Reviews

Seattle Metropolitan February 2007
Comfort Food: 73 top spots for old favorites

Joe Bar: With its Cornish-student fan base and perpetually fine indie rock soundtrack, the teensy bilevel coffeehouse and bar in the lovely Loveless Building has a relaxed and youthful feel. Maybe it's the lineup of dainty crepes that make diners feel so fashionably Parisian here. They are light confections of eggy batter, embellished, for example, with pumpkin, goat cheese, and sage, or perhaps with lemon and fresh fruit. Folded into tiny squares and enjoyed with coffee or Lillet? Tres bien!

The Seattle Weekly 12/28/05
The Year in Bites

"It was last January that I first tried Joe Bar's (810 E. Roy St., 206-324-0407) seasonal pumpkin-sage-chèvre crepe; to the cafe's faithful following, its return this month heralded the beginning of winter. Nothing says December on Capitol Hill like the tang of goat cheese, the wholesomeness of unsweetened pumpkin, and the rich, herby flavor of sage. Now how about some snow?"
NEAL SCHINDLER
The Year in Bites

The Washington Post 12/11/05
Travel: In Seattle, Noshing Your Way Around Town

"For a midafternoon snack, head to the tippytoe of Broadway -- a neighborhood that could use a bit of brushing up, to be honest -- and seek out Joe Bar (810 E. Roy, 206-324-0407). Sure, the coffee is good and strong, but the real reason to venture inside this miniature doll house is to have a crepe ($3.50-$6.75). After having my way with a Jamon Serrano, gruyere and egg filling, I smiled, acknowledging that rare moment when a snack really hits the spot." -Kim O'Donnel

(please read the rest of this great article about food in Seattle @ Washington Post)

The Seattle Times
Pacific Northwest Magazine 9/25/2005

Article by Matthew Amster-Burton about cafes that serve beer and wine. Joe Bar, the main feature in the this highly complementary piece, is held aloft as one of a few places in Seattle that are creating a new genre of cafe. The article is too long for this page but please click the link below to read more.

"Here at Joe Bar, the beer selection rivals half the bars in town." - Matthew Amster-Burton
PNM 9/25/05

The Weekly 8/3/2005
Best of Seattle 2005
Critics' Picks
Arts & Entertainment
Best Combo Gallery/Coffee Shop

In days past, to show your art in a coffee shop was just a little déclassé—a career dead end for washed-up painters and the occasional travel photographer. But no more—Seattle's coffee shops (and even the occasional barbershop) are the equivalent of minor-league ballparks for up-and-coming stars on the local art scene. Standing above the rest are the walls at JOE BAR in the lovely Loveless Building on Capitol Hill. Tireless curator Jess Van Nostrand stages consistently high-quality shows of painting, photography, and other work by talented young artists. (Nostrand requires that all artists shown don't yet have gallery representation.) Oh, and the crepes and cappuccinos are pretty darn good here, too.—Andrew Engelson
The Seattle Weekly

The Seattle Weekly Food Guide 4/20/2005
More than any other coffeehouse on Capitol Hill, Joe Bar is a neighborhood place, in the very best sense of that phrase. Owner Wylie Bush and his dreamy baristas serve up the best soy mocha I've ever tasted, and their crepes are a Hill sensation. (Though I'm bonkers for the tomato-basil-mozzarella, I'll admit to having a brief midwinter affair with a seasonal pumpkin-sage-chèvre.) What makes Joe Bar an avatar of comfy chic, however, is its atmosphere. Friendly, quirky people—high cute quotient, low on the hipster scale—flock here, sometimes just to read Salon.com on their laptops with help from the cafe's Wi-Fi hookup. Music, too, is a vital ingredient. Joe Bar introduced me to Death Cab and Mirah; even shy shoegazers shuffle up to the counter, summon their courage, and ask what's on the CD player. I stumble here for brunch many weekend mornings, and I'm never disappointed. NEAL SCHINDLER
Seattle Weekly Food Guide

The Stranger 7/22/2004
Housed in the gray stone Loveless Building along with an unbearably precious children's clothier, Joe Bar was awfully cute even before the remodel. When, just about this time last year, the little espresso bar hauled in the crêpe stoves and started dishing out little Parisian pancake packages, you'd have been forgiven for predicting the cafe would soon drown in its own twee.

But improbably enough, the crêpes have saved Joe Bar. The place is double the size it used to be, and it's constantly buzzing with activity (they've also started serving wine by the glass, which might have something to do with that). Plus, patrons find it harder to look fragile shoveling away savory crêpes than when they were confined to sipping at porcelain cups of espresso.

The crêpes come in all sorts of combinations, and you're permitted to mix and match ingredients. That is, in fact, the only way you'll arrive at such traditional pairings as Nutella and sliced bananas--they have Nutella and whipped cream (which sounds like overkill to me), and they have fresh fruit, but you have to put two and two together on your own. The cheapest and most delicious item on the crêpe menu is also the most classic: lemon and powdered sugar, topped with thin-to-transparent slices of lemon ($3.25). If I could eat this tangy pancake cloud every day for breakfast, I would.

The savory crêpes are more adventuresome. I wouldn't have thought of stuffing a Caprese salad into a quintessentially French wrapper, but the tasty tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella crêpe ($5.50) does just that. The spinach, roasted red pepper, and blue cheese combo ($5.25) is a little dry on its own, but that's where that new wine selection comes in. Joe Bar has got it all figured out. ANNIE WAGNER
The Stranger

Seattle Weekly 7/14/2004
Until recently, 611 Supreme was the only place to get serious crepes on Capitol Hill. Those thin French pancakes, filled with delectables sweet or savory, are such a good fit for Seattle’s New Bohemia that competition for the crepe crown was inevitable. Lest the neighborhood resort to street fighting of the Jets-and-Sharks variety, 611’s nemeses—the kindly, adorable baristas at Joe Bar—are making crepes at the north terminus of Broadway, far enough from the Pike/Pine corridor to cater to a different crowd. And, thanks to the crepes, business is booming: People who once passed over Joe Bar seeking substantive Sunday brunch fare now wander in with their kids and/or micro-dogs, savor crepes filled with fresh mozzarella, plum tomatoes, and basil (or, for the sweet-toothed, Nutella), and talk about Fahrenheit 9/11, or what’s in The New York Times, or the perfectly cloudless sky above. Crepes are available Tuesday through Friday from noon to 9:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. NEAL SCHINDLER 810 E. Roy St., 206-324-0407. CAPITOL HILL
Seattle Weekly