C&P Coffee Company

house.

Hello, coffee lovers! Long time, no sip. After a long summer in the middle of nowhere, I’ve started drinking real (and really good) coffee again. I recently moved out of West Seattle to the mainland of the city, but before I did, I made sure to visit C&P Coffee Company. C&P is a coffeehouse – a home in a residential area of West Seattle. It’s cozy, comfortable, and huge.

C&P is exactly what a generic TV grandma’s house looks like, except there’s a coffee bar instead of a kitchen. The atmosphere is very friendly, a great departure from the snobby hipster shops we see so often here in the Evergreen City. (Is that our city name? Or are we the Evergreen State? The Rainy City? Microsoft Land? One never knows.) C&P serves a wide range of drinks in thick white mugs that wax nostalgic for old-school diners. I tried the french press, which they keep in drip coffee-style urns. While not ground-breaking, the french press was solid – a deliciously smooth and dense dark roast. There are unlimited refills, so sip at your own risk (of caffeine overload) C&P serves Lighthouse Roasters coffee and espresso.

One of the things I like about C&P is the feeling of home that oozes through the entire establishment. Not only is the coffee shop in an actual home, their community board is covered with in-house events. The events range from C&P-sponsored wine tastings (meets monthly!) to water color classes to baby showers that rent the space. It’s an unabashedly welcoming, un-pretentious space that I’ll definitely visit again.

Snobbery (out of 5): 

Taste (out of 5): 

What’s Brewing

This week had a few extra coffee-related goodies, so I thought I’d write a post to share.

First, I fell in love this week…with Hozier, the musician. He’s like a cross between Ben Howard and Imagine Dragons, and the result is captivating. Some songs make you want to get up and shake it, some are tender and hold you just right. We haven’t met yet, but I’m optimistic that he’ll fall in love with me at his concert in November when I sing along to every word. Don’t worry, my inner thirteen year old is gone now. Delusion aside, one of my favorite things to do on the weekends is sit down at my table with a cup of coffee and my notebook, and listen to music and drink good coffee as I write.

Saturday or Sunday mornings are the most magical times of my week, when I get to slow down from the nine-to-five rush, and let my mind wander where it will. Given that work requires so much unbroken concentration for long periods of time, this is a restorative practice that I have come to really enjoy.

This week, I also had the exciting chance to try out the brewing system my dad discovered, called the BonaVita. It’s like a combination pour-over and french press, which essentially provides all the delicious taste of a pour-over, with all the convenience of a french press. You just set the thing up on a scale, add 22g of medium-fine ground coffee, add 375g hot water, and let sit 2-3 minutes.

Then you flip the switch, and out comes the coffee into your mug. It’s so easy, you can make pancakes at the same time! See, there’s this catch-22 about making quality coffee, which is that it often takes time and patience, two things that I do not have in the mornings…especially before coffee! It’s terrible. So often, I end up drinking terrible coffee simply because the alternative is showing up to work 30 minutes late. The BonaVita changes everything! I can put the water on, put my face on, pour the water in, pack my bag, grab my thermos, and we’re good to go! My sister is letting me borrow the BonaVita while she’s home for the summer, but we’ll see if she gets it back in the fall. (Perhaps should not have just sent her the link to this blog. Oops! Hi squish!)

 

finished and ready to empty

If you’re curious, here’s what the valve looks like:

(Shout out to Intelligentsia, the Original Sunday coffee location for me and B.)

top view

bottom

Since I’ve mentioned terrible coffee, I also wanted to share this hilarious article that made me laugh this week. I’ve often compared Shnarshnucks coffee to dirty dishwater, but an actual barista tasted the most common brands of grocery store coffee, and taste rated them as he would a batch of the good stuff. The results are hilarious, and I highly recommend reading if you find humor in the discomfort of others and accurate, if slightly uncomfortable, descriptions.

Do you love Hozier yet?

