Situated in the lobby of Rainier Tower (a mixed-use skyscraper with office space and luxury apartments) in downtown Seattle, The Fonté Bar opened in early May, offering locally owned coffee alongside tasty Pacific Northwest-inspired cuisine and craft cocktails. The coffee company also operates seven additional coffee shops throughout Seattle and will be opening another in Bellevue this summer. Fonté is owned by Paul Odum and sells coffee beans both wholesale and to restaurants and hotels as well as for retail online.
“It’s an amazing facility,” says Max Messmer, director of operations for Fonté Coffee Roasters. “We have a coffee bar located in it that’s open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the weekends. And then in addition to that, we have a full-service restaurant and bar [where] we do lunch and dinner and happy hour during the week, and brunch and dinner on the weekends.”
Enjoy true northwestern cuisine like the Miso Glazed Salmon, which is “served on top of a quinoa and cherry slaw that’s epically good,” Messmer says. And, to truly combine the coffee with the dining, Fonté serves an F2 Prime Steak Sandwich, a New York steak marinated in their signature F2 Espresso blend. Sip on draft beers and wines from the wine list, or choose one of several cocktails on the menu.
“All our cocktails are truly craft cocktails,” Messmer explains. “In the mornings, we spend about an hour and a half squeezing [fresh] lime, lemon, and orange juices for all our cocktails.” The Fonté Bar also has an outdoor courtyard with seating that can be sectioned off for private group dining on a case-by-case basis and weather dependent.
