Location visited: Monroe St, Spokane, WA (formerly Vessel Coffee Roasters)
WiFi?: yes
Rating: 6+ [see key]
Since my turnaround time on posts is not exactly fast, many times things happen between me visiting a shop and me publishing my visit. Sadly, especially this year, the situation is more often that a shop has closed down and does not plan to reopen. But occasionally something cheerier happens, like every great once in a while a quality shop merges with another quality local coffee operation, creating a stronger presence for both in a fortuitous union.
This seems to be the case with Vessel Coffee Roasters and Ladder Coffee in Spokane. Some months ago, I made a visit to Vessel's sole outpost and had a most delightful experience (of which I will further share). Unfortunately, due to the hour and other circumstances, I was not able to make it to Ladder Coffee that day and sample their highly-regarded coffees, and I headed out of town that night forlorn for missing the window to visit.
Time passed and as I was scheduling Vessel's post, news broke in early November 2020 that they were acquired by Ladder. Thus, after some consideration on the matter and given the perceived similarity in scope and vision of these two coffee entities, I determined I would relay the experience I had at Vessel with the assumption/deduction that Ladder would offer a similar experience, echoing the excellence I was able to try firsthand at Vessel some months prior to their epic team-up.
Fortunately, at least from the pictures I have seen online, the shop structure did not change much. The cafe is a single-story structure, with a sprawling layout that offered plenty of seating in the pre-Covid days. The coffee I had that day was the same naturally processed as an espresso and as a batch brew. The espresso, pulled short/medium with brown crema, smacked of chocolate strawberry, hibiscus, watermelon candy, sugar cookie, a touch of rhubarb and a little basil, proving bright and juicy. The drip coffee also exploded with fruits, offering notes of pineapple, nectarine and candied strawberry as well as rich notes of caramel, croissant and a little green tea.
Sadly, I make it out to Spokane rarely, but the next time I do make it out, I plan to give Ladder Coffee a proper visit. If you happen to be in the area or passing through, definitely give one of Ladder's four locations a try and let me know how you liked it.
These wonderful folks made this visit possible in part. Make sure to check them out!
No comments:
Post a Comment