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South Seattle should get ready for a big caffeine boost. Olympia Coffee — the chain from Washington’s capital city, which has won barista competitions and awards for its fair trade-focused brews — is planning to open up a shop in Columbia City this winter. The 1,750 square foot space on Rainier Avenue and South Edmunds Street (formerly occupied by Starbucks) will house a cafe, training facility, and community room for local businesses and nonprofits to meet, with an expanded menu of pastries and small bites that’s still in the works. This will be Olympia Coffee’s Seattle flagship and its second location in the area, following its West Seattle expansion in 2018.
There will be some immediate competition in the neighborhood, with Empire Espresso (one of Eater Seattle’s essential coffee shops) and the extremely popular Columbia City Bakery within just a couple of blocks. But Olympia Coffee does has a prime location in a historic 1920s building and hopes to stand out with its intricate roasting process that involves caramelizing the sugars within the coffee beans (resulting in sweeter and smoother tasting brews). It also likes to experiment with fancy concoctions like iced coffee with tonic, house-made coconut syrup, and candied lemon.
On Instagram, Olympia Coffee announced the Columbia City location will feature sandwiches and salads from Seattle-based Homegrown, as well as okazu pan (bread with savory fillings) from Japanese street food purveyors Umami Kushi.
