Photo: Revo 1599, Flickr
It wasn't a rash of espresso-guzzling Italian immigrants or even an enterprising chancer like Starbucks founder Howard Schultz who turned Seattle into America's coffee HQ: it was the weather. The damp, London-esque climate here has been an overpowering influence on its food scene, according to Seattleite Ethan Lowry, co-founder of urbanspoon.com. "Our notoriously grey weather, coupled with those long, dark winters - we're one of the most northern cities in the continental US - means we need things that are pick-me-ups. Coffee was a natural fit."
Food writer and cookbook author Cynthia Nims agrees. "Sitting down over some great coffee was one of those things you could do easily on a misty winter day," she laughs. Lowry goes further, suggesting that Seattle's warm, unfussy vibe is also meteorological. "In so many cities, there's the option to sit outside. But here, there's a dearth of outdoor cafes and a cozy feel to a lot of Seattle's restaurants," he says. The city is as ingredient obsessed as San Francisco, yet without its showoffish snobbery - chanterelle mushrooms or Dungeness crab, both staples here, were foraged casually rather than farmed and marketed to foodies. Nims sees the influx of Scandinavians as underscoring that understatement, in all aspects of local life.
Read on about Seattle's coffee, salmon and more, after the jump...


It was eight years
ago, and still I remember every bite. I was in Seattle for one night and I was going to live it up. We ate at Wild
Ginger, and we feasted on what was then still on the very edge of food fashion: Pan-Asian fusion cuisine.
I've been a
Seahawks fan since I was old enough to say "football," and couldn't be happier that my favorite NFL team is
finally taking its rightful place in the Superbowl. But what matters more than a city's fortunes on the gridiron? Well,
their food, of course.











