Here’s an interesting sidelight to the whole Clover/Starbucks brouhaha - they’re now promoting iced coffee produced from the the whizbang machines, as part of their rollout of the automated french presses to more locations in the city. Greenlake’s machine produced (after an initial bit of barista confusion) a superb drink, brewed double-strength and poured over ice, from Verona beans. Granted, recent weather patterns have made iced drinks a bit of an affectation, but once the sunshine returns Clover-generated iced coffees might win a spot on my rotating list of drinks.

_{Last Day for Espresso Vivace, courtesy of HonuPhoto}

With Ryan’s report on Asteroid Cafe closing, I realized that somehow, in the short time I’ve been here I’ve managed to make it to nearly every notable spot that’s been closed down or demolished a grand total of once.

On that list:

1. Crocodile- Shortly after moving here in February of last year, my friend’s band came through town and played at the Crocodile. It didn’t close until December, but I only managed to get there once. And I really meant to go to the I Heart Rummage show. I know it’s moved on to Chop Suey, but it seems to me like the Crocodile was the perfect location for it.

2. Bimbo’s Bitchin’ Burrito Kitchen- First Iteration- A pair of friends took us to Bimbo’s in spring of 2007. I loved it- the kitschy decorations, the fun stuff under the tables, and so much pink! It was fabulous. But its entire block was demolished, and while it managed to move in elsewhere on Capitol Hill, it just hasn’t been the same. I miss the old one that wasn’t decorated entirely in Mexican wrestling decor…

3. The Sunset Bowl- It’s all in the post, but I only got there once for a friend’s mid-winter party before it closed down in the spring.

4. The aforementioned Asteroid Cafe. Again, it’s in the post, but I never did make it back for that romantic date (well, guess I’ve got two weeks).

5. The Vivace at Cal Anderson Park. A good friend took me there for a cup of coffee this spring, not more than a month before they closed. I found out the hard way, by trying to take my parents to the loveliest coffee shop in the city while they were visiting in mid-July and walking up to boarded doors and windows. It was incredibly sad to lose that location, particularly to lose it so soon after discovering it.

So, I’m kind of feeling like the Typhoid Mary of Seattle businesses these days. The time between visit and closing seems to get shorter and shorter, in addition. But one of my fellow Metbloggers suggested that instead of being sad about my anti-Midas touch, I use my powers for good and not evil. With great power comes great responsibility and all.

So, Metblog readers, what businesses do you really want to see move on and be replaced by condos and light rail? I’ll be happy to go visit them, and keep you updated on their impending demise immediately following.

I like a little steamed milk with my coffee, but patrons at the Espresso Gone Wild coffee stand are apparently getting a little more steam than the business is zoned for and county officials have stepped in to cool things off. The Seattle Times reports that Mason County officials have deemed the baristas “erotic entertainers” due to their less than matronly outfits and sent the owners a letter saying that the outfits would have to go (presumably they also stated that they would have to be replaced with more conservative dress).

As recently as two weeks ago, Espresso Gone Wild was advertising on Craigslist. In case the text gets pulled later today, it reads:

WE HAVE A GREAT “CATCHY” THEME THAT KEEPS OUR CUSTOMERS COMING BACK OVER AND OVER AGAIN (AS SEEN @ www.cowgirlsespresso.com)
WE ARE LOOKING FOR MOTIVATED PEOPLE THAT ARE READY TO WORK IN A VERY FAST PACE ENVIORNMENT AND THINK THEY MAY HAVE THE FOLLOWING TRAITS:
RELIABLE, ENERGETIC, UPBEAT, POSITIVE, HONEST, OUTGOING, DEDICATED, AND WILLING TO GO THE EXTRA MILE FOR THE CUSTOMER.

Cowgirls Espresso lists a number of locations in and around Seattle. I wonder if they will also soon be getting official letters too?

Is anyone else getting these “treat reciepts” at their friendly neighborhood Starbucks stores? This morning, when I was running late and the Vivace line was too long^* I got this stamped receipt as an incentive to come back later for an afternoon $2 iced beverage.

treat reciept

* With that compulsory excuse out of the way, lately I’ve been thinking that Starbucks is kind of like Congress, especially after the list of downsized stores was announced: low approval ratings in aggregate, but high approval ratings in particular.

