Keeping Spirit of Historic Neighborhood: Row House Café

Oh, and If you are interested in seeing what we are all about, check out our Flickr photostream and step into the Row House for a moment.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54276664@N04/

everybody row…

Sometimes you just stop, look up, and see "it."

Something happens when it’s quiet, you’re alone, and somehow you’ve veered from your intended path. You manage to find your way back eventually, but for the minute or hour or however long it is you lose all track of time.

This is discovery. This is reflection.

These are the times when you can just let go of the world and its pressures, and just be. Enjoy the details, enjoy the act of getting lost.

The image at left comes from one of those times. I was in Chicago, for the first time, for the jazz festival there. I also had a camera. Amidst the beautiful Louis Sullivan architecture I’d come to see here I found wrought iron twined so beautifully with  organic adornment. It was comfort, closeness. A place for the eye could rest.

The photograph you’ll find on Row House Café’s business cards is another one that I’m really fond of. Like some of the ideas I discovered as part of the process of creating a brand identity for Row House Cafe, the feelings about what it means to be in a space comfortably had been incubating for a long time. The image for Row House’s business cards has been part of our own archive since 1995, and it still hits that similar note: comfort, and closeness.

That has to mean something. Having a history is part of Row House Cafe’s brand story.

As our grand opening draws near, we are proud to announce that we will be serving Illy Coffee & Espresso.

A little info about Illy from their website just to get you excited.

‘Founded in 1933 by Francesco Illy, illycaffè produces and sells a unique blend of high quality coffee made from 9 types of pure Arabica beans A careful balance of ingredients from South and Central America, India and Africa creates the unmistakable illy flavor: always identical in any espresso cup, wherever it is drunk around the world.

The illy blend is now marketed in 140 countries worldwide, covering all 5 continents, and is served in more than 50,000 of the finest restaurants and coffee bars in the world.

Based in Trieste, Italy, illycaffè is led by chairman and CEO, Andrea Illy, the third generation of the Illy family.

Today, the illycaffè group helps to develop the global market and culture of coffee by working on all the factors that go into the perfect cup of espresso: the blend, the machines, the preparation, the training of specialized bar staff and even the design of bars and venues where people can enjoy drinking coffee. It disseminates the culture of coffee by continually reinventing tradition.’

]]> http://rowhousecafe.com/2010/08/morning-coffee-has-never-been-so-inspiring/feed/ 5 http://rowhousecafe.com/2010/07/a-letter-to-the-row-house-cafe/ http://rowhousecafe.com/2010/07/a-letter-to-the-row-house-cafe/#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:01:23 +0000 dipika http://rowhousecafe.com/?p=71 Continue reading →]]>

Wishing we could be there for the opening, DK writes a letter.

Working with the Row House Cafe to create a brand identity was one of the most fun projects Design Kompany‘s ever had.

The only thing we’re sad about is not getting to be there for Opening Day.

Thinking about the process, how we met Row House Cafe before it even had a name or Twitter feed, DK was inspired to write this letter.

Longhand, analog.

In an old-school, and like the Row House itself, a “yes-I-really-mean-this” kind of way.

Hey Seattle, Row House here.  As we inch closer to opening our new coffee, wine & beer bar, we thought we’d take a moment to muse about our beloved Cascade neighborhood in South Lake Union.

We think historic Cascade is the soul of this fine city. Its history and future are woven of the same fabric – as diverse today as it was back when immigrants were building the infrastructure for the city’s future.  Today witnesses yet a new breed of visionaries setting the stage for the next millennium.

Some neighborhoods evolve and never look back. Not so with Cascade and South Lake Union.  Its re-gentrification pays homage to the neighborhood’s multi-cultural past.

During its 150-year life span, Cascade has been home to a vibrant and innovative workforce. It once housed a venerable school; provided homes for most of Seattle’s incoming Russian, Greek, and Serbian immigrants; faced a major earthquake; suffered the attrition of many businesses that built Seattle; survived the impending doom of the I-5 “Chinese Wall” and ultimately emerged again in a modern and glorious rebirth that started in the 90’s and will continue for decades to come. Yes other neighborhoods in Seattle have experienced change, but none have done so with the continual ebb, flow and fanfare as Cascade.

So we raise our glasses to you Cascade neighborhood. We love your diversity and ingenuity, then and now. We salute your coffee houses of the past where conversations were understood only to those of Eastern European descent; cheers to your laundry houses and historic warship building efforts and to today’s biotech labs and cyber store fronts. We toast the designer home store where the original cabinetmakers would have marveled at the idea of a synthetic table or a butter dish crafted from recycled soup cans. We pay tribute to the first generation automobile that rolled off the Ford Motor Plant floor and croon the Tesla sports car that spun around the neighborhood last month. And finally to you Cascade neighborhood farmers market, bringing your locally grown bounty to such an amazing area. The neighborhood began with people working with their hands, using the local resources, and you are bringing that back home.

Stand tall little neighborhood, you haven’t been beaten, if anything you now run faster and jump higher than you ever could by doing what you always have done — relying on the hardworking locals who love you and want to be part of your growth. And to this we say Grow Cascade Neighborhood, do your thing and Grow. We want to come along for the ride!

Our logo

Row House Cafe is “the neighborhood living room. It’s also an experiment: a study in contrasts. It is important to acknowledge that Row House Cafe will grow organically over time. It will be a simple operation when the doors open, but it will evolve.” –Erin Maher, partner