Sauced

More Seattle-on-TV News: Bizarre Foods to Feature Seattle Coffee Works

The Travel Channel show hits town this Friday.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 26, 2011 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

The one on the left is coming to town on Friday.

Update 2: Very cool bit of info from Hanna Raskin on Voracious: Apparently it was James Ross Gardner’s Seattle Met profile of Simsch that convinced Bizarre Foods to hit up the coffee shop.

Update: Oops! Missed this. Jay Friedman has more details on the visit on The Sunbreak (via Eater).

Travel Channel personality Andrew Zimmern and Sebastian Simsch: together at last.

The Bizarre Foods host will be in Seattle this Friday, July 29 to talk to Simsch, owner of Seattle Coffee Works, about the Columbia Cup of Excellence, a $100-per-pound coffee. Seattle Coffee Works is the only Seattle retailer to offer this highly coveted java, according to a company press release.

If 100 bones doesn’t strike you as all that bizarre an amount to pay for really good coffee, it’s possible you’ve been in Seattle too long.

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Tags: Television, Coffee Buzz, Coffee, Seattle on TV

How Much Does a Bikini Barista Make Anyways?

And how does that wage compare to that of a fully clothed barista?

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on May 24, 2011 at 12:38PM 15 Comments

A bikini espresso stand in Shoreline
Photo: wikipedia

I’ve always wondered if the motivation for wearing a bathing suit while pulling espresso shots resided in the paycheck. Wondered, that is, until I saw this Craigslist ad for a bikini barista position in Everett, the very city where five bikini baristas were charged with prostitution back in 2009.

Here’s what the ad says:
“Looking for a bikini barista in the Everett area. $9.00 per hour. Must have experience and great customer service. Needed all different days, including weekends. Please email me your resume along with pictures and phone number to get in contact with you.”

So…$9 an hour. Compare that to the average wage of a Starbucks barista: $8.64, according to Glassdoor.com. (That drops to $8.33 if you filter for less than one year of experience). For 36 cents less you get to work while clothed? Given our chilly climate that seems like something of a no-brainer.

Ah, but there is the matter of the tip jar to consider.

PS: Yes, I know that one bikini barista wage does not add up to representative sample. It’s still, um, revealing.

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Tags: News, Coffee Buzz, Everett

Coffee Discovery: Oso Negro

Smooth brews from our neighbors to the north.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 18, 2011 at 09:42AM 0 Comments

Coffee, the most important thing in the world.

So I know we’re supposed to be the coffee capitol of the world or whatever, and indeed it seems there are more delicious espresso drinks (americanos at Fonte, lattes at Stumptown, anything from Lighthouse) poured around this town than maybe anywhere else on earth. And many of our local offerings work delectably at home when you make coffee in a French press or a good espresso machine.

However. On weekdays, coffee at my house is brewed in a drip machine. People have tried to talk me out of this. I’ve worked in some very good coffee shops on the other coast, and my bosses could never believe I insisted on using an auto-drip at home given all the wisdom they’d so generously bestowed upon me.

But listen: I’m lazy. And always running about half an hour behind schedule. I don’t want to deal with my French press on Tuesday morning. I’ll see you Saturday afternoon, French press, when I’m lounging with a magazine, small dog resting her velvety head on my knee.

I’ve tried every local brand of coffee in Mr. Coffee, and some of the roasters I love best have delivered the most disappointing results. But Oso Negro, a coffee company based in Nelson, BC, is different. The princess of darkness (organic Columbian supremo) is the coffee they serve at diners in heaven—strong to the point of bracing, soul-reviving, smooth with an easygoing finish so you have none of that rank coffee aftertaste. It tastes good in a drip machine. Great, even.

You can order it online here. And don’t forget to leave your beans at room temperature. You’re special ordering those little suckers from Canada now, don’t torture them by sticking them in the freezer.

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Tags: Home Brewing, Coffee Buzz, Coffee

Zoka Coffee Roasters and Tea to Open a Fourth Location in South Lake Union

The new Boren Ave shop has been designed in the style of the Kirkland Zoka, according to an employee.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 03, 2011 at 02:28PM 1 Comments

Zoka’s fourth location opens April 11.

