Velvet Sip Cafe

The coffee here has a longer history than the cafe does. Velvet Sip pours Vista Clara Coffee, roasted in an industrial strip in Snohomish by Dave Stewart, who with his brother Jim turned a Coupeville ice cream shop called The Wet Whisker into Stewart Brothers Coffee in 1969 and then into Seattle's Best Coffee. He has been roasting under the Vista Clara name in Snohomish for about sixteen years, working through a red roaster at 450 degrees and sourcing from Central America, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Sumatra and Costa Rica.

The menu is the other reason to stop, and there is nothing else like it in this directory. A Golden Saffron Latte, a Velvet Rose Latte, a brown sugar latte with pistachio, a seasonal tiramisu latte. Matcha comes in banana, blueberry and mango. There are Red Bull Italian sodas, and a float built on Pakola, the Pakistani cream soda. Whatever you expect a downtown espresso bar to pour, this is not that list.

The food follows the same instinct. Sandwiches, breads, cakes and scones, with a section of the menu marked halal, and a counter that also sells pistachio delights and perfume. It sits on Colby Avenue in the walkable part of downtown, a few minutes on foot from Narrative and Nadines and right in the block where the Sunday farmers market sets up.

Two honest caveats. No publication has written about this cafe, so everything above the roaster comes from its own menu. And its hours are not posted anywhere, with online ordering currently switched off, which usually means a setting rather than a closure but does mean you should call rather than turn up.