Upon entering 15th Ave Coffee & Tea, there’s a clear note on the door that states the shop is “Inspired by Starbucks”. It sure doesn’t look like any Starbucks I’ve ever visited!

When I asked if I could take photos and write about the place, I got a not-so-joking answer of “only if you write something positive”. I got the sense that the employees were somewhat weary of answering questions about the the stealth mode of this coffee shop. In case you’re not familiar with the issue, there are some powerful reactions to “test[ing] out marketing coffee with neighborhood-specific names rather than a slutty mermaid” and smaller coffee shop owners seeing “teams of Starbucks employees in [their] shop, making notes and actually placing them in folders marked “Observations.”".

At this particular Seattle location in Capitol Hill, the baked goods are from Essential Baking. That’s a wonderfully good thing. I’m not entirely sure if using local baking companies is a trend for the future or just an experiment. I’ve had stale pastries at Starbucks before and it’s horrible when you can tell a slice of cake was just defrosted.

The decor reminds me of the inside of an Anthropologie – everything was artfully thrown together. The furniture looked very nice, like it was antiqued rather than thrifted from Goodwill out of necessity. There were fresh flowers everywhere, from the tabletops to the shelves behind the baristas.

The coffee: good! There was a selection of about 10 different types of beans to choose from for my single cup of coffee. They’re taking part of the trend in single-cup brewing a cup of coffee to order, instead of creating an entire pot of coffee. Mighty tasty.

The music was decent, a blend of late 80s/early 90s alt-rock that was a lot more toe-tapping than the Barbara Streisand/Norah Jones background noise I usually hear in Starbucks lately.

Starbucks is the queen of ubiquitous chains. If they wanted to endear more people to their brand—especially in an urban area with great coffee and competition—it’s a good start. But can Starbucks afford fresh flowers, wood tea trays, and antique-shop furniture across all their stores across the USA? Probably not, but this is their experiment.

A little mushroom grove of sweetness.
Sometimes the right decoration can make an event out of a very normal thing.

I purchased some Meiji “Kinoko No Yama” mushrooms on impulse at Uwajimaya, an Asian specialty super-store in Seattle. I thought they’d look adorable on a treat for Christmas! Some people gave the little mushroom guys quite a negative review (or a very close relative to what I purchased), but honestly they’re no worse than Hershey kisses in quality.

I got the recipe for some Dulce de Leche cheesecake squares off of the Smitten Kitchen blog, and had high hopes for it based on the description and the comments. The cheesecake itself had a very different, somewhat strange consistency. I think it’s the gelatin and the dulce de leche; the bite-size cakes had a custardy quality to them. It’s definitely creamy but perhaps doesn’t have the .. flake? .. I’m used to in a proper cheesecake. Perhaps I’m being too critical though – the husband said he’d love to eat the creamyness out of a big bowl if that was an option the next time I make it.

Seattle Pie in the Magnolia neighborhood is a cozy, spacious place to get that slice you didn’t want to have to spend 2 hours baking yourself. We tried slices from two of the pies – Apple, and the "Ultimate Crumb". Mike made a controversial statement to a dessert-lover like me – “You can’t mix your pies”. Or something along those lines. Anyway, I can kind of see his point now. I started with the Apple, which was amazing. But then when I had the Berry, it was so much sweeter that it made going back to the Apple kind of difficult. Oh dear Apple pie, it wasn’t your fault at all. The Berry pie just had that lil’ sumthin, I think it was the way the crust could be sold separately in a candy jar and probably pay most of the rent for the owners.

Tempting pie choices

Joe, one of the friendly employees

The Ultimate Berry-Crumb Pie

Mike and I left South Florida for good almost 2 years ago. However, we have a number of friends still living there, so we thought it would be a nice change of pace to have Thanksgiving down south. The day of the big Turkey was lovely and cozy, the fog kept the blazing sun at bay, and we were filled to the brim with stuffing and happy baby smiles.

Sub-tropical clouds. Quite different from the kinds of clouds we get in Seattle.

Two days later, we were looking around for something less American, more simple. More European, in fact. We also wanted great bread. Our friend Jay raved a few times about Côté France, a cute little bakery in Boca Raton.

Pistachio Tart with mousse

Pineapple Tart with Grand Marnier

Most excellent fruit tart

One of the owners, Claudine, was extremely friendly and delved into complete explanations of each of the desserts I pointed at. The pineapple tart grabbed my eye mostly due to the marshmallow-like globs on the top. Claudine said the topping was a mixture of whipped cream and custard. She also said that they used Grand Marnier to add more orange flavor. Yum!

Charming Claudine

Jay pointed out that fruit tarts are done poorly very often. You can find them in most supermarkets, the glaze clammy from overnight hardening and the fruit usually under-ripe. But when done right, just right, the simple fruit tart can be the star of any dessert display. I like how the apple in this tart is sliced to remind me of a parrot’s ruffled head-feathers!