Saw Rachel H’s post and the write up in Eater Seattle, so figured this a great way for this early riser to start my weekend by visiting the joining of forces, Ventoux Roasters and Hart Coffee Company over in my former neighborhood of Ravenna-Bryant. Besides with today’s UW-Berkeley game is away, I-5 South was wide open! Here’s the Eater Seattle write up for additional background: I stopped in earlier this morning around 8:30-ish on 10÷11÷14 and there was already a line and people seated in this tiny indie café and roastery. Extremely good sign. I had a 12 ounce mocha($ 4.25) — nice coffee art, tasted great and not cloying That’s the biggest volume available, but all coffee drinks are made with two shots. No stamp cards available, but they’re still working out the logistics on tracking customers purchases. Plus I ate a High 5 Pie Apple Flipside(=hand held apple turnover, $ 4.50) Delicious and you don’t have to drive to Capitol Hill to get one — nice selection here Two Ginger Molasses Cookies($ 2.00 each) I kindly received a 2 for 1 because for some reason they were split in two. Cookies looked Macrina Bakery-like. Husband’s later assessment back at home was ‘Mmm, wonderful, chewy texture’ Kiddo’s added assessment was ‘om nom nom’. Also beyond High 5 Pie, Macrina baked goods, there’s also nicely arranged doughnuts from Mighty-O over in Tangletown/Green Lake. Final item purchased was a package of intoxicatingly fragrant, onsite roasted Ethiopian Yirga Cheffe Aricha coffee beans($ 14.00) These were just roasted on 10÷9÷14. There were other varieties available, but I love a strong Ethiopian roast. Total cost for everything with tax and tip was just under $ 30. The café’s interior is eye-catching from the pendant lights, bicycle hanging from the ceiling, enticing pastry case, cycling gears adorning the cabinetry, the coffee bean bags used as durable seat covers, antique sewing machine stand used as a table, and a brightly colored library card catalog also used for storage. Like the roasted coffee beans I mentioned, there’s also coffee accessories and other accoutrements for purchase. The roasting apparatus is also visible(similar to Capitol Hill’s Caffe Vita, Greenwood’s Diva, and Phinney Ridge’s Herkimer) which is pretty cool. From the Eater Seattle’s article — there will be future cupping events to help with the coffee education. Nice touch there! Very dog-friendly with doggie treats available and amusing signage at the counter, ‘Be the person your dog thinks you are’ I enjoyed talking with both owners who exuded genuine warmth and enthusiasm. Kudos to them where they get to relish in the end result of all that hard work joining forces and completing the build out. Judging from the volume of foot traffic in the 25 minutes I was there, this is clearly a well-received and welcomed addition to the Ravenna-Bryant neighborhood. Today was only Day 3 in operation. If you want to avoid the multitude of Starbucks and the crowded ‘study hall’ at Zoka in the University Village area, head up hill to 35th/55th, use Mioposto as a landmark, then look west a few businesses over and note the brightly red Adirondack-styled chairs out front. Business Hours: Closed Tuesday Monday, Wednesday through Friday 6am — 6pm Saturday and Sunday 7am — 6pm I could only hope that someday North Seattle and Shoreline could attract a similar high quality independent café. What a gem!