"This long white wooden store carries a side of coffee history: it was the first location of the Seattle’s Best Coffee chain after specialty coffee pioneer Jim Stewart, who started his first roaster in 1969 on Whidbey Island, moved to Vashon in 1982 and turned the century-old building into a coffee roastery called Stewart Brothers. After winning a regional coffee tasting contest (and hearing a company had dibs on the Stewart Brothers name), he renamed it Seattle’s Best Coffee, then later sold it. When Eva Solea, who opened an herb, spice and organic food store about a block away in 1972, wanted to expand, she acquired the vacant building, along with its original coffee roasting equipment. Stewart, then retired, became her coffee mentor. Her family still sources coffee beans from his nonprofit Vashon Island Coffee Foundation, roasts it with his vintage machinery, and her shop, Minglement, is inside." - Sharon McDonnell