Fuel Coffee has been a staple of the Eastern side of Capital Hill for a while now and has also been a favorite alternative source of mine. The first store opened up on Capital Hill (or maybe more accurately the Miller Park neighborhood… a couple of doors down from the famous Kingfish Cafe right on 19th. She then opened her second store on Montlake, in the same space where the Montlake branch of the Seattle Library system was located before they move to their new location across the street. She then opened a third store in the Wallingford area right on 45th almost directly across the street from Chocolati Café.
I often drive past Fuel Coffee on my way to the office (or client site) and will stop and get a latte for the road. I will usually rotate between the one on 19th which has the old coffee shop feel to it similar to Bauhaus or the original Top Pot, and the one on Montlake Blvd which has a more modern feel to the design. Regardless, I really like the design concept of the old 50s, 60s gas station that the stores are build around. I believe the Fuel Coffee in Wallingford even has a vintage gas pump in it… I have to go back and check to confirm.
But what I think is really interesting about Fuel is that even though the serve the Cafe Del Sol espresso blend from Cafe Vita, as many coffee shops in Seattle do, they clearly pull their espresso shots and froth the milk in a way the flavor comes out distinctively different from all the other coffee shops using this same blend. I am not sure how they do it, but I’m sure they would be willing to chat. They do have La Marzocco espresso machine that has a really awesome custom design i.e the Fuel racing strips… I wonder if that is the machine that makes the difference. I will have to get the background story on their machines, but clearly I think they do a decent job with their lattes otherwise I wouldn’t be going there at all…
And I find that the baristas there are generally nice… and there are a couple at the Montlake branch who are really cool. I don’t know their names or anything like that but I recognize them whenever I go there for a coffee.
The other thing I like about Fuel is their merchandise. They do have some really great t-shirts, mugs and insulated cups and a host of other pretty cool merch. I am not one to usually buy that kind of stuff, but I really do like their t-shits…
