I worked out of Cupcake Royale this morning, a cafe on Market Street in the increasingly trendy downtown Ballard. Midday Ballard is an interesting mix of suburban looking hipsters (ie guys in women’s jeans), middle aged men in sweat pants, and smelly derelicts. Kind of reminds me of the old rendezvous when half their clientele was drunk Indians. My favorite comic artist Peter Bagge did a comic/story on the evolution of Ballard that is entertaining as well as insightful. But I digress…
Cupcake Royal offers free wifi, which is a big plus. They are close to Mars Hill, which is great if I need to be close to work. Their seating is rather unimaginative, basically just ikea-ish tables and chairs. I have enough flimsy at home and don’t really want to pay money to sit at a table that wobbles while I type. The staff was lackluster; competent but no indication that they were enjoying their jobs or being in the establishment. They just seemed like they were there to do a job, not because they had anything personal invested in making Cupcake Royale a better option than starbucks and, um Tully’s (both within 30 seconds of CR).
As their name implies, CR’s focus is on cupcakes (When did this trend start?) I would probably be more excited about being there if I was 10 years old, but I did not see anything to indicate that they are branding themselves as a place for kids. While I was there I saw a lot of people like myself, hard at work, and then a lot of kids, which seemed weird. And they sell underwear with their logo. Who thinks that’s funny?
So, bottom line, I could work at CR if I had to, but I would be more inclined to head over to Tully’s (and work off of CR’s open wifi). I would head to Motore as a first choice though.
