Thoughts

Thoughts and Adventures From Greenlite Heavy Industries

Friday, December 5, 2014

Howard and the Coffee Factory

What to you get when you combine Howard Schultz (Starbucks) with Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) - the new Starbucks Reserve here on Seattle's Capitol Hill.
Beans arrive at the brewing station from the roaster via copper tubes
I know it's cool to poo poo the big guys but I have to say this place is pretty awesome.  It's all copper and wood and steel, it's cool pure and simple.

In England they have these things called "follies," basically some unusual, whimsical structure built
The Dunmore Pineapple
by some rich guy as a lark.  He had the money so why not.  Well it seems to me that the Starbucks Reserve is kind of Harold's folly, and like I said it's pretty awesome.

After two bouts of sub-freezing temperatures Seattle is back to her dreary temperate self, and I took advantage of the rising mercury to roll out my bike and ride over to Capitol Hill for a cup.

Locally made chairs
The place was packed with tourists watching Seattle hipsters in the natural habitat.  I love hipster style by the way - but that can wait for another post.  I spent nearly fifteen minutes waiting for a cup of drip - wait they don't have drip so I went for the pour-over.  "Dark as ya got" I said in response to what roast I wanted.  In my opinion the best way to make coffee is to brew a full ten cup pot of drip, so right off the bat I was a little skeptical of what I would get.  A few minutes later a dude in a nice waxed cotton/leather apron brought me over a ceramic cup emblazoned with an "R" partially filled with perfect drinking temperature coffee.  Damn it was good.

I took a seat in a comfy chair, but then it was time to go - my daughter wasn't feeling well at school, time to go into nurse mode.

What I really like about the store is the fact that the furniture is all sourced locally.  The cool waxed cotton/leather aprons worn by all the employees (and there were a lot - on par with an Apple store) are also made by a Seattle company (I wish I could remember the name).  I'm happy that the big dogs are once again looking to the little dogs for craftsmanship and creativity.

2 comments:

Alistair said...

Hey Mike, that's "Howard" Shultz by the way, you know, the guy that let the Sonics get away...

mikemc said...

Oops. Thanks Alistair. I guess I picked the wrong week to go decaf.