When Rose Tosti with The Seattle Weekly decided to give the latest coffee trend, “cold brew” coffee, a try, she headed over to none other than Maple Leaf’s Cafe Javasti, 8410 Fifth Ave. N.E.
She may not have been a fan of that method of making coffee, which involves steeping grounds in cold water instead of brewing them in hot water, but Tosti had nothing but praise for Cafe Javasti:
Cafe Javasti, situated cater-corner to Kona Kitchen at the intersection of 5th and 85th, has a lot going for it. Family friendly, great art exhibits, and an extensive menu of house-made crepes name a few of the highlights, along with the fact that it is the only coffee shop in its vicinity.
Tosti does, however, admit that she’s an “espresso girl” who misses “the element of aroma to a degree that makes drinking cold brew coffee a little tragic.”
But she isn’t holding that against Cafe Javasi, and instead urges her readers to let her know if there’s another cafe where they think she might like the cold brew coffee better, and “all the rest of you, go enjoy that peerless pairing of coffee and crepes.”
The scones are to die for too. There is probably a whole stick of butter in every one.
I agree that Javasti is a great cafe (nothing against Blue Saucer or Cloud City at all, but Javasti is our preferred destination). They take coffee VERY seriously (the owners recently went on a coffee tour in Central America, and photos from their farm experience are on digital frames in the store.) As a result, the barristas are almost to a one well-trained in the art of pulling good shots, even decaf shots. I get a miss once in a while, but never from the owners or older barristas. Their crepes are very good, but so are their sandwiches and on weekends their quiches. They bake their scones and cupcakes on site, and frankly I prefer their cupcakes any day over Cupcake Royale, etc.
Overcrowding is also my only complaint about Javasti, but I suppose that’s a good thing.
Cafe Javasti is great. Great coffee and great crepes. My only minor complaint is now that it is more popular and more people know about it, its often hard to get a table to sit a enjoy your crepe on a Saturday or Sunday morning. I guess that just means I have to get up earlier!