*This piece written by Eastside Eats originally ran on Seattlest.com on 2/12/10
In Pullin' Shots, Seattlest visits some of the region's best coffeehouses. Nothing is more Seattle than our unique coffee culture, and it is our goal to uncover what makes our famed "third places" so special. Today, Pullin' Shots stops in at Soulfood Books, Music and Organic Coffee House in Redmond.
Where do they get their beans? Soulfood gets their organic beans from Sleepy Monk Coffee Roasters in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Sleepy Monk is owned and operated by Victor Harding, who was the original owner and roaster at Victor's Coffee, a popular coffeeshop also in Redmond. Soulfood serves two proprietary blends, the Namaste Blend for drip and the Awake blend for espresso.
What espresso machine do they use? Astoria Rapallo AL2, lever-operated machine for manual extraction
What kinds of milk do they carry? Whole and skim from Sunshine Dairy. Rice, Soy and Hemp for an additional 50 cents.
What food do they offer? An assortment of pastries from Macrina, Hancock Bakery and Blazing Bagels both in Redmond. Fresh Panini Sandwiches
Music? Currently playing Joseph Childress's The Rebirths, from the Jose Gonzalez Pandora station.
Snob Factor? Very Low. The beans are quality, shots are pulled properly and products are purposefully locally sourced, but not in a pretentious way.
Ambiance/Clientele: Soulfood serves the best, most-consistent coffee on the Eastside in an uber-relaxed, community based setting. The coffeehouse is towards the back of the hippy-new age bookshop and is a great place to relax over a game of chess, book or laptop. They have numerous tables in addition to a living room-like circle of comfy chairs surrounded by local art on the walls. A couple nights a week Soulfood offers the best live music on the Eastside offering an ecletic mix of folk, jazz and rock. The first friday of every month is usually reserved for an incarnation of Twirl, Soulfood's owner Clint McCune's band. Come to see one of his performances and you will immediately know what Soulfood is all about. It truly is a shame that throngs of people in their Lexus SUVs and minivans shuffle through the $tarbucks drive-thru in the adjacent parking lot ,when one of the best and most unique coffeehouses in all of the Northwest is just a few steps away!
