Raconteur

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.

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 piss 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?

Did a run around Seward Park and found this place by accident!! Bookstore/cafe/downstairs bar/restaurant/outside seating and do all of those things well? Not possible I said, I was wrong - they do it all and do it brilliantly. Excited to go back, snag a book, a drink, some good food, and kick it outside before winter starts!

Nice place with a cool atmosphere. Used to come here more but took a break and went back recently. Food and service are still top notch however portion sizes have gone down. So now the food is a bit expensive for how much you get. The pancakes specifically went from 2 that were plate sized for $8.99 to 2 that are half the size for $8.99. The waiter did sympathize though and got me another free of cost so like I said top tier service. Overall 4/5 experience.

The food was quite good and the service excellent, but there were very few gluten free or vegetarian options on the food menu. That said, the bar was very accommodating and the coffee shop has multiple non dairy milk options. Management is really friendly and the staff was attentive. I just wish the menu were a little more diverse.