Sunday, July 05, 2009

Coffee hiking Queen Anne

In search of a good shot of espresso, Michael Allen Smith, goes to great lengths to satisfy his thirst for all things coffee. That includes an urban hike up and down Queen Anne hill with a few friends in the Coffee Club of Seattle, including myself, to compare espresso cafes.



Muse Coffee on the west side of Queen Anne stands out among the indie cafes in the city. It's location, the artful interior, the coffee, and it's owner have won high praise not only from Smith, but from its' neighbors as well.



From Muse, we walked down to the Interbay indie shop called the Q Cafe. Props to them for serving Stumptown and to the barista who pulled the shots. Noteworthy, too, is that Q Cafe is a non-profit org that a portion of its sales to other local non-profits.



The hardest part of the coffee trek was the climb back uphill to make our way to Bustle, a new coffee shop that used to be a nail salon. BTW, that is Michael in the pic chatting with the Bustle guy behind the counter.

The Bustle decor is inviting, the interior has a European street bistro feel and the coffee is good. Not as good as Stumptown, though. Bustle uses Attibasi, imported from Italy. I prefer Illy from Italy but the Attibasi was alright. But, if we're talking a little bit of Italy in my espresso, we might as well be talking about Stella. And, since they are a block away from Macrina's Queen Anne store, Bustle's selection of pastry as of now is no contest. Macrina blows them away by a mile. If I lived in that slice of QA, however, I wouldn't mind another good coffee shop there; assuming I didn't already go to Macrina, or didn't have some shopping to do on top of QA where I could also go to six other places for a cuppa coffee.



We began and ended our coffee hike in the heart of the Queen Anne neighborhood at El Diablo Coffee on the summit of Queen Anne Ave. North. This cafe is outstanding in its location, decor, ambience and its' coffee. El Diablo is known for its' cafe cubano as well as its' Mexican hot chocolate. And, as shown in this mug shot below, you will also find the art of the cafe con leche at El Diablo.



This five-mile trek was such a buzz for all the coffee fanatics who ambled along this caffeinated trail, Smith is already thinking up another trip for another neighborhood.

1 comment:

frantic foodie said...

I love Muse because it has this New York Style and Bustle because it really does have European feel. Thanks for this post.