cafe allegro is downstairs from the pensione, college inn, right across the street from gould hall, the university of washington college of architecture, which i had gone to visit in the spring of 1998 to investigate their graduate program. the inn is housed on the second through fourth floors of the tudor style building. the [...]

The coffeeshop has a different function for the tourist, the d?river, and any transient functionary than it does for the local, or the inhabitant of the city the shop is in. It is less receptacle and more passage. In the home environment, the coffeeshop is a wall, or chamber, against which the imbiber is bounced, [...]

at trader joe’s in seattle on thursday morning a conversation was forcibly struck up between us and the cashier, and eventually with the older local lady in (if i recall correctly) some sort of athletic tights and probably a fleece northface vest. it came out that we were headed to tacoma after purchasing our smoothie, [...]

I am completely aware that one of the policies of Cafe Tableaux is to not review establishments whose sole focus is to serve food. I am also aware that many of these policies are potentially dooming the site to failure, although not that rule in particular, so I am using an executive privilege to register [...]

peripatetic in the city. sure it is romantic, sure it brings you to a space of scrutiny in which you can enjoy the stain of dirt left above the extinct neighbour’s roofline on a brick party wall for longer than you could at a stoplight, or at a busy bus stop, sure you can try [...]

There is a nice phenomenon in some cities, it may be in all cities except Atlanta, but particularly I am thinking of Portland, OR and Seattle, WA, where small intersections deep within residential districts swell slightly with a commercial hub. In the pleasant iterations I have encountered they both contained coffeeshops and ideosyncratic eating establishments [...]