Photo Courtesy: Zoka Coffee

As if consumable treat-wealthy South Lake Union needed something else to be psyched about, now it gets a Zoka?

I just spoke with an employee at Zoka HQ about the company’s new location at 351 Boren Avenue North in South Lake Union. “It’s in one of the buildings of one of the new companies down there. You can probably guess which one,” he told me.

Mysterious. And by mysterious I mean Amazon.

The new store will resemble the Kirkland location, said the employee. Of the three existent local Zokas, Kirkland’s is decidedly the fanciest, with sleek modern lighting and a big communal table carved from a tree trunk. (For maximum Northwestiness, please add communal table carved from a tree trunk).

The South Lake Union Zoka will open on April 11.

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Tags: South Lake Union, Coffee Buzz, Coffee Shop Happy Hours, Seattle Coffee News

Why Do Restaurants—Even Good Restaurants—Serve Such Bad Coffee?

Microsoft’s Chris Young, co-author of Modernist Cuisine, explains why coffee service tends to suck.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Dec 08, 2010 at 05:40PM 0 Comments

Chris Young wants to convert chefs to the cause of good coffee.

Eater asked Seattle’s own Chris Young, the co-author (with Nathan Myhrvold) of forthcoming science-cuisine tome Modernist Cuisine, why restaurants always have such bad coffee.

His answer: “It’s not at all uncommon that you have the newest waiter comes in, he’s back on the pass, he helps with the coffee, he does all that kind of stuff. He gets some amount of training but not necessarily by someone who’s really an expert in coffee, and then if he’s any good at all, in three weeks they’re promoted and you have somebody new doing the coffee.”

Young told Eater that Modernist Cuisine’s chapter on coffee is aimed at showing chefs just how good there java offerings could be if only they’d pay proper attention.

Learn lots more about Chris Young and what to expect from Modernist Cuisine here.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Chefs, Coffee Buzz, Coffee, Modernist Cuisine

Free Coffee at New Madison Valley Coffeeshop

Patty Pan’s new 23rd and Madison location gives away the goods through Saturday.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 21, 2010 at 10:54AM 0 Comments

Now through Saturday, get a free coffee drink at the new Patty Pan.

Patty Pan Soup and Salad Cafe is the new coffeshop from Devra Gartenstein, owner of the defunct Patty Pan Grill, a vegetarian tamale destination in Ballard.

The tiny property she has taken over at 2310 E Madison Street has been home to two previous coffee ventures in recent months: Cafe Char and Fixx.

Gartenstein is sticking with Fremont Coffee, the roaster that also supplied Fixx. And through Saturday, October 23, she is offering a free coffee—espresso drinks included—to customers.

Patty Pan is open Tuesday through Saturday from 7:30am to 3:30pm. Aside from coffee, Gartenstein will be serving handmade soups, salads, and stuffed breads. Also scones.

Photo source

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Tags: Coffee Buzz, Free Drinks, Coffee, Free Stuff, Central District

Olive Way Starbucks Reopens

The company brings its third “enhanced” store to Capitol Hill.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 18, 2010 at 07:23AM 5 Comments

Now this is what I call coffee theater.

The 1600 E Olive Way Starbucks—one of Capitol Hill’s premier people-watching/eavesdropping destinations—has been closed for renovations since July.

That means for nearly three months, caffeine-seeking Capitol Hill dwellers have been forced to scavenge for coffee at Stumptown, Online, Caffe Vita, Victrola, Vivace, Bauhaus, B&O Espresso, Top Pot Doughnuts, Cafe Argento, Kaladi Brothers, Liberty Bar, Oddfellows, Elliot Bay Books, the secret Starbucks on 15th Street NW, the other Online Coffee, the other Victrola, the other Stumptown, Porchlight, the secret Starbucks on Roy, Joe Bar, Pettirosso, Cafe Presse, Insomniax Coffee, Tully’s, Peet’s, Volunteer Park Cafe, Cupcake Royale, Cafe Ladro, Dilettante, and a few other places.

