Lettered Streets Coffeehouse

House-roasted beans behind a small counter

The beans are roasted in house, which is the fact that separates Lettered Streets Coffeehouse from a coffee-and-bagel stop. The rest of the counter is deliberately plain: espresso drinks and lattes, a house-made pumpkin spice when the season arrives, the Chokolatté, fresh bagels, oatmeal cups and a few treats. Nothing on that list is complicated and nothing needs explaining before you order it. The café sits in Bellingham's Lettered Streets neighborhood and takes its name from it, independent and single-site rather than one of several branches.

A small room with a neighborhood habit

The room is small and warm, closer to a front parlor than a polished chain café, and it gets used accordingly: people come to pass time, talk and be recognized. The staff are a large part of why regulars keep returning. Service is casual and at the counter, for eating in or taking away, and the atmosphere leans toward staying rather than moving people along. It works as a gathering spot for the surrounding streets more than a destination pulling visitors across town.

Order the Chokolatté, or a pumpkin spice and a bagel

Ask for the Chokolatté on a first visit. It is the café's own named drink and the clearest starting point on a short list, and it sits comfortably with the house-roasted approach: approachable coffee made without ceremony. The other order worth making is the pumpkin spice latte, which counts for more here than the usual syrup version because the spice is made in house, with a fresh bagel beside it. If something lighter is wanted, the oatmeal cups and the treats on the counter cover it. That is the whole proposition: its own beans, a couple of named drinks, bagels, and a small room the neighborhood treats as its own.