Seattle’s Best Coffee

CLOSED. Dammit. Replaced by yet another Starbucks. No more alternatives at this busy junction between the mountain, parking, hotels, shopping, eating, drinking, ice skating, etc. Your alternatives are now:
1) Starbucks. No, the other one, across the street in the mini-​mall on the corner of U.S. 50. Or the one at Raley’s, at the casinos, at the hotels… you get the idea.
2) Wildman Café, at the end of Ski Run by the lake. Need to try this place.
That’s it within a mile. Farther down 50 on the Nevada side is The Coffee Bar at Lakeside Inn, which gets good reviews. Back in California:
4) Hot Gossip, about 1.4 miles up 50, hidden in a strip mall adjacent to a pot dispensary.
5) A Cup of Cherries, across 50 from Hot Gossip. Sounds like more of a restaurant that gets rave coffee reviews.
6) Free Bird, 3 miles back up 50, for you chai lovers.
7) Keys Café, 4 miles up 50 (almost to the Y) at Tahoe Keys Blvd. This would be my choice if I’m going to get in the car anyway.

Seattles Best no longer exists. Starbucks and Heavenly took over and that is sad:(

Let me start off by saying I’m not a coffee drink but some opinions here have been stated by avid coffee drinkers. During the winter, my go-​to warm me up drink is the peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks but I’m just a hot chocolate aficionado, especially when it’s snowing outside and 20 degrees. But this was disappointing… it just tasted like Swiss Miss and for the price paid, I could have bought a whole box at the grocery store. The hubs and the bro-​in-​law (Mr. Avid Coffee Drinker) really enjoyed their coffees and said «they know how to make a good cup of coffee.»

My friends and I were excited to get coffee & found this on Unilocal.I ordered their winter special, a vanilla wafer mocha latte. I was waiting for my drink and the barista, Martha, with the short blonde hair, called my drink, but didn’t say it was the vanilla wafer MOCHA and said it was w/​nonfat milk, which I did not ask for. She kept calling the order and stared at me as if it were obviously mine. I told her I asked for the mocha one and she clearly did not want to remake my drink and just said here ill just add chocolate syrup and now it’s a mocha. My drink was overly sweet and definitely lacking in richness. For $ 4.70 a cup and rude, horrible customer service, I definitely won’t be returning.

Wanting to give this chain another shot, we attempted in vain to find it. We were staying right across the street, checked our Unilocaly app and even checked the map at the shopping center. No luck. Okay, ask a few locals. «Seattle wut, huh? Never heard of it.», was the typical response, as they strolled by with their Starbucks cup of hot liquid commercial crap.
We tried calling, only to get somebody’s personal voice mail. Oh well. Fuck it.
We bailed and found a nice little joint, with homemade muffins, right down the road.
Good times in the Sierras!

My favorite thing to get here is the crème caramel javakula. They’ve changed the name like three times so I don’t know what its called currently… but they still know what I mean when I order it.
I know its still owned by Starbucks, but I love Seattle’s best for the drink I mentioned above.
The service at this location is awesome, the baristas are super friendly. Also, every time I’ve come here, there’s never been a line which is always a bonus compared to the usual waiting I encounter at Starbucks.
Although parking does suck, I usually have to park across the street near Raleys and venture in, I find it worth it to get a drink I love.

Just ok. The hot mocha was way too sweet. The regular coffee was not impressive. They did not serve a dark roast, only mild and medium, hence my disappointment.
Not the best coffee I ever had by a long shot. Keep looking…

We stopped by to get a quick lunch and ended up getting a turkey and cheese sandwich and a ham and cheese sandwich (one each of their lunch sandwiches).
Okay to be honest, the sandwiches were pretty boring. They weren’t bad, but they were just meat and cheese. And not high-​quality cheese at that. I’d really like to see Seattle’s Best develop some gourmet sandwiches instead of their current lineup. However, these were perfectly good for a quick lunch.
We did, though, get a slice of the oreo cheesecake, which was decadent and delicious!
My decaf iced latte was fantastic — probably better than Starbucks, in fact. Creamier and less bitter than the Starbucks equivalent.
The service was super fast. There were two employees and no line when we were there around 12:15 pm. The sandwiches only took a few minutes to warm up, which was nice.
There’s also nice outdoor seating in the front, including two covered pit fires, which would be great in the winter.

My very first SBC and fantastic Americano’s. Great coffee and my son loved the hot chocolate — rates it the best amongst a list of coffee shops.
Just wish they had a shop in the Bay Area.