Owning a small business in 2020 was challenging, with pandemic hurdles around every corner. Many business owners hemorrhaged money out of their own pockets to keep their companies afloat while brainstorming ways to take care of their staff and customers. Running a business became increasingly political as Gov. Jay Inslee pushed out mandates that polarized views on the way owners could and should serve their communities. 

Thankfully 2021 is here, and widespread COVID-19 vaccination is on the horizon. The Clipper thinks it’s a good time to celebrate some of the small businesses that survived the year and provide readers with a local’s guide to Everett’s coffee shops. Cheers!

Paesano’s

2707 Colby Ave | (425) 374-8059 | M-F 6:30-4:30p

Formerly Silver Cup, the community staple and favorite of neighboring Key Bank employees relaunched as Paesano’s in August of 2020 after the company acquired the shop a year prior. They serve Vista Clara Coffee, a roastery on Bickford Avenue in Snohomish. The roast profile is medium to dark, with Paesano’s signature Milano Blend on the darker end. 

 Paesano’s coffee menu is fairly standard, ranging from americanos to white mochas. They also serve pastries, sandwiches and snack items. When sit-in dining is approved, they have an interior decorator who will make the shop cozy and inviting for guests. 

Currently, Paesano’s offers take-out and limited outdoor seating.

Nadine’s

2908 Wetmore Ave | (425) 263-9090 | M-Sat 8-3:30p

Less than a year old, Nadine’s is a coffee shop attempting to beat the odds. Jake Ort, founder and owner, named Nadine’s after his late grandmother. “She wanted everyone to belong. Her home was a safe space.”

The shop is very personal to Ort. He built many of the features by hand, with the help of his father and grandfather. “That table over there, we built it,” Ort said. 

Nadine’s currently serves a relatively small but creative menu with light roasted coffee from Colibri, a small family-owned roastery in Everett. They have also worked with Velton’s, another Everett roastery, and Theory in Redding, California. They’ve kept the rest of their menu local with Snohomish’s Everything Tea and pastries from Everett’s Delite Bakery.

Contrary to COVID-19 guidelines, Nadine’s offers sit-in dining and masks aren’t required, including workers. They also offer take-out.

“I’m not forcing anyone to be here,” Ort says on the matter. “People want to be here, and I have several people thanking me every day for providing a space for them to be.”

Narrative Coffee

2927 Wetmore Ave | (425) 322-4648 | M-Sun 8-3p

“Quality offered humbly is one of our values, and I think we really stick to that,” says Josh Modisette, manager at Narrative Coffee. Narrative opened in 2017 and quickly became a hotspot for coffee lovers, boasting a simple, light roasted coffee menu and chef-crafted seasonal food offerings.

Narrative is a multi-roaster cafe, which means the coffee they serve changes bi-monthly. “We have blind tastings of coffee from all over the world and we collectively decide what coffee to serve.”

Product shelves sport coffee gear, merch from local artists and an array of hand-picked bottles of wine. An accessible mini-fridge holds prepared to-go foods from their kitchen, including rolls of their popular chocolate chip cookie dough.

Narrative currently offers take-out, online ordering, curbside pick-up and delivery through Uber Eats.

Cafe Makario

2625 Colby Ave | (425) 439-9596 | M-Sat 8-3p

David Jung opened Cafe Makario over three years ago and has worked nonstop ever since. This tiny shop packs a punch with a vast menu of unique coffee and tea creations and personal touch. Jung roasts his own coffee and caters to every taste from specialty light roast, single origin pour-overs to Nutella lattes. 

The cafe’s specialty is Dutch coffee, the result of a twelve-hour cold brew method. They use their Dutch coffee in various creative lattes and also sell it as a concentrate.

Cafe Makario offers take-out, curbside pick-up, delivery through Doordash and limited outdoor seating. 

The Loft Coffee Bar

1309 Hewitt Ave | (425) 212-9271 | M-Sat 7-3p Sun 8-3p

EvCC student Sjersten Gunn manages The Loft, her family’s coffee shop, with her sister, Kayla. “The Loft is our second family,” she says. They have served Everett since December 2016.

The Loft is a welcoming space with rustic decor and plenty of room to meet friends or curl up with a good book (when COVID-19 restrictions lift, of course). They serve medium to dark roasted coffee from Fidalgo, a roastery in Burlington, with a standard coffee menu. They also serve smoothies, pastries and various snacks.

Currently, The Loft offers take-out and two outdoor tables for seating.

Bargreen’s

2821 Rucker Avenue | (425) 252-3161 | M-F 7:30-4:30p Sat 10-2p

Roasting coffee since 1898, family-owned Bargreen’s has served Everett for 120 years. Three Bargreen generations have operated the flagship store and roastery. They also have espresso stands on campus at EvCC and WSU Everett.

“I’ve been in the coffee business a long time, and this is something special and hard to find,” says Kris Maxwell, Bargreen’s district manager. “Coffee looked a lot different 120 years ago. There’s been a complete evolution, and Bargreens has been through it all.”

Over the years the shop has displayed various relics of the past, such as a coffee delivery bicycle. “Coffee is a craft, and we try to stick with traditional, manual operations,” Maxwell says. Bargreen’s serves a sundry of roasts, from light to dark, and their standard espresso blend is on the darker side. 

Bargreen’s offers pick-up, delivery through Uber Eats and outside seating.