Lighthouse Roasters

Lighthouse Roasters has been roasting coffee in Seattle since 1993, and it does it in the cafe at the corner of 43rd and Phinney. The machine is a vintage 1952 Gothot cast iron drum roaster, set inside a craftsman building roughly 120 years old. Seattle Met described a single roaster in the back of the room producing everything the shop sells in 2016, and The Stranger's EverOut listing says the beans are roasted in view of cafe patrons.

Roasting runs Monday through Saturday, according to the shop's own site. Seattle Met noted in 2016 that Lighthouse sits on the medium to dark side, a contrast with the lighter roasts common around Seattle at the time. Queen Anne News reported in 2014 that the business began in Laurelhurst and moved to this corner in 1994. Beans also ship from the shop's website.

The room is small, with counter and bar seating, and Queen Anne News described it in 2014 as often full, with customers spilling onto the sidewalk. The same piece says the building once housed the Phinney Street Natural Foods Co-op. There is no wifi, per both The Stranger and an earlier Seattle Coffee Scene visit, so this is a place to drink coffee rather than open a laptop. Seattle Coffee Scene listed muffins, blueberry scones and crumb cake in 2012; the current pastry case is not posted online.

Google lists hours of 6:30am to 7pm on weekdays and 7am to 7pm on weekends; the shop's own site lists shipping cutoffs but not cafe hours. The neighborhood label shifts between Fremont and Phinney Ridge depending on who is describing it, and the corner itself sits uphill and north of central Fremont. Lighthouse runs this one cafe.