The world knows the Northwest for its coffee, and it’s been reflected in everything from feature films to television sketches to straight-to-DVD horror flicks across the decades. Check out a few of the real-life coffee shops that snuck their way into Northwest-inspired TV and movies—and a few other establishments masquerading as cafés.
1. MASQUERADE – The Alibi Room in “Expiration Date.” Post Alley’s iconic brick-walled bar, tucked away beneath tourist-laden Pike Place Market, was disguised as a coffee shop for owner Rick Stevenson’s dark indie comedy about a Seattle-dwelling barista named Charlie Silvercloud III. Charlie’s coffee shop keeps the Alibi name but features customers fiending for espresso, not alcohol. || 85 Pike Street #410, Seattle
2. REAL – Tuff Beans in “One Week.” Real-life organic coffee shop Tuff Beans’ hometown Tofino is the end point for main character Ben Tyler’s cancer-spurred cross-Canada road-trip in “One Week.” The popular local shop is featured as an end-of-the-road breakfast stop for Ben. || 151 Fourth Street, Tofino, BC
3. MASQUERADE – The Comet Tavern in “Grassroots.” “Meet me at The Comet in 20 minutes.” At the heart of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, The Comet Tavern has been one of Seattle’s best-known music venues for more than 50 years. It’s dressed up as a coffee shop for “Grassroots”: Jason Biggs, as Phil Campbell, plots with Joel David Moore, as Grant Cogswell, over a cup of joe. The 2012 film is about real-life Cogswell’s failed 2001 campaign for Seattle City Council. || 922 East Pike Street, Seattle
4. REAL – Oblique Coffee Roasters in “Portlandia.” “A super bitchin’ Victorian Coffee Mercantile with scrumtrulescent beans micro roasted in an über German cast iron roaster named Bart!” Sound like the perfect place for a Portlandia sketch? It is—featured in season one, episode six. || 3039 Southeast Stark Street, Portland
5. REAL – Bob’s Java Jive in “Say Anything” and “I Love You To Death.” Okay, it’s a real place, but it’s not actually a coffee shop. You wouldn’t know it in “Say Anything,” where a brief shot features Lloyd speeding by the 25-foot Tacoma icon. Built in 1927, Bob’s Java Jive has served as a restaurant, a speakeasy, a music club home to two live chimpanzees, and—for the last several decades—a divey yet beloved karaoke lounge. It’s also featured in the dark 1990s gem “I Love You To Death,” about an adulterous pizza man and his murderous Catholic wife. || 2102 South Tacoma Way, Tacoma, Wash.
