Rainier Valley Coffee

The drink board is the reason to pull in. Rainier Valley runs a line called the Signature Trailblazers and every one is named for somewhere in Washington: The Rainier, Mount Si, Snoqualmie, White Pass, Enchantments, Skyline, Evergreen, Crystal Freeze, Rattle Snake, Wonder Land and Sunrise. The Rainier is white chocolate, coconut and vanilla. Mount Si is white chocolate, peanut butter and French vanilla. Several are built on energy drink rather than espresso, marked on the menu so you know which.

The other reason is the window itself. Weekdays run 4:30 AM to 7 PM, about as long as any coffee window in Renton stays open. If you want an espresso after work rather than before it, this is one of the few options on this side of the city.

Food is thin and honest about it: cookies, pastries and muffins rather than a kitchen. The rest of the board covers smoothies in strawberry banana, pina colada and berry pomegranate, sweet matcha, London Fog and Earl Grey teas, Italian sodas, apple cider and sparkling lemonade. No roaster is named anywhere the company publishes, so what is in the hopper is not something we can tell you.

It started in Bonney Lake in June 2016 as Latte By The Lake and took the Rainier Valley name at the second store. Amanda Faille owns it and there are seven stands now, three in King County and four in Pierce. Know before you go that this is a drive up window with no seating, and that Sunday closes at 5, two hours earlier than the rest of the week.