Sure Shot Coffee

The atmosphere is somewhere between stoner and WOW-er: dark, with acid trip style sci-fi art on the walls. The clientele features a lot of oddly colored dreadlocks, and laptops. The guy behind the counter is really nice, and will chat with you if you want. If you're not convinced yet (but, really, how could you not be?), the espresso is amazing! It is surprisingly lively, with berry flavors and almost a peanut-buttery body. I was astonished.

Zokas Greenlake

Zokas is a company that is slowly but surely growing. They currently have 3 locations, each with it's own aesthetic. The two in the Seattle area are nicely tailored to the neighborhoods that they inhabit, rather than attempting to reproduce the feel of a different store with a different customer base.

Zokas cafe at Greenlake has a much more neighborhood and business oriented feel. You can still count on this cafe to offer a great study environment, but you're less likely to find a nice big table to spread your textbooks and notes out on, not to mention peace and quiet. That's not to say that this Zoka is loud; it's just more about being with people than the U-district location.

The soy cappucino I had here was pretty dang good but not the best I've ever had. I suppose that in all things, it really comes down to the barista behind the counter.

Zokas Coffee Roaster & Tea Company

Zokas University District

This place is great! The lobby is huge and conducive to study, hangouts, or whatever. Furthermore, they make the best mocha I've had in quite some time. The espresso here is great, and the mocha that they use is just the right level of sweet and bittersweet. High praise for the foam art too. Free wifi and unabashed music selections also make this place pretty primo.

Check it out, I say!

Victrola Coffee Capitol Hill

Victrola Coffee is one of those places that is tailor-made for the neighborhood that it inhabits. If it wasn't there, it wouldn't be anywhere, and a cafe very much like it would be exactly where it is...or isn't. Wasn't? What I'm saying is, walking down the street, this cafe comes up like the inevitable wrong diagnosis halfway through an episode of House. That doesn't mean this is a generic coffee shop.

This surprisingly deep little coffee shop manages it's cavernous qualities by lighting it's depths with a soft golden glow that mitigates what would otherwise be an abyss of a retail space. With clever lighting, artwork and spacious windows, the abyss is translated into a fantastic coffee shop that manages to be large while maintaining a nice cozy atmosphere. It might have been the discussion I was having with my friend about my employer (Starbucks) but the barista did some truly impressive foam art atop the soy latte she was crafting for me. Too bad I ordered a cappucino. In any case, the beverage was fantastic, as was the environment.

Check out Victola Coffee's website for the ubiquitous claims of superior coffee knowledge and passion. Oh, there might be directions to the coffee shop too.

Cafe on the Ave

This particular cafe came highly recommended (by those sorts of sites I am trying to provide an alternative to). It has a classy, hip look, and fairly decent espresso. I can throw my recommendation behind the tomato basil soup, it was absolutely lovely, with just the right amount of texture (I'm not into the whole stewed-tomatoes-in-a-bowl bit). The bread that came along was obviously from a bag, and needed to be drowned in soup to cover the preservative flavor. My least favorite aspect, though, was the atmosphere. This is perhaps a place you would come to study by yourself (there were people on laptops everywhere), but the vibe does not encourage the meeting of new people, or even much animated conversation with people you already know. I know that many Seattle-ites pride themselves on respecting each-other's privacy, not engaging in unwanted conversation with strangers, or even exchanging glances on the street. However, I want to walk into a coffee shop and at least feel that people wouldn't bite my head off if I were to say hello. Studying alone is why god invented libraries.

Cafe Fiore Queen Anne

There was a time, not too long ago, when my social life was almost non-existent. It was during these months that I discovered the joys of Cafe Fiore, a great little coffee shop that lies just down the street from the rest of Queen Anne's retail madness.

Fiore has a unique interior design that would be hard to replicate. From the metal tree that climbs to the ceiling in front of the bar, to the well-loved wooden table that dominates a corner of the cafe, the space is equally conducive to an afternoon of study or a meeting with a friend. Best of all is the chilled-out neighborhood vibe that makes you forget that you're only about a mile from the heart of downtown Seattle.

Extremely talented baristas, free wifi and an all organic menu round out this great little cafe.