Now, I'm sure all of you know Starbuck's and how it started in Seattle. In my mind, it's the company that brought coffee fame to the Northwest. It introduced my generation to real coffee. We did away with percolator coffee and found out how fresh, strong, bold coffee tasted and we liked it. It set the stage for really great coffee that you now find here and there in cities across the United States.
What I didn't know at the time was that great coffee culture existed elsewhere. It wasn't until I traveled to Italy that I understood what great espresso was and how integral it was to a culture. A morning cup of espresso or cappuccino, whether slugged back alone or accompanied by a roll or the sweet and delightful bomboloni was and is a ritual for a great portion of the population, if one goes on observation of cafes and train stations. Isn't bombolini a great word? Say it three times and doesn't it just make you smile? When we travel today, we frequently try local coffee shops and judge the coffee by ordering the espresso. What we found was that espressos at Italian train stations were better than 95% of espressos you can get in the USA, but we keep trying.
I had to let you know today that Seattle, the ubiquitous home of Starbuck's, has a coffee shop that will transport your senses to Italy and will leave you scoffing at other coffee shops. If you love true espresso or espresso-based drinks, this is the place for you. Cafe' Senso Unico is located on Olive Way between 6th and 7th (622 Olive Way). It's run by an Italian man, Mario, with fabulous character and a skilled hand at the espresso machine. Each espresso has the perfect crema on top and the flavor is perfectly balanced and well-rounded - not bitter or burned, which I find most common in coffee shops that think they know what they are doing. They serve the coffee in beautiful Italian pottery and have various nosh to accompany your stop, but alas, no bombolini. I loved hearing Mario banter with customers in Italian. You could tell he had a following of fellow countrymen that were local to Seattle now. If I lived or worked in Seattle, I would come here every morning. Yelp reviews also rave about their lunch time sandwiches. We didn't have a chance to try those out, but if you do, please let me and others know what you think!