Drink good coffee!

xxx A

Pegasus Coffee Bar

Pegasus Coffee Bar is the perfect mid-commute jolt – a postage stamp of a store, few pastries, and rich, delicious coffee. There are two locations in downtown Seattle (both have limited seating). The Bar serves coffee roasted by their parent company, Pegasus Coffee House, on Bainbridge Island. So far, Pegasus pours my favorite cup of drip in the city. Quite an honor!

I wanted to take photos of the interior to show you the teeny store, but it was so small that I felt awkward snapping some pictures! Here’s the exterior:

(That’s it. That’s all the seating.)

I ran in to Pegasus today for a cup of coffee in between my two buses. The interior is cozy and the baristas are always friendly. As I said above, Pegasus roasts its own beans on Bainbridge Island. They make their espresso and coffee drinks with these beans and offer an intense variety of teas. (Last summer I walked in and asked for “something to make me not sad that it’s only Tuesday.” I walked out with some sort of tea and a smile!) My coffee today – a simple drip, no milk or sugar – was delicious. Rich, flavorful, and with a faintly sour aftertaste. I didn’t take a picture because (a) I was the only person in the Coffee Bar and I got nervous and (b) it was a drip coffee. You all know what that looks like.

Pegasus offers a variety of high-quality espresso drinks and teas. While it a postage-stamp coffee shop, it never has a line and the baristas are always chatty without being overbearing or annoying. Their friendly service knocks them down a few mustaches, but it is incredibly refreshing in this hipster city. Pegasus earned four out of five lattes – I’m sure you’ll agree with me after you try their drinks!

Snobbery (out of 5):   

Taste (out of 5): 

 

Drink good coffee.
-R

Irving Farm

As my introductory post to this blog, I think it’s only fitting that I write about the cafe that introduced me to the great city that is New York.

Almost a year ago (10 days!), I moved into the NYU dorms in Gramercy, having graduated and moved from LA in just over a week. In the spirit of full-disclosure, I’m one of the few people I’ve met who never dreamed of moving in New York. Perhaps this has something to do with my sample population, but never mind. The City just never appealed to me; as a mountain and West-coast lover, I’m much more drawn to dry summer nights, sandy toes, and sun-bleached hair. Yet life is a funny thing, and in pursuit of one dream I found myself leaving another. Hello, NYC.

So last summer I was enrolled in a graduate program, for which I got up early and went to bed late, subsisting on terrible coffee that looked, rather disturbingly, like dirty dish water. This was survival mode, and as my cup’s tears ran in the humid air, I searched for a better place to get coffee.

the perpetrator shall remain Staibulcaihks

Needless to say, I was overjoyed to find Irving Farm just a ten minute walk from my dorm. Nestled down a short staircase and with a simple sign, though the original cafe is easy to miss. But once I sat down and took a sip of my first well-roasted, properly-made coffee in weeks, I never wanted to leave.

At the Gramercy location, 71 Irving Street the small space is full of little two-tops, and the seating area is a veritable maze that is always populated with students, artists, friends, first dates, established couples, and the like. They serve iced drinks in mason jars, and have delicious snacks that include vegan and gluten-free options. They also have almond milk, for the dairy-adverse. Irving Farm serves delicious, simple food, such as salads, bagels, oatmeal, and sandwiches. The founders “realized that to deliver a truly craft-focused, hands-on approach to their love of coffee, we’d simply have to roast it, too.” They were right. It’s homey without becoming precious or kitschy, quite the feat considering the popular pull of Williamsburg culture. They also have one of the best views in the city:

the best building in the city

Since discovering Irving Farm, I’m willing to bet that I haven’t gone more than two weeks without visiting. There are four locations in the city (and yes, I’ve been to them all): Gramercy, the Lower East Side, Grand Central, and the Upper West Side. Gramercy and the Upper West are my most frequent haunts, but all the locations are lovely. Irving Farm is my city coffee home, where I take all my friends, and where I will send anyone who’s looking for the good stuff. My only wish is that they’d open a located over in Hudson Square (hint, hint!).

More great sights (near the UWS location):

Banksy just around the corner from UWS location

Snobbery (out of 5):   (just enough to be quality, right?)

