Potlatch after Sasquatch
Thursday June 4th. Breaking the Ban and giving it all away!
7pm – 10pm Caffe Vita
Capitol Hill. 1005 e Pike.

Featuring intimate sets by Grant Olsen of Arthur and Yu, Say Hi (solo), Mount Eerie/Phil Elverum, and Shawn Smith of Brad.

One Pot will be preparing and giving away bowls of thoughtfully prepared soup, Caffe Vita will be handing out mugs of their Farm Direct coffee, music will fill the cafe and pour out onto Pike Street and artist Ty Willman will be donating the proceeds from his new work. This region has a long history of “potlatch” gatherings; we might not be burning canoes or breaking coppers on June 4th but there certainly will be much offered in the way of song, food, and coffee.

$15/person. All proceeds go to The Vera Project. Tickets at the door.

pot·latch noun. A party or celebration that could involve extravagant or competitive giving and destruction of valued items.

Potlatch Ban. Potlatching was made illegal in Canada in 1885 and the United States in the late nineteenth century, largely at the urging of missionaries and government agents who considered it “a worse than useless custom,” and found the flagrant generosity objectionable.

The sun was sweltering and our sunburns left of dazed and confused. All in the name of good music and good coffee!

Remember that party we threw in February around the inauguration? Yeah, us too. It was a good time. So we thought we’d do it again. Why? Because we can. And because we can help the uber-awesome I-100, aka the No New Jail initiative.

On Sunday, May 24th, the Bus, Sno Con, Spacecraft, Caffe Vita, and Initiative 100 present Bunny Ball 2: The Mile High Club @ Havana.

Just like in February, we’re getting together with some of our best friends to make Memorial Day weekend, well, memorable. As always with the Bus, the formula goes a little something like this: dance/politics/dance. To that end, we’ve got three of Seattle’s finest on the wheels of steel: Sabzi (Blue Scholars), DJ Niros (Beta Testerz) and Ill Cosby (no affiliation, but dang that’s a great dj name).

You can totally RSVP/see pics from Bunny Ball 1 on Facebook. And we will totally see you there.

Can you dig it?!

Coffee, Sustainability, and Seattle

Join us for a conversation with some of the most innovative minds in the Pacific Northwest coffee scene. How do they integrate consumer education, social and environmental responsibility, and an obsession with the perfect cup of coffee into their missions?

Tue., April 7 – Tue., May 26, 2009 7 PM
Kane Hall, Room 210

The seminars are free and open to the public. Please pre-register at uwalum.com or call 206-543-0540

As part of our ongoing VITA TABLE series we are thrilled to announce that SIFF, Caffe Vita, and Onepot.org are hosting an evening with renowned filmmaker Spike Lee. Expect a festive dinner, in-depth conversation with our honored guest, and a celebration of film. SIFF is honoring Mr. Lee with the Golden Space Needle Award for Outstanding Achievement in Directing in recognition of his extraordinary film-making career.

For more info and tickets click here.

Caffe Vita is honored to join Ruth Reichl, Renee Behnke of Sur la Table, Molly Wizenberg of Orangette and many other distinguished food writers at the first annual International Food Bloggers Conference.

Our green coffee buyer Mason Sager will be teaming up with Theo Chocolate founder Joe Whinney and onepot.org founder Michael Hebb to discuss the fascinating worlds of Chocolate (cacao) and Coffee (coffea). Theo and Caffe Vita have recently launched an expansive partnership to explore the two roasted seeds. For more on this shared adventure check out: www.TaleofTwoRoasters.com

The IFBC event is Sold Out. But it appears there will be a live video feed of the events and lecture. Click here for more info. 8pm Friday May 15th.

TALE OF TWO ROASTERS EVENT:
Vita and Theo just spent an informative and fun Saturday morning together, hosting about a dozen people, taking part in a pairing of Direct Trade Coffees and a fine selection of chocolates and cocoa liquors. To get to the heart of tasting coffee and chocolate we tasted the cocoa liquors (ground, roasted, cocoa bean with no sugar added) and performed a coffee cupping. These are the techniques used in the respective trades for doing the preliminary flavor evaluation of the beans. We tasted coffees from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Brazil, and Sumatra, along with cocoa liquors from Ghana, and Costa Rica. This was the first of many events that will be hosted by Tale of Two Roasters. Overall, a fantastic way to start a weekend.