owners decided that they would continue to get their coffee beans from 7 Roasters, hence the sign out on the main street.
I though it was interesting that one of the owners is this lady named Prashanthi, interesting in that I haven’t met anyone in the Seattle coffee scene who comes from an Indian (as in Asian Indian) background. I don’t know… I just thought that was interesting. But I did ask the barista about this and apparently Prashanthi has been into coffee culture for a while…
And I must say that they must be doing something right. Since Greenwood is out of the way for me, I am not in that area often, but I have to say that the two or three times I’ve been to the shop, I have really enjoyed my latte. Their espresso blend is called Espresso Huli. It was a nice strong latte with great flavor. In some ways it sort of reminded me of another excellent local roaster, Lighthouse Coffee down in the Fremont/Ballard area. And part of they having great coffee I think, is due to the fact that they are supporting the small local roaster so what you get is not the usual suspects in terms of Seattle coffee roasters.
Each time I have been there, the baristas are great, pretty friendly and always willing to chat about coffee and Makeda Coffee. By the way, just a little trivia, Makeda is the name of the famous Queen of Sheba and at the same time it is also a Hebrew word meaning bowl, cup or vessel.
I think the name works…
Posted in Beverage Banter, Coffee, Tea & Hot Chocolate, Coffeehouses & Shops, coffee business, north america | Tagged 7 roasters coffee, ballard, bowl, cup, espresso diva, espresso huli, fremont, Greenwood, hebrew, lighthouse coffee, makeda, makeda coffee, phinney ridge, prashanthi reddy, queen of sheba, seven roasters coffee, vessel | Leave a Comment »
November 3, 2009 by andai
Now that I have been running this site for a while, I feel that the time is right to start the next phase of GFBO. The first thing I will be doing is moving this site from the free, WordPress hosted site to a self hosted WordPress site. There are a few reasons for this, but the two main reasons are, first, I will have a lot more flexibility to use much more slicker and complex WP theme. Second but closely related is that the move will allow me to use additional plugins, addons, widgets and scripts that are either not available on the current site or are not allowed.
The bottom line is that the move will give me better control over the look and feel and functionality of the site and also open up the ability to share and consume additional related content with like minded sites….
Finally, I am getting a domain name that better reflects the subject matter and content of this site then the current domain name ahaikuaday.com… There is a long story of how this site’s domain name came to be ahaikuaday.com and someday when I’m not too lazy I will post to details…
Posted in Beverage Banter | Leave a Comment »
October 12, 2009 by andai
All City Coffee has at least two locations in the Seattle area. Their flagship store is the one located in George town and the second store is located in downtown Seattle, in the Pioneer Square area. I had ‘been to’ the George town location a couple of years ago but I don’t really remember much about it. And even after I had been to visited the Pioneer Square location on more than a few times, it took me a while to actually make the connection… more so after I was looking at my collection of coffee shop signs is when I remembered having taken a picture of this sign a while back.
Being more familiar with the Pioneer Square location, I find the interior decor to be rather interesting in that in addition to the seating at the main level, there is a small fight of stairs that leads to am retro lounge type area which though unwalled gives users a some level of privacy, while at the same time will does not feel isolating from the rest of the room. Its a nice place to hang out if you wanted to be in the place but yet away and secluded from the rest of the place.
I had always assumed that All City Coffee were basically a coffee roasting company. I don’t know why… but I did. So I was rather surprised to find that not only do they not roast thier own coffee, but they actually get their coffee from Caffé Vita. Not that Caffé Vita is bad, not by any means. In fact All City Coffee actually do a pretty decent job with their coffee. I think the problem for me is, as I have said before, there are way too many coffee shops in Seattle the serve Caffé Vita coffee beans and so after a while, there isn’t really anything that will differentiate one coffee shop serving Caffe Vita from another coffee shop that also serves Caffé Vita. That’s just my own little take…
I guess the bottom line is, even though they do make decent coffee, there are at least five coffee shops or coffeehouses within short walking distance where I can try espresso made from beans other than Caffé Vita. These coffeehouses include Trabant, Café Umbria, Zeitgeist, Frontier Coffee and the Elliot Bay Bookstore Cafe. An so the problem is that I don’t find myself going to All City Coffee often.
