Coffee & Treats in Artondale

In an interview in the Stranger's Chow Bio, 3.14 Bakery owner Jessica Haury admits to being a math geek, which is why she pulled in that famous irrational number to represent her bakery's specialty: pie. Haury sees baking as therapeutic, asking "Who can feel bad when there's a homemade pie in the house?" With that in mind, she sells each freshly baked morsel hoping it can bring some good to someone’s day. The bakery’s seasonal menu captures the bounty of nature throughout the year with the flavors of cherry, rhubarb, or apple in the personal pies, pie pops, and single slices. The bakery doesn't stop at perfecting pie, the team also rolls cake balls and bakes seven-layer bars, cookies, and gooey cinnamon rolls perfect for sticking to coworkers' foreheads. Diners who wish to enjoy their goodies onsite can settle into a chair with a fork and a steamy cup of coffee on the side.

The cupcake is a national figure of dining-room table ornamentation and post-work indulgence, and the skilled bakers at hello, cupcake crown their gobletcakes with real buttercreams made by hand. Cupcake satisfaction comes in a variety of sweet flavors from classic vanilla cakes with chocolate buttercream frosting to mocha batters, red velvet cakes, carrot, coconut, and the recently discovered Irish-cream latte cupcake, a coffee cake that wears its Irish-cream frosting proudly and without fear of forthcoming chompers.

Like all great stories, Cakes by Creme de la Creme's was written through persistence. Pastry chefs Michael Jones and Bart Utz first met when they were taking baking courses together. They formed a partnership, worked at several establishments, then pooled their resources and struck out on their own, starting Cakes by Creme de la Creme. The duo, who have chalked up experience working at venues such as the Washington Athletic Club and the Sunset Club, combine their expertise to craft delicious and astounding cakes for all occasions.

Their tiered wedding cakes are a spectacle for the eye and the tongue, with romantically elegant designs finished in buttercream icing and fondant. They can customize cakes to each client’s specifications by creating a unique border or design, or by letting the customer choose from their delectable flavors, such as moist banana cake with strawberry preserves and cream-cheese filling. Jones and Utz also specialize in dessert cakes, tortes, and tarts and custom party cakes, which they can mold into inspired designs such as stacks of favorite books, a college’s logo, or a turntable with vinyl records on top—an homage to the days when every cake was also a record player.

Since its founding in 1998, The Australian Pie Company has equipped Seattle eaters with Australian products and piping-hot pastry pies stuffed with hearty ingredients. Two-, 5-, and 9-inch pies satiate hunger of all sizes, with ingredients such as beef, chicken, and bacon mingling with a customer’s choice of vegetables and cheese inside each pie. The Australian Pie Company also stocks its shelves with national products such as Vegemite, Arnott's biscuits, and Billy Tea, valuable when channeling one’s muse to pen a spec script for a Crocodile Dundee sequel. The pie company caters parties and anti-cake conventions with 2-inch pies by the dozen, and also supplies its products to four other area retailers.

The amiable bakers at Cow Chip Cookies drop 11 types of dough onto sheets before baking their signature cookies to a golden finish. Fresh ingredients from The Butter Creek Farm are used to craft cookies available in flavors such as classic chocolate chip with Ghirardelli chocolate and Mock Baby Ruth cookies featuring a peanut-butter-and-oatmeal cookie-dough base spotted with chocolate and butterscotch chips. As the cookies drop, each one takes on its own slightly different shape, just like a handmade pillow filled with shredded college rejection letters. Gift boxes delight recipients with heart-shaped treats, seasonal shapes, or custom flavor combinations.

AJ Ghambari was born and raised in the Seattle coffee and food industry. His father owns the Cherry Street Coffee House and taught him how to make and sell quality food. One of its primary suppliers was Seattle Bagel Bakery, which would deliver kettle-boiled bagels to the coffeehouse every morning. When the bakery's owner told AJ he was not sure if it would survive, AJ knew he had to act. He learned the bagel-making process and slowly began taking over at Seattle Bagel, overseeing the process of kettle-boiling each bagel. He now manages the business as it expands into a dual retail and wholesale operation across the city.

Making each bagel from scratch, bakers mix the dough by hand using flour that was sustainably farmed and distributed by a co-op of local farmers. They then form the bagels, plump them, and leave them to mature overnight as the flavors settle, the bread thickens, and the yeast stops throwing temper tantrums. At 4 a.m. the next morning, they throw the bagels into a kettle of boiling water to crisp the crust and leave a rich, chewy interior. Finally, the bakers top the bagels with sesame seeds, cheese, or onions, bake them in shelf ovens, and deliver them to local retailers by 6:30 a.m. The early delivery comes just in time for the morning rush of customers scrambling for bagels flavored with olive oil and pesto, bacon and cheddar, or sweet orange and cranberry—all of which can be smothered with housemade cream cheese or dry-rubbed lox.