unlike any shop previously visited in Seattle, with everyone giving a personal touch. Wirrig says every shop he has worked at has shaped him in different ways. The coffee community in Seattle is smaller than expected but there is a competitive nature in this field since everyone is working to impress the customer and each other. Wirrig says he does not give into the coffee-snob culture. He jokes that while there is an ethos or a paradigm around specialty coffee
Below: Noah Carey, cheese artisan at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, shares his knowledge with tourists and locals alike who come to sample his art. Top: Nathan Wirrig takes a day off from the corprate side of Slate Coffee to serve with the baristas, transfering his pour over from the chemex to a serving pot. Right: Kevin Buster, soprano saxophone player for the Inner-City Medicine Show, draws in crowds during the lunch rush as a Pike Place Market regular.
and that group, they do not want to force black espresso on customers, but still offer sweet-syrup and pastries and make them well.
Chocolatier Hidden among the variety of coffee shops on every corner sits Intrigue Chocolate Co. and its proud head chocolatier, Aaron Barthel. He says he is prepared to open one’s mind for a culinary adventure that was previously thought impossible. His hobby grew from his background in ecology and botany but it soon bloomed into a business. He made truffles for a friend’s catering business for a year and a half before branching off to form his own chocolate lab of concoctions. “I have always wanted to be a mad scientist, but it’s all about the plants, herbs and spices,” Barthel says. Basil was the second flavor he came up with 18 years ago after brainstorming a more interesting spin on the overdone mint-chocolate flavor.
20 | Pursuit