Dutch Bike Co Weblog

Welcome to the Dutch Bike Café!

This is Brian, the lead Barista at the new Dutch Bike Café that is located right in the heart of old Ballard in the Dutch Bike Co. Take a break from shopping for your Workcycle or a Bakfiets and check out our new coffee locale! I’m excited to let you know about the refined focus on coffee and espresso in our warm and inviting new café.  

We are using locally roasted Lighthouse Coffee, and getting compliments and winning loyal regulars right from the start. The espresso profile is rich and warm with lingering notes of cocoa and a dry finish, much like a good red wine. To showcase the fresh roasted beans we are offering great drinks like the macchiato: which is espresso with a touch of steamed milk. We call it “the world’s tiniest latte." The doppio -- simply a double shot of espresso in a cute little cup & saucer -- is another great way to savor the flavor of the espresso. If you’re a traditionalist we have piping hot French press coffee all-day for your “drip coffee” experience.

Pair any of our great espresso drinks -- like the cinnamon and vanilla infused cappuccino -- with a lunch sandwich hot from the grill or one of Julie’s famous Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies and you are in for a tasty and enjoyable treat!

Plenty of folks are stopping in for a cup of morning joe and a breakfast sandwich. We also see a lot of you swinging in with your bikes for a tune-up and to test ride the great selection of bikes at the shop and to have a latte with friends.

Stay tuned for more updates on our fabulous baked goods, ice cream sandwiches, and espresso delights!

Good grief, we're so close to opening customers are already trying to get around the construction fence out front! I'd like to thank all of our wonderful Seattle customers for waiting so patiently while we've been putting this beautiful new space together. While you might miss the “underground” ambiance of the old warehouse space, or the hilarious – if sometimes disturbing – antics of the regulars down at the boat launch, you'll have a wonderful time in the new shop. With a near-perfect double short americano in hand, I've already had some wonderfully relaxing mornings watching the increasingly large volume of bicycle traffic up and down Ballard Avenue in front of our gigantic glass front. In a few days, you'll be able to check out the new models from Linus or Civia – and of course Workcycles – out front, or take your coffee and wander towards the other end of the shop to take a look at some of the cool new parts and accessories populating all this new wall space.

So thanks again for waiting for us, Seattle, and in just a few days we'll be back in action; ready to tune your bikes, satisfy your practical bike cravings, and get you all wired on some great coffee.

If you've talked with any of us here at Dutch Bike in the past year, you've probably heard us talk about “the move.” While we're staying in the same area, we're moving the Seattle shop onto historic Ballard Avenue: the main street of one of Seattle's most interesting and vibrant neighborhoods. Ballard Ave perfectly balances the nightlife, boutiques, and restaurants we enjoy with the hardware, sheet metal, machining, and other light industrial businesses that keeps the neighborhood lively and living. Of course, because we could never forget our roots down by the boat launch in “scenic industrial Ballard,” we feel right at home in a building between a machine shop and 58 year old Ballard Hardware and Supply.

The building into which we're moving was for the first part of the century home to Kolstrand Manufacturing Co., a famous name in the Northwest marine industry. The Graham-Baba designed rebuild has maintained the old brick shell with even the remnants of the original “Kolstrand Mfg. Co.” paint intact while creating a polished and eminently usable retail and restaurant space inside.

Our designer and builder – David Lipe of 16D – has similarly reused much of the original wood and materials in the interior construction, including some beautiful and humorous touches that you'll just have to drop by to experience. Inside the shop we've also commissioned a mural by Ed Fotheringham, our friend responsible for our “flower girl” and “keg mover” posters.

In addition to Alex – the newest addition to the bike shop – we've got several great baristas (baristi for the language purists) warming up for the cafe component of the new shop. Your eyes do not deceive: the new Dutch Bike Seattle shop will be Seattle's first fully implemented bicycle cafe! We'll be brewing excellent and powerful coffee from local roaster Lighthouse, starting at six AM so you can start even your earliest morning rides with a bang. David has been updating the Flickr stream with the array of delicious snacks Julie has been designing for the shop, and the pictures will make you hungrier than anything I could write here. You'll also find made-to-order sandwiches, pastries from lauded local bakery Macrina, and some tasty – and surprisingly filling – cookies.

The finishing touches are going on the construction as I write this, and our grand opening is still on schedule for July 24^th. We'll be fully operational- tuning, repairing, upgrading, renting, and of course selling bicycles, and rolling out an expanded array of interesting accessories. With two expert mechanics our turnaround time for tune-ups and other in-depth maintenance will be close to the same you'd expect from your coffee orders. In fact, if you're ordering anything more complicated than an americano while you get your flat fixed, maybe we'll race you!