Here I was, at Tutta Bella in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle enjoying a straight espresso shot pulled from Attibassi coffee beans. Then all of a sudden it really dawned on me, that the days were drawing near. It was with a bit of sadness that I realized that I was coming to an end of my stay in Seattle.
After having called Seattle home for over 10 years, I was now picking up my family and my belongings and moving to another land. I was moving to a land of espresso and raw sugar separated from Seattle by the vast Pacific Ocean, a land that I will make my new home for some time.
And so here I am, sipping my espresso from a tiny ceramic espresso cup with the Attibassi crest and name emblazoned on the side and thinking to myself, this espresso shot is pretty nice actually. I was also thinking to myself that this is just about the last time for a while that I will be enjoying espresso in Seattle. And at the same time I was wondering what New Zealand would have to offer in terms of espresso?
I was standing right at the bar, taking pictures of my espresso cup, pictures to add to my coffee collection. I was trying to position my shot so that the Tutta Bella espresso machine in would be in noticeable in the background. Yes, the espresso machine would be noticeable in the background but only from a bokeh point of view. Maybe I should take a couple of shots where the machine in the background would be in focus and the cup itself would be out of focus? Tried that… hmm… not too bad, maybe I’ll actually post the picture too.
I have to say that the espresso machines at Tutta Bella are pretty sweet. All three Tutta Bella restaurants have the same make. As far as I know, they are the only traditional lever-action (read manually operated) espresso machines in Seattle… I don’t know if that is really true, but that’s what one of the baristas proudly told me. I do know that I love checking out cool espresso machines and I haven’t seen any like those yet. I love the copper and silver plating but there is something even cooler about the machine that most people will not realize… that is besides the fact that the machine is manually controlled. If you were to turn the machine around, you will notice a large ‘sculpture’ on an eagle attached to the backside or is the back really the front? I forget the name of the machine but I will update this post with that info.
The other thing about Tutta Bella is that they only serve Attibassi coffee which is flown in from Bologna, Italy each week. I was curious why they would do this when they could have bought Italian style roasts from the likes of Caffé Umbria or Caffe D’Arte. The barista told me that the owner had actually toured Italy tasting and sampling and there he discovered Attibassi. Of course the rest is history.
Since this is going to be the last official Seattle related posting for a while, I will diverge a little from my normal format and talk about Tutta Bella’s pizzas. Now for those of you have haven’t guessed by now, Tutta Bella is a Neapolitan pizzeria that basically got everything, including the brick pizza oven from Naples Italy. I understand that they also get a lot of the ingredients that they use to make pizza and other things, from Italy too. I have to say, they do make the best pizzas in Seattle.
And so with this post, I have to say, farewell for now to Seattle, till we meet again…
