Narrative Coffee

Maxwell Mooney started Narrative as a pop up coffee cart in downtown Everett in the summer of 2016 and opened the brick and mortar on Wetmore Avenue a year later, in July 2017. The room is the argument: 1,800 square feet designed by Seattle firm Pierce Design, exposed brick and exposed wooden rafters set against white tile, a white espresso machine, and mid century modern couches up front. On a Saturday morning there is a line out the door and nobody seems to mind it.

Narrative does not roast. It is a multi roaster that rotates its offerings monthly, and the list has run through Velton's Coffee Roasting Company, The Spotted Cow in Mill Creek, Kuma Coffee and Elm Coffee Roasters out of Seattle. You can buy a bag of whatever is pouring and take it home. The bar runs a gravimetric La Marzocco Linea PB with a pair of Nuova Simonelli Mythos Clima Pro grinders, and a Mahlkonig EK43 for batch and manual brews. Order a cortado if you want something simple and coffee forward, served in a glass the way it should be.

Almost everyone here is eating, not just drinking. The kitchen makes sweet and savory yeasted waffles on site from scratch, and the ham and gruyere on sourdough is the move if you are hungry. There is a small beer and wine list too. This is a sit and stay place rather than a grab and go one, with couches at the front and window seats for watching downtown go by.

Plan around the clock. Like most of downtown Everett's coffee, Narrative closes in the afternoon, so an evening visit is not an option. Parking downtown is easy and mostly free, which means you can park once and walk to Nadines half a block away.