Stumptown Coffee Comes To Town, Doo Dah, Doo Dah

Over the weekend, we made three trips to the new Stumptown Coffee on 12th Ave (next to Cafe Presse). We're not actually coffee geeks, it just worked out that way. (These people are coffee geeks.) We're more of a cafe geek. If you aren't familiar, Stumptown Coffee is based in Portland, and this is their big move into the Seattle market. (Edmonds' ZuKafe claims to have been their first Puget Sound wholesale account.)

Here's Seattle Bon Vivant's preview look, and here are our preliminary observations.

First, the space is open and full of light from the large windows; the interior is that exposed-pipes-and-wood aesthetic that Seattle is currently in the grip of. The front of the cafe features two bench-style sofas and little tables, the back has a wooden bar, and it looked like there was WiFi. Downstairs is a huge roasteria space, and we understand there's a bar you can sit at down there, too, if you want to keep the beans where you can see them. Upstairs looks like it holds 20 people tops.

Second, they appear to like a robust flavor -- even the decaf tastes stronger. And thirdly, at present the clientele looks like they were shipped up from Portland for the occasion: 20-something bicycle geeks with pegged jeans and scruffy Northwest-boy beards. "Oh my god," said a girl in line to the barista, "I didn't even recognize you." "Yeah, I grew a beard," said the barista, with mock-shame. It was a little early to be calling it a beard, but what the hell, it's not our business.

The cafe is right next to Seattle U. campus, so they're likely to be overrun with students. Saturday the dorms were opening for the fall and already fresh-faced kids were lining up at Stumptown, holding Walgreens bags full of dorm necessities.