Empire Roasters and Records

Ian Peters had run this shop for nearly twelve years when, in July 2021, the South Seattle Emerald reported that he had turned the upstairs seating area into a record store of about 600 square feet. It opened with roughly 1,000 titles from four distributors and held almost 2,000 new records by the time of that story, with Prince, David Bowie, Kendrick Lamar and A Tribe Called Quest among the best sellers. Peters told the Emerald the idea would never have happened without the pandemic.

The shop's own site now lays the building out floor by floor: seating on the first floor and in a courtyard, the record store on the second floor, and a free arcade and a rooftop balcony on the third. The name says roasters, but neither the shop's site nor the 2021 coverage says where or by whom the beans are roasted, so no roaster is claimed for this building.

The drink to know is the cashew latte, made with cashew milk the shop makes daily from cashews, filtered water, date syrup, vanilla and a pinch of salt. The specialty list adds a Cayenne Mocha, a Ginger Snap Latte, a Cardamom Seat Headrest and The Ivy, which blends the house cashew milk with oat milk. Food is waffles, from real maple syrup and butter to a Lemonhead, with several available vegan and gluten free for an extra dollar, plus rotating pastries the menu calls house made, such as gooey butter cake and chocolate chip banana bread.

Hours are 6:30am to 5pm every day, per the shop's site, and orders can go through the shop's own app. The records and the rooftop are two and three flights up, and the site does not mention an elevator, so plan on stairs.