A Fulfilled Stereotype in the Great Northwest…

A Gen-Xer traveling to Seattle expects three things: rain, Nirvana or Pearl Jam played non-stop on the radio and coffee shops-hundreds, thousands of them-one in every strip mall. While I was in Seattle, it never rained. Pearl Jam and Nirvana were not played on the radio even once that I heard. But there were the coffee shops. Sure, they weren’t in every cranny of the city. But thanks to Starbuck’s they were close enough together that you did not have to drive far to find one.

However, what I wanted was not the corporate swill that I love and get every day back in The Lou. I wanted to find the unique and edgy. The Seattle coffee shop others around the nation emulate. And I did.

Not far from the West Seattle Bridge and near the States Avenues, there is Coffee Diva. Situated right next to an auto mechanic, the building at one time must have belonged to the car man, because two large garage doors are now the windows to the world from inside the shop. A small dog greeted every customer with a bark and the Barista served tea with a smile. Solid wood tables, plush thrones (literally, thrones) and a mannequin in a much better suit were all illuminated by chandeliers which as the light fixtures. It was perfect, even the fact that it didn’t have Internet access (although they advised I steal it from the computer store next door) made it feel more genuine. Every customer was there before I got there, and I was the first to leave. After an hour, I still felt I had not spent enough time there. It was nice to find one of my three Seattle stereotypes fulfilled.