The Last Exit on Brooklyn was a Seattle University District coffeehouse established in 1967 by Irv Cisski. [1] It is known for its part in the history of Seattle's counterculture, for its pioneering role in establishing Seattle's coffee culture, and as a former chess venue frequented by several master players.
The Last Exit on Brooklyn opened on June 30, 1967 at 3930 Brooklyn Avenue NE [2] near the University of Washington campus in a small light-industrial building leased from the University. [3] The cafe's name was suggested by Paul Dorpat, editor of The Helix , as a play on Hubert Selby Jr.'s counterculture novel Last Exit to Brooklyn . [4] Cisski had preferred "The New World Cafe". [4]
The Last Exit was one of the pioneer espresso bars in Seattle, [5] adding an espresso machine shortly after Café Allegro opened the first in 1975. [6] The cafe was known for its original espresso concoction named the Caffè Medici – "a doppio poured over chocolate syrup and orange peel with whipped cream on top". [7] Described in 1985 as "America's second oldest, continuously running coffeehouse", [8] it was also known for its inexpensive food and as a venue for folk music and bohemian conversation. [1]
The Last Exit was also notable as a popular destination for Seattle's amateur and professional Go [9] [10] and chess players including Peter Biyiasas, [8] Viktors Pupols, [8] and Yasser Seirawan, [11] who wrote of the venue, "Those first chess lessons soon led me to the legendary Last Exit on Brooklyn coffee house, a chess haven where an unlikely bunch of unusual people congregates to do battle." [12] Interviewed by Sports Illustrated in 1981, Seirawan described the Last Exit as "Scrabble players, backgammon players, chess and game hustling ... This became my home. This was to become my family." [13]
When interviewed by Mary Lasher of Chess Life in 1985, owner Irv Cisski said, "So what if games-people turn away business. They add flavor. Chess and Go are assets to a coffeehouse." [8] The Last Exit was the subject of a 1987 retrospective in The Seattle Times in which Cisski described his intent to "create a haven where students and the benign crazies" were welcome and where "everyone felt equal and there were no sacred cows". [4] It was later described by Seattle writer and journalist Knute Berger as
one of Seattle's great '60s landmarks, a gathering place for UW students, radicals, poets, nut jobs, chess masters, teens, intellectuals, workers, musicians, artists, beatniks, and hippies ... I remember the din, the open-mike music, cigarette smoke, impromptu poetry readings, the arguments of lefties, libertarians, crackpots, and cultists. You could hear the rhythm and roar of the counterculture as it lived and breathed. [14]
Cisski died on August 25, 1992. [15] In 1993 the University ended the lease of the building to the coffeehouse, and the Last Exit's new owners moved it to upper University Way. [3] The Last Exit on Brooklyn closed in 2000. [1] The space the original Last Exit once occupied now houses staff members from the University of Washington's Human Resources Department. [14]
The Last Exit was included in Clark Humphrey's 2006 book of historical photographs Vanishing Seattle. [16]
Descriptions of the interior and atmosphere of the Last Exit appear in Kristin Hannah's 2008 novel Firefly Lane, [17] in David Guterson's 2008 novel The Other, [18] and in Marjorie Kowalski Cole's 2012 The City Beneath the Snow: Stories. [19]
Yasser Seirawan is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess author and commentator.
Caffè latte, often shortened to just latte in English, is a coffee drink of Italian origin made with espresso and steamed milk. Variants include the chocolate-flavored mocha or replacing the coffee with another beverage base such as masala chai, mate, matcha, turmeric or rooibos; alternatives to milk, such as soy milk or almond milk, are also used.
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-caffeinated beverages. A coffeehouse may also serve food, such as light snacks, sandwiches, muffins, fruit, or pastries. In continental Europe, some cafés also serve alcoholic beverages. Coffeehouses range from owner-operated small businesses to large multinational corporations. Some coffeehouse chains operate on a franchise business model, with numerous branches across various countries around the world.
Seattle's Best Coffee LLC is a subsidiary of Nestlé whose brand is used to sell wholesale coffee, ground coffee, and coffee K-cups. While this brand used to have coffeehouses in the United States, it no longer advertises them on its website. Some of these coffeehouses have converted to Starbucks while Starbucks previously owned this brand. Focus Brands owns the franchising rights for this brand's coffeehouses for international markets and military bases.
Duncan Suttles is a chess grandmaster. Canada's second grandmaster after Abe Yanofsky, Suttles was recognized internationally for the originality of his strategic play in the mid-1960s and 70s. He retired from competitive chess in 1985.
