Gourmet Latte

Most chains you meet in Renton are headquartered somewhere else. This one is not. The business filing for Gourmet Latte Inc gives its address as 350 Sunset Boulevard North, the same lot as this stand, so the company that runs more than twenty windows across Washington and two in Florida is being run from here. The Washington stands are numbered rather than named, and this is number 21.

Karissa Bresheare founded it and tells the story of picking her roaster in one sitting: she tasted blends at a Caffe D'Arte cafe downtown and chose them on the spot, and they have been the roaster from day one. The house drink is the Marbled Truffle, espresso with both white and dark chocolate under steamed milk and a dense foam, and it is on this store's own menu rather than only in corporate copy. White Angel, an iced Samoa mocha, an iced Lucky Charm and a Grasshopper frappe sit near it.

The food is more substantial than most stands attempt. A French toast breakfast bagel, a spinach and feta pretzel melt, a pepperoni and four cheese calzone and egg bites are on this store's list, with muffins, scones, cookies, burritos and breakfast and lunch sandwiches on the wider company menu.

How long it has been going is genuinely unclear. The company's own account reads as founded in the late 1990s while the state filing for the corporation dates to 2005, and the two are probably measuring different things. What is settled is the schedule, agreed by three separate sources: 5 AM to 7 PM on weekdays, 6 to 7 on Saturday and 7 to 6 on Sunday. There is no seating, because there is no room for any.