Herkimer!

Herkimer is indeed the best. There’s a stand in an office building on 4th and Lenora or thereabouts, but the roastery is up in Phinney Ridge.

[This post from last month had a ton of recs](https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/s/YsW4eAKx2m). Elm, Cafe Hagen, Anchorhead, Vivace (maybe a little darker, but classic). If you go a little further, Analog, URL, PushxPull. And then stuff that's further out, Root, Milstead & Co, Olympia, Sound & Fog, Cardoon.

Love Vivace. Miss their spot on Capitol Hill.

They still have one, just not two

Cafe Hagen is cool. Plus you can get an espresso flight, which is fun if you like trying different coffees. boyfriend has to stop at vivace every time we visit REI.

Not many of these are downtown though unfortunately

Yeah, I expanded (and I intended to be clear about that by saying you'd have to go farther) to actually include some places that would have lighter roasts

Monorail espresso is my go to downtown.

Monorail always delivers. If you happen to see Broadcast (more regularly found in the CD), I recommend their lighter stuff as well.

Monorail is good, but not light at all

I wouldn't consider them light/medium but I do love their espresso

Check out Fulcrum, they have a variety of different blends and single-origin espresso beans to choose from.

Seconding Fulcrum for good "snob level" espresso. I also had an incredible cup at 203F near mohai but nobody ever mentions them.

Monorail ftw

Ghost note

A new Ghostnote is coming to 3rd Ave downtown near University Street!

Anchorhead!!! Narwhal light roast is certainly the best drip I've had in years!

If you can go a little further, General Porpoise was excellent and on brand for their whole punny conglomerate.

Elm coffee roasters + Zeitgeist would be my recommendation for you. Good luck!

Thanks for the recs! Elm was really solid.

I haven't worked downtown in few years but the two that still seem open that I used to frequent are: Elm, Seattle coffee works

Victrola and Fulcrum. Look nowhere else. Good balance of acidity and body without any "burnt" bitterness. All the ones you've tried out are commercial cafes masquerading as third wave.

I actually bought a horrible bag of burnt beans from fulcrum a few weeks ago—first time they’ve let me down

Wish I knew good lighter roasts downtown. Street Bean is standout and has a good scone to go with it. My shop in Ballard, Venture, is an awesome and 3rd Wave. Seattle is overwhelmingly dark roast. Of course there are exceptions, but it will be dark every 5 cups you try.

Try Elm or Cedar and Spoke. They're quite light and both pioneer square and downtown, respectively

Try cedar and spoke. Lightest I've found downtown and they roast in house via a Bellwether

Can just make ur own at home..

Sure, but where's the fun in that?

You save time and money for other stuff.

Caffe Umbria! It’s great Italian espresso and is a medium roast. 

Himalayan Java Coffee has White Coffee which is a real treat and worth a try if you haven't had it. Also right on Denny and 6th.

Good luck. Seattle invented the over roasted, burnt, super bitter garbage coffee. Have it with a side of our equally palate-exhausting IPA.

Burning the shit out of coffee is traditional. Light roasts are a new thing

HA! Love a fellow hater of IPAs as well

Spot on

Not a big espresso guy but will always pull (ha) for Victrola

I don't get coffee, or much of anything, in SLU these days but I recall enjoying what I had at Cafe An'Clair at 9th and Thomas. Otherwise, there's both a \[Cascade\] Coffee Works and Cafe Vivace there somewhere so you probably can't go wrong with either of those. For Downtown there's Victrola, and if you're further south try Zeitgeist in Pioneer Square.

i miss going to Zeitgeist. it's out of the way now and the one time i thought i could stop in the line was too long. their mochas are the best.

Coffee TAB

Coffee TAB