Sleep-resistant in Seattle

So we've been in Seattle for the last couple of days and now we're at the airport Hilton, as tomorrow we're picking up a car for the first 'road trip' element of the jaunt.  Chan wants to write about the general touristy stuff in Seattle, so it remains to me to talk about the town's best export that didn't peer down the wrong end of a twelve-gauge.

This here is the first ever Starbucks:

Sack that

In case you are somehow unaware, Starbucks are the main reason that espresso-based coffee drinks are now vended -very nearly literally- on every urban street corner in the developed world.  Whether you consider that a good thing is another discussion, but it certainly suits my proclivities and daringly avant-garde approach to sleep regularity. Regardless, it's a place of caffeine-dealing significance and so I stopped to take a picture, considered grabbing a brew and then promptly considered not doing that as there was a 90 minute wait to be served.  

An hour and a half.  

Bollocks, more like.  In that time I would've hit withdrawal, gone cold turkey, visited regular support groups and gone on to become a productive member of society.  So we bimbled around town, trying out the home turf competition. 'We' being largely 'me'.

Tully's

It's alright

Tully's started with the rather amusing strategy of building a competing branch next to every new branch of Starbucks and then playing off of local brand loyalty to win business. A bold approach that took them 14 years to turn a profit and then another 6 to go bankrupt.  They were then bought out by a group of investors led by Patrick Dempsey (of grittily-portrayed neurosurgeon in Grey's Anatomy fame) just because. They also spell their large cup size veinte, which is nice.  There's no telling them that fluid ounces don't make any damn sense, though.

Top Pot Doughnuts

The focus of this place is more on the dough-fried-in-rendered-pig front, as the name suggests.  Evidently this place is a bit of a local phenomenon as we were queuing for twenty minutes, first thing in the day.  This isn't too bad as it gives you chance to choose the means of your arteries' destruction.

"You have chosen....wisely"  *clutches left arm*

The beverage with the ice floating in it is 'Cold Brewed' coffee.  I saw the like in Canada also, so it may well be something widespread and coffee-based that somehow has passed under my radar (presumably at night and close to the treeline), but it involves steeping ground coffee in cold water for a day or more to produce a sweeter, less acidic version of iced coffee.  If they've got the time, I've got the money, I guess.

Zeitgeist

It means 'Spirit of the time' by the way.

The coffee was good, the food was gluten-free and the MacBooks were knee-deep.  The bearclaw we had as a substitute for the one we didn't find at Tully's was a bit lame, though.

Starbucks Reserve

To be honest, I did not know this place existed until we happened on it.  It's a big coffee shop/gift shop/pie shop thing. All the coffee and accoutrements you'll ever need at only double the price.  I tried some free samples of some Vietnamese coffee and then left.  Smash the state, comrade.

Bauhaus

Also a German name; a bit more tolerable this time. 

Another German name.  This time it's referring to a famous school of art and design which heavily influenced German modernism. I'm fun at parties.  In reality it's a quirky place filled with students and it's walls are lined with books and terrible horror cartoon artwork. Apparently genuine writers come here to work in the loft, and you can believe it too as it has that 'I'm working and not dicking about on facebook' vibe to it.

Espresso Vivace.

This place is famous for selling specifically Northern-Italian espresso and for having a naff lino floor and stand-up bar, serving the street.  It's great.  I had a Caffe Nico, principally because I had no idea what it was.  It involved a double espresso, something other than milk being steamed, zest from an orange and some manner of dark incantation to things that ought not be meddled with by man. It would doubtless be my 'thing' were I to live here.

Kurzfassung auf Deutsch:  Ich habe so viel Kaffee getrunken, dass ich durch Zeit und Raum zu sehen kann.