Raconteur - Seattle

Having move to Seattle recently, I am happily exploring my new home. Raconteur is a restaurant sharing space with a book store in Columbia City. I came looking for a nice place to enjoy a coffee while writing in the morning. What I found was a great spot to relax, have some great coffee while writing, and a wonderful book store, Third Place Books. Raconteur has more space down stairs with what looks to be a bar. All in all, this is a great little gem tucked away in a beautiful residential neighborhood above Lake Washington.

This is a quaint neighborhood cafe bookstore in one, both are connected under the same beautiful wooden roof. The staff are friendly and professional...quick services. There's free parking but the lot is small so come at off peak hours. I ordered the Seward Park Breakfast: generous potato, 3 chicken sausage, English muffin, and 2 eggs.

Beautiful, spacious restaurant connected to the bookstore with a downstairs bar to boot. Great BLT and grilled cheese, and a nice kids' menu with crayons.

We had a great experience! Don 't know what to say...it was a magical and ethereal experience...a spiritual journey through a parallel universe spliced by an hour lecture on quantum physics and drunken telling of the space and time continuum. This server/barista/soul healer served us the other night. We were sitting in the bar, taken aback by the cool yet insidious architectural feat of wood, steel, and glass. It was super chill. The staff in general; your local band of street toughs akin to the West Side Story, all **** and vinegar. The cast and crew of 90210 has nothing on these youngsters. Yet one...one that stood out like a phoenix out of the flames of the grill serving up burger meat. Our server had the appearance of a young Julia Stiles, an early 2000s Julia Stiles ala 'Save the last Dance ' Julia Stiles-she could have been confused with a 90s mom, considering the jeans she was wearing, they were oversized with a loose silhouette and a casual aesthetic. The hoop earrings and dark lipstick again really nailed down the emo chick we all were 'kinda ' friends with way back when. She introduced herself, her demeanor was like a tidal wave crashing over us. This presence permeated our pores like a nicotine patch. She took our drink orders The beer list was cool. We ordered whiskey neat, apparently she was too young to pour our drinks-makes me thing that this place was also full of orphans. Seriously, we were waiting for Oliver Twist to show up and ask for more food, money or drugs. The bartender, a tall and fiery lass, her cat ears were ridiculous but she seemed to know what she was doing. Our own Julia Stiles returned with our drinks and took our order. We ordered the NW Salmon and the Beyond burger and just as quick as we ordered the food was there, brought by a young man with a wild shock of hair and a cool Raconteur shirt. We dug in, food was good-the cooks up stairs were baking their heart and souls into the food as if it was their last performance, like the string trio on the sinking Titanic. Our Julia Stiles danced her way back to check in on us. Her bubbly but yet contagious pleasantness was a bit much, we felt like she was trying to sell us a timeshare and also entice us to a self-guided tour of Paris on the back of a unicorn. She checked back in on us a few more times till we had our fill. She dropped the check off after offering a dessert menu...she did plead to not order chocolate ice cream, hmmmm we didn 't know why she was freaking out about that. We placed our card down and paid for our meal and calmly walked up the stairs. Julia Stiles waved farewell from her post. We could just barely see tears in her eyes, we did leave a 30% tip after all. Who else is gonna pay for Julia Stiles dance classes anyway?

Perfect spot to visit with my son. Can’t wait for my next trip to Seattle. And love love love the bookstore.