7 hrs
7 bakeries/cafes
7000 calories
....and 1 happily married couple :)
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For our 1-year Anniversary Ian and I did a self-made/self-guided biking tour of Seattle neighborhoods with its best bakeries and coffee shops;
1st (B) = Caffe Fiore
Where = Ballard
Why = Voted the best Independent coffee shop in Seattle
What = Cappuccino and Macchiato
Impression = Our first stop of the day was a huge success, a great atmosphere filled with native Ballardites working away at communal tables on their mac books and iPads, does it get more Seattle then that??? The coffee was delicious the foam was rich and the little flower on top was perfect (always a good way to judge the quality of coffee). The homemade granola was tempting and so were all the baked treats, but luck for us their baked good came from Macrina's bakery...the nest stop on our tour.
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| Cappuccino and Macchiato at Cafe Fiore |
2nd (C) = Macrina Bakery
Where = Queen Ann
Why = Voted one of the Top 10 Best Bread Bakeries in America (we tried their sough dough last week, and while I am still partial to Ian's it was defiantly a very close 2nd, the starter has been going for 17 years!!!)
What = Ham and Cheese Brioche and a Lemon and Cherry Pound Cake
Impression = AMAZING!!! Our goal was to only eat one treat at each location, however as you can tell we failed pretty early on, the brioche was flakey and delicious and the lemon and cherry pound cake was moist and crumbly...how do they do that???
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| Lemon-cherry Pound Cake and Ham-cheese Brioche at Macrina Bakery |
3rd (D) = The Crumpet Shop
Where = Pike's Place Market
Why = Voted the Best Breakfast Sammie in Seattle
What = Pesto, Cheese and Tomato Crumpet
Impression = Makes me want to drink more tea so I can justify eating more crumpets!!! Dad - next time your in town we are defiantly going for a wee bit of tea and crumpets.
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| Pesto-cheese-tomato crumpet |
4th (E) = Bakery Nouveau
Where = West Seattle
Why = Head pastry chef lead the US team to victory at the 2005 Coupe de Monde de Boulangeris (World Cup of Baking)
What = Almond Croissant
Impression = I am SO happy we walked in here with a plan...almond croissant, almond croissant, almond....what??? I literally had to put blinders on, order, and run outside to prevent me from devouring the entire case of amazing desserts. I am also not sure the name "almond croissant" does this pastry wonder justice, maybe "pillow from heaven covered in all things wonderful that melts in your mouth and get crumbs all over your shirt but its too good to care almond croissant" would be more appropriate. Good thing this place is all the way over in West Seattle...
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| "pillow from heaven covered in all things wonderful that melts in your mouth and get crumbs all over your shirt but its too good to care almond croissant" - from Bakery Nouveau |
5th (F) = Columbia City Bakery
Where = Columbia City
Why = Top 5 croissants in Seattle
What = Raspberry, cherry and peach Croissant
Impression = I had read that they have a "bakers choice" most popular item of the week, so we walked in looking for that, apparently I was mistaken because no one in the bakery knew what I was talking about and I ended up fumbling around trying to explain myself while also having the age old breakfast debate of savory vs. sweet with myself, Ian was leaning towards the foccacia but I had my heart stomach set on sweet. Since our final bakery stop was bagels we decided on the raspberry, cherry and peach croissant. Defiantly the smallest treat of the day, but also the most appropriate sized for a day long bakery tour. It was delicious!!!
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| Raspberry-cherry-peach Croissant at Columbia City Bakery |
6th (G) = Eltana Bagel Cafe
Where = Capitol Hill
Why = NY style oven roasted bagels in Seattle - voted best bagels in Seattle
What = Salt bagel plain, and an Everything bagel with Caramelized onion hummus spread
Impression = The salt bagel was more like a pretzel, which I love so no complaints here. If this wasn't our final stop I might have been disappointed in the bagel to spread ratio, to little bagel and to much spread but defiantly yummy and really put caramelized onions on anything and what's not to love!!!
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| Outside Eltana's Bagels |
7th (H) = Espresso Vivace Roasteria
Where = Capitol Hill
Why = Listed in Food and Wine's Obsessive Guide to Coffee as one of the Top Coffee Bar's in the US
(the other 2 from Seattle were Zoka's which we frequent on a weekly basis and Victrola Coffee Roasters which we are also regulars at so we decided to add Vivace to our tour over the others that we go to on a regular basis)
What = Cappuccino and a Macchiato
Impression = We biked our bagels over to Vivace to enjoy with our coffee. This was the last stop on our bike tour and the only thing we have had before. Their coffee it always amazing, thick rich foam and dark smooth coffee....yummmm. While sitting at the outdoor cafe tables I grabbed the current issue of Seattle Weekly only to find that this weeks feature is; Best of Seattle.
Time to start planning our next culinary biking tour of Seattle....
Much Love
XO
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| Eltana Bagels & Vivace Coffee |
Much Love
XO
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