Cloud City Coffee

Hi, welcome to another episode of Seattle Rain or Shine and sometimes snow. I'mel Parsons and it's really important to me that you love where you live so I'm sharing some of the places that I think you've got to visit. Today we're at Cloud City Coffee, the Maple Leaf neighborhood in Seattle. Cloud City is such a special place because they've really built an amazing community here, have delicious food and incredible coffee. I probably get more work done here than anywhere else. I've been coming with my babies for the last 15 years. Come on inside, let'see what'so special about it. Alright, so here we are with Jill Cohen, the founder and owner of Cloud City Coffee. Jill, tell us a little bit about the history. You've been here for 16 years and you may believe. 17 this year. Okay, 17. Yeah, right. I wanted something in my neighborhood that had a connection. I really wanted to get into coffee and our local coffee shop had burned down. I don't know if you remember. Cafe News burned down and so this place became available and I had a dog at the time and I walked by this place every night and it was a dog treat bakery and every dog in the neighborhood knew it and they didn't do wholesale but they had to do some. Were a potential long-term tenant. Obviously that worked out really well for him. He felt You've never done coffee before? I never had. Yeah, I had never done coffee before. I'd run businesses before, retail businesses, but I'd never done coffee. To having an iconic Maple Leaf business, what would you say are a couple factors that got you from that dream before you're now? We listened to the customers from day one and we saw from day one that we needed to appeal to people that weren't necessarily wealthy or upper-class. So we started offering the dollar drip right away and that was a huge hit. Overnight it was a huge hit. So that was a big deal. And then I think just trying to stay grounded in Maple Leaf has been really important to us and staying true to our roots and our clientele in our neighborhood. What makes Cloud City coffee different than another coffee shop down the road? We seem My staff is so dog-on efficient that they are saving energy everywhere they go. So having that friendly openness and then the fact that we do have the Honor Bar and people just know, okay, you trust me to come in and do this and the coffee's just sitting here and we take a lot of pride in it. I mean we Scientifically test it every week. We have a refractometer. Most coffee shops in Seattle do that. So come see for yourself what a special place Cloud City is. It's great to just meet up with a friend for coffee or bring the kids and get a big y I'mel Parsons with Seattle Rain or Shine. Keep an eye out for our next video.