No matter what you think of Starbucks, it’s never good news when a company announces job cuts of around 1,000 people. In a letter to employees, CEO Howard Schultz announced the job cuts, which include about 550 layoffs (the rest will come from natural attrition). About 180 of those positions will be in the Seattle area both at the SODO headquarters and another regional office in the area. This is after February job cuts numbering 600 (220 through layoffs).

They are also closing a number of stores in Australia and laying off 685 workers there as well.

The full story is in the Seattle Times.

Now I personally don’t drinks Starbucks coffee. I don’t much like the taste and given the choice, I’m going to pick a fair or direct trade coffee bean that I know was roasted recently. I could even joke about the fact that there are some intersections downtown where even recently released Mariner (and now Yankee) Richie Sexon could hit a baseball from one store to another. All right, maybe Sexon couldn’t do it. Vidro?

However, not only do I hate to see anyone laid off, but there is one circumstance where I will patronize a Starbucks. When I travel, I often find myself without a car in an unfamiliar location, and while locating an independent coffee shop with fair trade coffee is incredibly easy in Seattle, it isn’t very easy in say, Orlando. Starbucks is predictable and dependable. I know when I walk into a Starbucks, that I can order my triple iced Americano and it will be pretty much the same triple iced Americano I’d get at any other Starbucks.

Hopefully Schultz knows what he’s doing. What do you think? Does he?

Edited to add: And in other Starbucks News, My Ballard has an interesting post on Starbucks’ acquisition of Clover. Apparently they are refusing to sell any more Clover machines to any independent coffee shop. This is one of those moves that prompts all of the Starbucks hate that runs rampant in this town. I have to admit, given how much I love my Clover coffee, this really frosts me as well.

Remember when people were up in arms about Ladro moving in on “neighborhood creating” Victrola way back around the turn of the century [stranger]? Well, I think we all know how that turned out: it’s 2008 and both appear to be thriving. Until today I would have continued that sentence with “… in seeming harmony with a Starbucks just a block away.”

Now, however, we learn that the 15th Avenue Starbucks, one of the city’s oldest, is among the seven Seattle stores on the chopping block [#]. Let the vigils begin. [capitolhillseatle]

This summer is the winter of independent cafes’ discontent. First Broadway loses Vivace to the transit bulldozer, and now the UDistrict’s own Allegro is facing a construction challenge of its own: While the location itself is not threatened, the empty lot across the alley is being developed. This will mean a severe change of atmosphere for the business, which has no frontage on the Ave itself and instead opens onto the alley between that street and 15th. Although we’ve known this was going to happen since 2005, seeing the construction fences up on the old parking lot still comes as a shock, and if the eventual construction ends up being six stories as planned, that corner is going to look a lot different in a few years.

In case you haven’t heard, this Sunday will be your last chance to get a cup of coffee at Vivace’s indoor Capitol Hill location. That building will be torn down to make way for light rail, and the cafe will move down into the Brix building on the other end of Broadway in September, hopefully, although construction looked a little stalled last time I went past.

When I first moved to Seattle I dated a boy who lived right near there, so I spent a whole lot of hours sitting by the window, writing letters and watching the construction turn the reservoir into Cal Anderson Park. If you still want to sit inside and drink your coffee the newer location by REI is there, and nice and airy. Otherwise, I predict that the line at the sidewalk stand is going to get even longer. Or, I suppose, you could go to one of the dozen other coffee options in the near vicinity, but I’ve always liked Vivace best.

As the blogosphere crowdsources a definitive list of which locations Starbucks will be closing as part of its 600-store retrenchment, University Village mall just celebrated the opening of its fourth store, an expansion and refurbishment of the previous SBC location inside the QFC supermarket. The new store — a licensed one by the looks of it — joins the large central location at the mall, the smaller branch in the Crate & Barrel building, and the licensed location inside the Barnes & Noble. Fiddling while Rome burns, or a sign of things to come as UVillage prepare for a major expansion?