Think of Seattle and one of the first things you might think of is coffee. Think of coffee and most people will probably think about Starbucks. When looking up places to visit in Seattle OR talking to anyone about visiting Seattle, you're probably going to hear that you should visit the OriginalTM Starbucks or the Starbucks Reserve Roastery. Well, I'm not here to tell you to not do that. I'm not even going to tell you to not try the $10 (!!!) siphon brew. In fact, visit if you want. Do whatever you want. It's your trip! Do you.
But what I WILL say is that there are many OTHER Seattle coffee shops and roasters you can visit for great coffee that's just as Instagrammable (yes, I just said that). Being in a relationship with a coffee enthusiast means getting to try a bunch of third wave coffee shops when traveling. I'll spare you the coffee snobbery, but that also means we ain't got time for Starbucks. Plus, ya know, we're trying to visit places we can't visit on every street corner back home or anywhere else... #hailcorporate #alsoidontwantmycoffeeburnt
Also, disclaimer: a more accurate title for this post would've been "6 Places to Get Coffee In Seattle that Aren't Starbucks" but that just doesn't roll off the tongue as nicely.
Anyway, here are 6 places to get coffee in Seattle:
1. Cherry Street Public House (and Cherry Street Coffee House) #
Cherry Street Coffee House is Seattle's longest standing coffee company and was THE coffee shop when I think of Seattle (well, aside from They Who Will Not Be Named). We ate Cherry Street Public House when we were in Seattle, because we needed food - they serve the same premium coffee at Coffee House alongside a Persian menu. And don't think the coffee you'd be getting here is any less - Public House is run by Cherry Street Coffee House's founder's daughter, the United States Barista Champion in 2014.
2. Elm Coffee Roasters #
Elm Coffee Roasters sources in-season beans and specializes in lighter roasts. We stopped by their shop for a quick cup of coffee before starting our day and I may or may not have been in love with the light, minimal design of the shop itself - which, admittedly is a lot like their coffee.
3. Stumptown #
If you're privy to coffee at all, then you might recognize Stumptown, as they're a pretty popular chain in several major cities and have some a lot brand recognition themselves. Stumptown is a Portland-based coffee roaster with locations in Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Chicago. You can even find their milk coffee drinks and cold brew in a lot of major grocery stores. Despite their growth, Stumptown still sources their beans via direct trade and sustainable and ethical practices.
As a disclaimer, we went to one of their Portland locations, where I had their amazing horchata cold brew, but you can visit them in Seattle too.
4. Milstead & Co. #
Milstead & Co. is located in a modern and slightly industrial space just a short walk down from The Fremont Troll, a popular Seattle tourist spot under the George Washington Memorial Bridge in Fremont. They serve coffee from roasters such as Stumptown, Intelligentsia, and Coava and a variety of delicious pastries. And as a side note, since it's down the street from one of the Google offices, you'll likely catch a lot of Googlers there, too.
5. Victrola Coffee Roasters #
I'm gonna first say that the Victrola we went to was literally a couple of storefronts down from the Starbucks Reserve Roastery located in Capitol Hill, which I thought was really great. Despite being so close to such a popular coffee destination, this place had a huge line waiting to order. There were a lot of people there and didn't seem like a great place to study/work, but a great place to people watch. As I recall, the cold brew I ordered was good and smooth.
6. Ada's Technical Books & Cafe #
I was originally not going to title this post "5 Seattle Coffee Shops That Aren't Starbucks", but then I wouldn't have been able to talk about this place because A) this is #6 and B) this is not really a coffee shop. I mean, it's a cafe and they serve coffee (from Seattle's Kuma Coffee, at that), but the main appeal of this place for me is the bookstore part of it! The shop is presumably named after Ada Lovelace and they sell books relating to computers, math, and physics. I even saw several books about feminism. As someone who studied Computer Science, I wish I had such a cool place like this to go to when I was in college!
The best part is we found out about this place while walking around Capitol Hill like a couple of tourists and lost. A nice local man came up to us, asked if we needed help navigating, then mentioned we should stop by this cool little bookshop.