Meridian Coffee House

In Seattle, home of Starbucks, the relatively benign corporate giant of coffee retailers, indie coffee houses exist in plentitude. Unlike Starbucks, which nicely, craftily puts all but the chair under your butt for sale, and maybe that too soon, indie coffee houses exist for more than your drip or expresso or CD dollar. Those who work at indies take an active hand in every aspect of what you see and experience. The music in the air, be it something mellow like Coltrane, or something more raunchy like Sleater-Kinney or Radiohead, was picked out by the guy or gal behind the counter from his or her own collection. The art on the walls is a local’s, probably the owner’s puffin’ buddy, and the furniture was likely got at tag sales and thrift shops. The wi-fi connection for your laptop is free, unlike Starbucks’ T-Mobile charge-per-hour, and sometimes there are even ‘net computers sitting on a counter, free for use for limited times or unlimited times.

Starbucks wants you to buy product, enjoy the “coffee house atmosphere” they have pieced together, and leave, to come again when you are thirsty to spend more money. Indie coffee houses thrive on people coming, getting their coffee, and sticking around, peopling the place awhile, giving it its rare vibe, building up its rep. Some may not see the difference if they are looking casually–and there are smaller towns where if not for the local Starbucks, there’d be no coffeehouse at all (I recently lived for a year in such a place, glad it was there, yet knowing there is better to be had elsewhere). If you simply want decent coffee product and reasonably good edibles, and some place to read the paper during a lunch break, go to Starbucks. Buy a coffee and a muffin and a CD of Norah Jones’ favorite songs. In Seattle you can even make a CD yourself of the songs you hear on the store speakers (music listening stations with CD burners is Starbucks’ newest innovation, along with producing albums such as Ray Charles’ Genius Loves Company). If you want something more, read on.

I live a few blocks from my favorite coffeehouse, Bauhaus Books & Coffee, been around about a dozen years, and as un-Starbucks-y as they come. Located in Seattle’s funky artsy gay-friendly Capitol Hill, the Bauhaus is a two-level punk monstrosity with high windows fronting two streets. One wall is covered top to toe in bookcases, with a rolling ladder to get at even the highest of them. The music can be loud, the place can get crowded, the number of people with laptops can get befuddling. The Space Needle and I-5 are both within viewing from the place’s mezzanine, where I like to sit. It feels like being on the deck of a ship, looking off into the spaces of the city and beyond. Bauhaus has a standard menu of coffee drinks, and some local donuts that will rock your sugar tooth hard. Its staff are friendly and strange and ready to trade a smile and a word with you. The men’s bathroom is a grafittied brick wall cave, beats the hell out of sterile Starbucks where you often need a code simply to use it. I go to Bauhaus with my lovely partner and when it’s not too loud she can enjoy the groove there.

For all I say here, I’m not sure why I like it so much. Maybe it’s the mezzanine, and being able to hide from the world while seeing a goodly piece of it. I’ve not sat at the outside tables too much. Once, years ago, during a different time of life when I was living here, I hung out there in the summer cool. Dude having a birthday, his friends all singing to him. I think I worked him into a poem I was writing. Something about praise and drowning.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 8th, 2005 at 9:34 am and is filed under News, Coffee House Resources, Experiences, Independent Coffee Houses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.