Milstead & Co.

Andrew Milstead opened this Fremont room built around a multi roaster model rather than a single house blend, pouring rotating beans that ran Stumptown, Intelligentsia and Coava at opening and now lean toward Pacific Northwest names like Olympia, Heart and Stamp Act. Milstead has become something of a fixture in Seattle's specialty scene for an education forward approach, the kind of place regulars come to talk through a bean's origin as much as drink it.

No decaf is served, a deliberate stance rather than an oversight, and the shop has picked up a half joking reputation as the city's snobbiest coffee bar, a label meant more as a nod to its rigor than a knock. Window and canal view seats are the ones to ask for, and dogs are welcome throughout.