Taste (out of 5): 

 

 

Drink good coffee

xxx A

 

Sweet Treats: Bakery Nouveau

Hello again!

I’m back home in Seattleland, my coffee Mecca, and what a relief it is. Almost anywhere that serves coffee serves really good coffee. So when I craved baked goods this weekend, I hustled over to Bakery Nouveau. Because “why the hell not?” is a great justification for caffeine, I ordered a latte in addition to my scrumptious twice-baked chocolate croissant (which is a glorious thing that does exist).

Let me back up. Bakery Nouveau has a small storefront in West Seattle. This is what you see when you enter:

*drool*

Turn your head slightly to the left and you see this:

cake cake cake cake cake

WHO CAN EVEN FOCUS ON COFFEE WITH THIS LEVEL OF DISTRACTION?!

(me.)

When you finally drag your eyes away from the cases, you notice the quaint interior. There are a few hanging lights, quiet music, and lots of dark wood with light trim. The interior is French, without overdoing it.

(photo from wsjunction.org)

Finally, the coffee: Bakery Nouveau offers a normal array of espresso-based drinks and I drank a good latte. Two shots, soy milk, high-quality espresso. It was not life-changing, but it was a solid latte. The croissant, however, changed everything. The main lesson I learned in my visit to Bakery Nouveau was one that is probably obvious to everyone else. Bakeries focus on baked goods, not coffee. I can hear you all saying “Duh, B.” I’m glad I learned this valuable lesson – my next post will be from a straight-up coffee joint!

Snobbery (out of 5): 

Taste (out of 5): 

As always, drink good coffee.

-B

P.S. Bakery Nouveau also has a way-cute blog. Check them out here!

B’s Unlikely Starting Point

It’s sunny in Seattle today – you can almost hear everyone’s skin burning – which seems as good an omen as any to write my first blog post. The location of my first blogged coffee shop is even more unlikely than seeing the shining sky-orb. This weekend, I drank really good coffee in (almost) Idaho.

I visited Little Brother B this weekend at his school in (almost) Idaho. The area is not known for its culinary innovation, so my meals with LBB consist of French fries, greasy diner breakfasts, and hot dogs with cream cheese (it’s a thing). I preemptively cringed when I asked him where to find good coffee before the trip home and was surprised when he mentioned Thomas Hammer Coffee Roasters. I didn’t even know there was a non-Starbucks coffee shop in town!

Even more surprising than the mere presence of a small coffee shop in (almost) Idaho was the coffee quality and the atmosphere. The menu was extensive enough to be exciting for non-coffee drinkers, but limited enough that everything was created thoughtfully. My travel companion ordered a diablo, a chili-laced mocha. I ordered a cold brew and threw some milk in it:

 

My cold brew was tasty and refreshing. The only milk option to add to my coffee was whole milk, which is one of the marks of a good coffee shop. (Side note, one of A’s favorite questions to answer is “should I put nonfat milk in my coffee?” You should ask her some time.) My companion’s diablo mocha was so good. Not too sweet, not too spicy. So, so good.

a very mod interior

As we waited for our drinks, we struck up a conversation with the barista. I mentioned that I work for a summer camp and he immediately busted out a camp song about a skunk (“I stuck my head in the hole and he said ‘get it out! Get it out! Remooooove it!'”). No one has ever serenaded me before, and I was certainly not expecting an impromptu solo in a mod coffee shop! The lack of pretentiousness was as refreshing as my cup of cold brew and very fitting in the college town.

an exterior mural, too!

Thomas Hammer was an excellent pre-road trip stop. The coffee was delicious and the staff was friendly and efficient. Although A would approve of the milk choices, the menu’s inclusion of multiple types of mochas and cold blended coffee drinks knocked a few mustaches off my rating. If you find yourself in Eastern Washington, though, I highly recommend Thomas Hammer!

Snobbery (out of 5): 
Taste (out of 5):       

 

As always, drink good coffee.

-B