But that being said, it actually is a nice space to lounge and enjoy an espresso… and if you have a chance, do go check it out and let me know what you think
Posted in Coffee, Tea & Hot Chocolate, Coffeehouses & Shops, Reviews, north america | Tagged all city coffee, cafe umbria, caffé vita, elliot bay bookstore cafe, frontier coffee, george town, pioneer square, seattle, trabant, zeitgeist | Leave a Comment »
October 10, 2009 by andai
What I also like about Vios Cafe is that it has a small marketplace very similar to that of Volunteer Park Café and Marketplace where you can by various Greek foodstuffs and ingredients you can take home to prepare your own meal.
What I also find interesting about my dining experiences with Vios though is that all these years (well there not that many but enough anyway) that I have been going there with family and friends for dinner, it was only the last couple of times I was there, maybe three or four months back that I actually did start ordering lattes… I don’t normally order lattes will dinner because I find them already filling, but I had to order at Vios because I was interested in seeing just to see how they stacked up to the coffeehouses in the area.
Vios has two locations, one in the Capital Hill area and the other in the Ravenna neighborhood. The one in Capital hill is a proper stand along cafe while the one in Ravenna is connected to Third Place Books, making it a fun place to visit as you can get your coffee and hang out in the bookstore if you are not interested in sitting in the dining area.
But I think the most interesting thing about Vios is the fact thatthey, i.e. both locations, serve illy coffee. Now just in case you don’t know illy, they are an Italian coffee roaster. Bein that Viso is a Greek restaurant, and a really great one at that, I would have thought that they would be serving the finest in Greek (or Greeek style) coffees… but they don’t.
Regardless, I think their coffee is actually decent. I have ordered it on quite a few occasions when having lunch or dinner there. And I have been relatively happy with the coffee that I got. It was nice and strong, good foam and well made. And being that this is Cafe Vita and Stumptown territory, it is nice to have outlets that serve something different. Illy is one of those coffees that I don’t get to try often, and this is simply because there are not too many places in the Seattle area, that I know of, that do serve that particular brand of coffee.
The main problem I have though is that Vios, at least the one on Capital hill, are not open in the morning, which is the time that I usually have my initial coffee cravings. As I have mentioned before, I tend not to like drinking lattes and such with dinner so whenever I go to Viso for dinner, lattes are usually the last thing on my mind. The other issue is Fuel. The original Fuel Coffee location is just a couple of blocks away from the Vios location and when I happen to be in the area looking for coffee, I find myself going to Fuel pretty much more often than I would go to Vios…. and so it pretty hard for me to go to Vios strictly for the coffee.
But I would certainly encourage you to give the place a try… and maybe ask for Greek style coffee and see what they say 
Posted in Beverage Banter, Coffee, Tea & Hot Chocolate, Coffeehouses & Shops, north america | Tagged caffé vita, capital hill, greek restaurant, illy, illy coffee, ravenna, seattle, Stumptown, vios, vios cafe & marketplace, volunteer park café and marketplace | Leave a Comment »
This has nothing to do with the coffee being bad or anything like that. Rather it just the atmosphere and the décor of Local Color is not something that I feel. The other part of it is the fact that a lot of the people who hang out there seem to be the touristy kind and clearly being that Local Color is located in Pike Place Market, one would expect that a large number of the clientele would be tourists and visitors in bad shorts, ugly sandals and Hawaiian shirts. Places with these sorts of customers do not really appeal to me as a place that I personally want to hang out and chill.
Now that being said, I think the biggest reason I don’t go there much is because Local Color serves Caffé Vita coffee beans. Now I know that for some, Caffé Vita is local favorite. But for me I think I have been to one too many coffee shops here in Seattle that serves Caffé Vita and they all seem to serve the same blend i.e. the Del Sol blend and quite frankly I am tired of it. Now if they served something like Caffé D’Arté or Café Umbria or even Fonté or Bartdof & Bronson coffees, I wouldn’t hang out there, but I would certainly go there to get my latte to go. But being that they are a Caffé Vita shop, I am not really compelled to go there at all.
To be fair I have to say that the owner of the place is a really nice and friendly lady and from my own casual observation she seems be doing somewhat decent business. I would certainly say that if you do like Caffé Vita, or even of you don’t really care too much about the coffee roaster but you simply want some decent espresso drinks, that I would say by all means do go checkout the place. Certainly, there are plenty of folks who go there often to get their espresso drinks and a touch of local color.
Posted in Beverage Banter, Coffee, Tea & Hot Chocolate, Coffeehouses & Shops, north america | Tagged art, cafe del sol, caffé vita, local color, pike place market, seattle | Leave a Comment »