The deprivation is over. The new Olive Way Starbucks has re-opened with a revamped interior and exterior, a LEEDS certification, and beer and wine. The counter has been designed to create what Starbucks calls “coffee theater;” espresso machines are installed at the store’s center for maximum drama, baristas make one drink at a time as customers observe.

The Olive Way store is the latest in a string of “enhanced” coffee shops that Starbucks has opened locally—if we like them, boozy ‘bucks with coffee theater may open all over the country. In other words, the nation’s fate is in your hands, Capitol Hill.

PS: Just down the block at Olive and Denny, Arabica Coffee, which opened this August, is serving Stumptown coffee.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Coffee Buzz, Starbucks, Coffee

Starbucks Brass to Baristas: “Slow Down!”

If your latte takes a little longer but tastes a little better, here’s why.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 14, 2010 at 10:32AM 1 Comments

Starbucks slows down service in the name of better drinks.

Whenever I’m at Starbucks, I make sure to stand, obnoxiously, right near the little round counter corner where the baristas place their completed drinks.

It’s not because I’m impatient (though I am), it’s because whenever anyone is making anything, I like to watch how they do it.

And what I’ve noticed at the ‘Bucks is baristas maximizing efficiency by working on several—four or five—drinks at once. My coworker, a former Buck-a-neer (employees aren’t really called Buck-a-neers), speaks of the company’s emphasis on efficiency—He says baristas were told spooky stories about undercover testers who come to stores and secretly evaluated them. And one of the principal measures on which they were evaluated was how long it took them to make drinks.

Well things have apparently changed. According to this Wall Street Journal article, Starbucks is about to start instructing baristas to make just two drinks at a time. The WSj acquired company documents detailing the new procedure.

From the article:
“Customers have indicated that the quality of espresso drinks at Starbucks is ‘average’ and that the beverages are inconsistently prepared from barista to barista and from store to store, the documents say….Baristas say it can take anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute to make an espresso-based drink, depending on the complexity of the drink and the barista’s skill. In the documents, Starbucks says one of the goals of the new drink-making method is to produce beverages ‘at a more consistent pace.’”

Your latte might take longer, in other words, but it will take the same amount longer at every store.

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Tags: Coffee Buzz, Starbucks, Coffee, Seattle in the news

Should Coffeeshops Ban Wifi?

There’s always a risk to taking something away from customers.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 09, 2010 at 09:44AM 2 Comments

Coffeeshop customers camping out.

Last Friday afternoon, I found myself at one of those tiny two-tops at Oddfellows, eating some chicken soup and drinking a Mexican Coke. “In the back near the cold case,” I emailed—via iphone—the stranger I was meeting. “I’m between two laptops.”

As I waited, I looked around the cafe. I saw a table of what I guessed were old friends, cheerfully forgoing the five-pm rule and ordering up a round of beers. I saw people engaged in business meetings like the one I was about to have, and a thin poety man seated alone, scribbling into his moleskine. And I saw lots of people typing into laptops—Coke bottles, coffee cups, and cookie crumb-sprinkled napkins pushed to the side as they sent messages into space.

And it occurred to me that Oddfellows had achieved what so many cafes set out to do; it is at once a neighborhood hub and a makeshift office—a place where you can eat a meal alone without feeling awkward while, on either side of you, an alt-weekly editor blogs about bestiality and a Match.com match-up shakes hands for the first time. You could say that these sorts of things happen at all coffeeshops and you’d be correct. But what makes Oddfellows different, to my mind, is that there is a certain breeziness to the whole thing, a certain natural feeling of…whatever.

No one looks at you askance if you order alcohol at any time of day, but you could equally complete a thesis proposal here. And despite the fact that people seem to feel welcome to do as they like, tables turn over like crazy.

