When the temperature rises, not everyone heads out to climb rocks or raft whitewater rapids. For some, the rising mercury signals to the brain that it is time to engage in the age-old practice of “summer reading.” This month, Dining Out takes a look at the best places to sip and read in the city, depending on the genre that strikes your fancy this summer.
Genre: Mystery. Coffee Shop: Cherry Street Coffee House, 103 Cherry St., Seattle, cherryst.com; 206-621-9372.
Review: Cherry Street Coffee House’s original locale is nestled in an historic Pioneer Square building adjacent to Seattle Mystery Bookshop. The spacious underground seating provides plenty of spots to sit and read your favorite whodunit. As you wonder who broke into the bank vault in your favorite book, look over to the bank vault inside the café that houses the owner’s office.
We recommend savoring an iced Americano and a Seattle Bagel Bakery bagel with house-cured lox, red onions, cream cheese and capers, or one of the pita BLTs. Almost everything on the extensive menu is delicious, from delightful feta and Mediterranean sandwiches to vegan soups and quiches. Mysteries never tasted so good.
Book Recommendation: One of the best things about Seattle Mystery Bookshop is its author events. Check out Chris Ewan’s signing of The Good Thief’s Guide to Venice, a book about a thief considering a new career as a crime novelist until his first-edition copy of The Maltese Falcon is stolen by a femme fatale burglar and he has to catch the thief. Get your copy signed at noon on August 12 and bring it over to Cherry Street Coffee House.
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Genre: Northwest Writers. Coffee Shop: Oddfellows Café, 1525 10th Ave., Seattle; oddfellowscafe.com; 206-325-0807.
Review: There is something rustic and charming about Oddfellows Café: white wood walls, metal coat hangers, cupcakes with fluffy whipped icings, and old coffee tins. The interior of Oddfellows is made of 90% salvaged, recycled or repurposed items.
Summer readers are destined to find bliss when combining the Oddfellows experience with a book from Seattle’s legendary bookstore, The Elliott Bay Book Company, next door. The Northwest writers section is located conveniently near the cash register. We recommend an iced latte and the baked eggs.
Book Recommendation: Looking for a new book, Dining Out with Schwabe picked up two great summer reads on the last trip to Oddfellows/Elliott Bay. Check out Spokane author Jess Walter’s The Financial Lives of the Poets and take a comedic journey into debilitating debt and financial journalism in blank verse.
Consider moseying over to Oddfellows with the classic western homage The Sisters Brothers, by former Washington (and current Oregon) author Patrick deWitt, and follow western hitmen Eli and Charlie Sisters as they track their prey and Eli questions the morality of his career choice.
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Genre: Memoir. Coffee Shop: B & O Espresso, 204 Belmont Ave. E., Seattle; b-oespresso.com; 206-322-5028.
Review: “Life is like a box of chocolates.” Cliché? Yes, but we have no shame in suggesting that memoirs are best enjoyed with a macchiato and a sweet farina custard baked in phyllo, and served warm with an aromatic rosewater and orange syrup. Nearby Half Price Books at 115 Belmont Ave. E. is within easy walking distance and is an interesting choice for an afternoon treat and literary escape. On hot days, we recommend indulging in a double espresso milkshake.
Book Recommendation: There is no shortage of memoir recommendations, but two jump to mind: Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and Marie Brenner’s Apples and Oranges: My Brother and Me, Lost and Found.
“Life changes fast.” These are the first words of Didion’s masterpiece memoir of the year following the death of her husband. The raw emotion, neurotic grace and perfectly crafted sentences of this memoir make it a must read.
Less acclaimed, but nonetheless interesting, Brenner’s memoir starts with a similarly blunt sentence: “We fight at the dinner table.” Brenner’s memoir explores how two siblings can be so different: one a bleeding-heart liberal, New York journalist, and the other a conservative apple farmer in Eastern Washington. Brenner’s tale of siblings and redemption is a rewarding read.
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Genre: Manifesto (a genre of sorts). Coffee Shop: Bauhaus Books and Coffee, 301 E. Pine St.; bauhauscoffee.net; 206-625-1600.
Review: Many Seattle coffee houses scream self-righteous, revolutionary hive. Love it (as we do) or hate it (as many do), it is not hard to find a number of coffee houses that openly advertise that they are a superior reading locale.
We tend to agree that Bauhaus is a great spot to dive into a good book and some serious intellectual thought. Grab your lit on how to change the world, a cup of joe and a Ding Dong by the register, and be the change you want to see.
Book Recommendation: Bauhaus sealed this category when a recent trip to the café resulted in seeing a young man reading Mao’s “little red book.” But in our mind there is more to this category than the traditional definition of manifesto. Instead, we recommend Common As Air: Revolution, Art and Ownership, by Lewis Hyde. Hyde provides a stirring defense of our cultural commons by an historical review and skepticism of the very concept of intellectual property.
We also recommend When Brute Force Fails: How To Have Less Crime and Less Punishment, by Mark A.R. Kleiman. With 2.3 million people currently behind bars in the United States, Kleiman presents a number of new ideas, and challenges traditional beliefs of justice and crime in America.
Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt is a multiservice, Northwest regional law firm with offices in Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and Bend. For comments on this article or to share your favorite places to eat or drink with the Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt attorneys, contact Jamila Johnson at jajohnson@schwabe.com; see also www.schwabe.com/dining_out.aspx.
Originally published in the August 2011 issue of the King County Bar Bulletin. Reprinted with permission of the King County Bar Association.