Stumptown Coffee Roasters is a coffee roaster and retailer based in Portland, Oregon, United States. The chain's flagship café and roastery opened in 1999. Three other cafes, a roastery and a tasting annex have since opened in Portland, as well as locations in Seattle, New York, and Los Angeles,. Stumptown is owned by Peet's Coffee, which in turn is owned by JAB Holding Company. The company was an early innovator with cold brew coffee in nitro cans and have continued to develop other cold brew product innovations.
Gimme! Coffee is a coffee roaster and third-wave coffee shop, based in New York, with espresso bars in Ithaca and Trumansburg. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gimme! announced the permanent closure of the Manhattan and Brooklyn based locations and also began an Ithaca-area delivery service. Gimme! Coffee also has a wholesale service that caters to coffee and espresso establishments. In January 2020, Colleen Anunu replaced founder Kevin Cuddeback as CEO after he served 20 years in the role. Anunu then transitioned the company into a worker-owned cooperative, which it remains since July 25, 2022. A focus at Gimme is to form relationships with farmers who grow coffee. As part of this bond between consumer and producer, the farmer may receive a price premium, which in turn, can help them improve their operations.
Caffè Trieste is an internationally known coffeehouse, retail store, and former franchise in San Francisco. The original cafe, opened in 1956, was the first espresso-based coffeehouse on the West Coast of the United States. Caffe Trieste is considered a San Francisco institution and a local hub for poets, writers, and beat culture.
Coffee culture is the set of traditions and social behaviors that surround the consumption of coffee, particularly as a social lubricant. The term also refers to the cultural diffusion and adoption of coffee as a widely consumed stimulant. In the late 20th century, espresso became an increasingly dominant drink contributing to coffee culture, particularly in the Western world and other urbanized centers around the globe.
Caffè americano, also known as americano or American, is a type of coffee drink prepared by diluting an espresso shot with hot water at a 1:3 to 1:4 ratio, resulting in a drink that retains the complex flavors of espresso, but in a lighter way. Its strength varies with the number of shots of espresso and the amount of water added. The name is also spelled with varying capitalization and use of diacritics: e.g., "café americano".
ChessCafe.com is a website that publishes endgame studies, book reviews and other articles related to chess on a weekly basis. It was founded in 1996 by Hanon Russell, and is well known as a repository of articles about chess and its history.
NikolayNikolaev Minev was a Bulgarian chess International Master (IM) and noted chess author.
Caffè Mediterraneum, often referred to as Caffè Med or simply the Med, was a café located on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California, US, near the University of California, Berkeley. The Med was a landmark of Telegraph Avenue history, "listed for years in European guidebooks as 'the gathering place for 1960s radicals who created People's Park'" and as of 2009 described in Fodor's guidebook as "a relic of 1960s-era café culture". It was located at 2475 Telegraph Avenue, between Dwight Way and Haste Street.
Highlands Coffee is a Vietnamese coffee shop chain and producer and distributor of coffee products, established in Hanoi by Vietnamese American David Thai in 1998. The establishment of the Highlands Coffee company marked the first time an overseas Vietnamese was able to register a private company within Vietnam. As of 2018, the company operates 230 coffee shops across Vietnam. In 2011, Highlands Coffee purchased the pho chain Phở 24 from Lý Quí Trung for an estimated US$20 million. The next year, Highlands sold 50% of its shares to the Philippine multinational chain Jollibee for US$25 million.
Café Allegro is a coffeeshop in the University District of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is notable for being one of the city's first espresso shops and for its role in the history of Starbucks, as the place where founding proprietor Dave Olsen designed the Starbucks coffee product line. Situated in an alleyway, the cafe features multiple entrances and rooms.
Seattle is regarded as a world center for coffee roasting and coffee supply chain management. Related to this, many of the city's inhabitants are coffee enthusiasts; the city is known for its prominent coffee culture and numerous coffeehouses.
Monorail Espresso is a coffeehouse in Seattle. It is notable as having been founded as the first espresso cart in the world. An espresso cart is a food cart from which a barista can make espresso. The business now operates as a walkup window with multiple locations.
Countries have cultivated coffee beans into various vehicles to satisfy needs unique to each country. Whether it be for energy, socialization, or tradition, the cultivation of coffee has served as a motivating force of the world. The modernization of coffee and its unique forms across cultures are markers of tradition and modern changes across continents. Coffee culture appears in the way in which people consume coffee, the way they make it, and where coffee is served and shared. Each of these factors combined reflects the lives of the people in these countries and the importance of coffee across the world.
Kron, who discovered his love of the game decades ago after stumbling upon the shuttered cafe The Last Exit on Brooklyn, a home for Go and chess players in the U District, said the closure of the center is bittersweet.
| Buildings | |
|---|---|
| Businesses | |
| Culture | |
| Parks and gardens | |
| Transportation | |