Perhaps the coffeeshops featured in this LA Times story should pay Oddfellows a visit. Admittedly, the media jumps on the “trend” of blocking wifi every few months—Victrola on 15th went wifi-free on weekends a few years back (and received New York Times coverage as a result), then brought the wifi back, then re-banned it. But there is always a risk to taking something away from customers that they have become accustomed to. And since many of us peck out email messages and peruse the web on GSM-enabled smart phones these days, it’s no longer an effective solution to antisocial lingering anyway. What I like about Oddfellows is that it inspires its guests to use the cafe space in a variety of ways, rather than preventing them from using it in one particular way. It seems like there is a lesson there for cafe owners who struggle to turn over tables.

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Tags: Coffee Buzz, Coffee

Rowhouse Cafe Coming to South Lake Union

Owner Erin Maher aims to create a “mini urban resort” in SLU’s historic Cascade neighborhood.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 05, 2010 at 01:30PM 2 Comments

Row House Cafe

Set to open in September, the Row House Cafe will serve Illy coffee, beer, wine, snacks and apps (cheese, charcuterie, etc), and pastries from various local bakeries, including Macrina and Le Panier.

Erin Maher, one of the owners, has a background in launching destination resorts. She says she thinks of coffee shops as “mini urban resorts” for weary city folk. The cafe will be housed in a 1904 structure that was originally three separate cottages (the previous tenant connected them and used them as office space). Maher and partners have restored the cottages’ original front porches, and plan to offer year-round outdoor seating.

Row House will open daily at 6am. In the beginning, says Maher, she’ll close at 8pm, but she hopes to extend hours until midnight once she’s up and running. The menu, too, will evolve over time.

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Coffee Buzz

The Daily Beast Declares Seattle “Caffeine Capital” of America

Portland takes the number two spot.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 29, 2010 at 01:21PM 2 Comments

Seattleites spend an average of $36 on coffee every month, per the Beast.

I have a research (nerd) background, which prompts me to get a little prickly about consumer pubs and their funky methodologies for creating top 10 lists, but this one seems relatively solid. Seattle is the Caffeine Capital of America, according to findings from The Daily Beast.

Such a declaration may seem obvious, but Portland’s been making moves.

Here are Seattle’s stats, per the article.

Coffee shops per 100,000 residents: 35
Caffeine survey rank: 2
Average monthly spending on coffee: $36

The Beast started by determining which cities had the most coffee shops in relation to residents. Some of these, like Portland, were not included in the caffeine survey they used for the second stat, so the Daily Beast normalized those scores. The average monthly spending on coffee came from a Mint.com survey from the first quarter of 2010.

Stumptown has only has 28 coffee shops per 100,000 residents. (How do they survive down there?) and its residents spend an average of just $33 on coffee per month. Honestly, seems pretty close to me. But still, you take a win where you can get it, know what I mean?

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Tags: Seattle in the News, Coffee Buzz, Coffee

Care for an Espresso Shot Pulled on a $14,000, Locally Made Machine?

You’ll be wanting to check out the new cafe in the Bravern.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 22, 2010 at 01:53PM 3 Comments

Behold the Slayer. They’ll be two of these at the new Bravern cafe Vovito.

July 30 is opening day for Vovito Caffè and Gelato, a 2,444 square-foot, Italian-style espresso shop in Bellevue’s Bravern shopping center.

A press release announcing its arrival says Vovito will have “two of the region’s three Slayer espresso machines.” But that’s not quite right—Zoka in Kirkland has a Slayer, and tiny Equal Exchange in the Ballard Market has one too. Still, two Slayers! That’s one Slayer for every 1,222 square feet!

Slayer is a Georgetown-based maker of some of the world’s very best espresso machines. The base price for one of these bad boys is 14 grand and there are only about 20 coffeshops on the planet that use them. Their principal virtue is that they allow the baristas to maintain all kids of control. They can tweak the pressure throughout the brewing process and experiment with how that alters flavor and mouthfeel.

Vovito will offer 24 flavors of gelato made on site, plus panini and the like. It will be open at 6:30am on weekdays so that Bravern employees can get perked first thing. They will no doubt welcome Vovito’s arrival.

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Coffee Buzz, Coffee, Slayer Espresso Machines