Seattle Travel Guide

Seattle has long been known for coffee and beer companies that have grown into global behemoths. However, there are many great, smaller places to be found. We’ve written up our favorite spots for beer, coffee, cannabis and chocolate.

Seattle has long been home to new businesses in coffee, brewing and more recently cannabis. It is home to Starbucks and Seattle’s Best, two of the biggest names in over-roasted coffee as well as Red Hook brewing an early craft brewery now owned by Craft Brew Alliance/AB Inbev. Thankfully, Seattle has continued to innovate in the craft space and is currently home to a wide-array of producers. We’ve featured a few of our favorites here.

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La Marzocco

Not a roaster – or even a coffee shop. This is an interactive showroom for La Marzocco, the Italian company that makes some of the best coffee machines in the world. Most decent cafes you go to feature a La Marzocco machine. Their home line includes the GS3 (pictured below), which at $7,500, can bring cafe-quality espressos to your kitchen. This large space adjacent to a local radio station and the Key Arena serves us great coffee drinks from a rotating list of roasters – a new one every month. Weekly Friday morning cuppings and friendly baristas who will show you how to “dial-in” an espresso on one of their fancy home machines makes this place our top pick.

Brouwer’s Cafe

Although this place is a belgian beer specialist, you can find pretty much anything here. A seemingly endless tap list and cellared bottles and special releases makes this place a must-visit.

Holy Mountain Brewing

Sip specialty saisons with a view of industrial freight train tracks. Doesn’t get much hipster-er than that – but it’s in a good way. Can’t go wrong with a beer here!

Toronado

Toronado is familiar to beer-enthusiasts up and down the West Coast. This mini-chain with locations in San Francisco and San Diego, Toronado’s Seattle location doesn’t disappoint. Famous for not caring too much about friendly service, their selection certainly makes up for it. Look for special releases and even Toronado collab brews. We had one of their recent collabs with Modern Times and it hit the spot.

Schilling Cider House

Tired of beer? Well good thing there’s great cider in Seattle. Washington state is renowned for it’s apples. Apples make cider. So naturally this is the place to get some excellent cider. The tap list is extensive. Come thirsty. If you’re in Capitol Hill, then be sure to check out Capitol Cider. They have cider flights and an extensive list. Some really great vintages and rare bottles are to be had here.

Washington state only has recreational/adult use cannabis. If you are a medical patient, please bear in mind of that Washington state, as of Jan 2018, does not have a medical cannabis program.

There are a lot of places to get some flower or edibles. However, a couple places we like happen to be very close to each other in Fremont. Here are some friendly dispensaries with great selections:

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Theo Chocolate

An early bean-to-bar pioneer and now Whole Foods staple, Theo creates great chocolate from organic, fair trade cacao. Their factory in Fremont is a great place to see the chocolate making action up-close and pick up a few delicious bars on your way out. Located near many other cool spots in Fremont.