Urban Balance

Seattle’s vibrant setting brims with vitality and tranquility.

- DEBRA BOKUR

Ask a Seattleite where to find a great cup of coffee, and they may respond with a general wave of the arm that takes in the entire city. While Café Encore, one of the oldest coffeehouses in town, dates to 1958, Seattle is also famously home base to the Starbucks chain. In case you’re curious, Starbucks got its start in the city’s celebrated Pike Place Market after businessman Howard Shultz invested in a La Marzocco espresso machine and began serving delicious hot drinks that transcended the more everyday, pedestrian brew laced with cream and sugar.

The city remains the address for Starbucks’ corporate headquarters, along with coffee chains Seattle’s Best Coffee and Tully’s Coffee. Positioned on an enviable stretch of terra firma between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, Seattle ranks as one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. Beyond the coffee arena, it attracts a number of internet and technology companies, along with a host of major players that include Amazon.com, T-Mobile USA, Expedia Group, Microsoft, and Nordstrom. The city’s waterside location, coupled with decades of smart development decisions, allowed the Port of Seattle to develop into a key trade gateway with Asia.