Java Joints of Jet City: Caffe Fiore

We're up late on a Sunday morning and find ourselves riding the #17 through a lovely residential neighborhood in North Seattle. We round a corner and see Caffe Fiore.A coffee shop? Time to ring the bell and jump off the bus.

Like the corner we've just swung around, everything about Fiore is round: the outdoor seating area, the espresso bar and pastry case, the mid-90's Chihuly-esque glass light fixtures and customer's smiles.

The coffee shop is bustling. Most people seem to know each other and engage in lively conversation. We stumble over the delightful four-year olds cavorting about the shop. One pauses to slap five with a guy who is clearly not her dad, but easily familiar to her from other trips to Fiore. We're kind of charmed.

We line up by inching alongside a row of tables, then wedging ourselves up into the most narrow part of the store to order at the bar. The line then folds back upon itself to take you to the register where you can order your food and pay. The pre-Raymond Lowy store design looks great but creates inefficient customer flow. No one seems to mind, however, and they all know how it works so we scoot happily along until we have to sit down. We struggle through the layers of lines to get to the seating we passed originally and then feel cramped as more customers shuffle past us in the complex line structure. No matter, we've got our caffeine.

Caffe Fiore bills itself as an organic cafe and uses organic products whenever possible. They do their own roasting and all of their coffee is organic and shade grown. The organic milk lattes are rich and creamy and come with beautifully poured leaf designs. The organic drip coffee is Sumatra and is excellent, full-bodied with an earthy finish. Our Essential Bakery toast has been perfectly done and the bread is so good (scala and raisin-pecan) that we don't use any jam, just a little butter. If we had any left we could put it in the composting bin, but we have eaten every single crumb. Next time we're trying the whole array of organic products from the Dagoba xocolati Coco to the Green Chai Tea.

Caffe Fiore
3125 NW 85th St, 98117