Arosa Cafe’

If you blink, you might miss it. But tiny Arosa Café, located just off East Madison and Lake Washington Boulevard, should definitely be on your radar. The cozy Arboretum Court spot has gained a loyal following since owners Cesar and Adriana Santangelo took over the 22-year-old business a decade ago. While the couple continues to offer the café’s signature Belgian Liege snack waffles (the original owner was from Switzerland) and what Yelp users claim is “Seattle’s best mocha,” they’ve expanded the café’s menu with breakfast items, hearty soups, paninis, and Venezuelan specialties – such as arepas – from their native country.

Seeking a better life, Cesar and Adriana left Venezuela in 2003, settling in Seattle. The couple held down a variety of food-service jobs – at Kidd Valley, McDonald’s, and Chipotle – while starting a family (son Alessandro was born in 2012) and nurturing their dream of owning and operating their own café one day. That dream became a reality in 2014. Since then, the couple has come to think of our community as family – and vice versa. Arboretum Court tenants and regular customers threw Adriana and Cesar a baby shower prior to daughter Luciana’s birth in 2018. And during the pandemic, when the café remained open while filling to-go orders, customers watched the couple deftly juggle café duties and parenting priorities. Both children accompanied their parents to work, with Alessandro doing on-line lessons at a café table.

In a city where coffee shops are a dime a dozen, Arosa Café has carved out its own niche, serving Tony’s Coffee – organic, fair trade, locally roasted blends. And, yes, the mochas – made with imported Swiss chocolate – are very much worth the hype. They, along with those avocado and chicken arepasare reason enough to visit this friendly, family-run café.