FareStart Café @2100

Im sad to report service and quality has nose dived. It really has gotten too slow for a quick meal. My food orders have been missing items every time. I want to support farestart but service needs some attention.

If I had a third hand I’d give this place three thumbs up, as it is I’m forced to settle for two.

I try to stop in here whenever I am at the 2100 building. The food and service are great, the organization has a great mission, and it’s über convenient for my trips upstairs.
I had a hot chocolate the last time I was in, and it was perfectly made. Not too sweet, no foam, and delicious. Yum.

Great spot! I had a grilled veggie sandwich with turkey instead of cheese, and a big bowl of artichoke and chicken soup. I was able to find dairy free options that were VERY tasty and spent under $ 10. I left this place happy and full. I was also very thrilled when I saw the veggies on the sandwich! Grilled onions, peppers, zucchini, and more!

This place is pretty awesome… Helping kids by letting them learn on the job… Cool local art on the walls. Love everything they are about. Sometimes the flow is a little slow… But giving these kids a shot is well worth the wait!

Big changes at the old Café @2100 starting earlier this year: The good news is they’ve expanded their hours, opening earlier and closing quite a bit later. The bad news: They got rid of the espresso machine and replaced it with, GASP! one of those Starbucks automated gas station coffee makers.
It was always tough patronizing the Café since Starbucks donated the coffee, cups and napkins and people would always presume I bought my americano at one of the Starbuck’s drek-​outlets, but in reality, I was drinking superior shots pulled by eager trainees that happened to be, on those days when I forget my personal cup, served in a cup with the Starbuck’s logo.
Now, with the excuse that customers had been complaining about inconsistent drinks and other service faux pas (this IS a training program, is it not?) the powers that be from Downtown decided to shift the focus from making great baristas to making great «customer service» drones, capable of pushing a button with the great finger of their right hands and dispensing horrible, but ostensibly consistent, «espresso» drinks.
I have been patronizing this location since they opened way long ago, and of the thousands of americanos I’ve consumed over those years, and it IS an easy drink to mess up with bad shots, I can count on one hand the bad ones, and they were ALL pulled by the full-​time training staff, NEVER by one of the students! Which is a testimony to the quality of their classroom training. But now, it seems the primary function of the Café is to train drones that can get jobs at Starbucks, since they’re the only people who use those Starbucks drek dispensers.
My pleas to the staff and the people downtown have fallen on deaf ears, or in the case of several Café employees, sympathetic but helpless ears nonetheless. The food they serve is still wonderful, extremely fairly priced and delivered to your table with a shy smile (though would it hurt them to add ONE other veggie soup to the daily mix besides the ubiquitous tomato basil?!) so as a café I suppose it is still fulfilling one basic function, but as a long-​time dispenser of the best espresso drinks in Seattle south of downtown it’s now a complete failure.
My cynical side tells me this was due to pressure from Starbucks, as the café’s primary benefactor. It is a shame that such a successful, positive venture has been crushed by the pressure from a corporate giant. You win, Starbucks: lowest common denominator coffee drinks have taken over in South Seattle.

This place is called Café @2100. «It is the on-​the-​job training site for youth enrolled in the Barista Training & Education Program, a collaborative effort between YouthCare and FareStart. Revenue generated by Café goes directly towards our student training programs, as with all revenue from FareStart businesses.»
If you bring your own cup you get 2 shots of espresso for a dollar. That’s the best deal in town.
For lunch they have a full menu of soups, salads and sandwiches.
They have new hours:
Monday-​Thursday: 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. (open earlier and later!)
Friday: 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (open earlier!)
They are unfortunately not open on the weekends :(Sad face.

Great lunch spot right by my work; I’m here on a weekly basis. They just added some really amazing salads: the beet salad w/​candied walnuts and apple cider vinaigrette is mind-​blowing. Always some decent soups in rotation as well. Coffee’s great and there’s always really cool photography from Youth in Focus circulating the walls. Good food with an excellent mission. Recommended!

I work right upstairs at Youth in Focus, and I come here pretty often to grab a quick bite.
Their tomato basil is always delicious and comes with two pieces of toast. I’ve had their Tuna Sandwich and Caribbean Sandwich. Everything seems so good.
They have a pretty good salad selection as well.
The thing I love about Fare Start is their workers. I fully support their program and try to eat there more and more.
The thing that I am nuts about is their PUMPERNICKEL RYE BAGEL. YES.

A group of 12 of us had lunch here, and we all loved it! Clean, cute, reasonable prices, and it is for a good cause!
I had the most delicious soup: butternut squash, garbanzo and tomato… it had couscous pasta in it, and was mildly spicy and WONDERFUL. Very different. My pal had Tomato basil soup and loved it as well.
Great selection of sandwiches. the turkey-​cranberry was superb, as well as the curry chicken. Bread was chewy whole wheat. They also had a yummy sounding quiche. They have a great choice of beverages, and cookies for dessert.
Great place… loved it! Will be back! Delicious food, good prices, good cause.

This is my first time in Farestart and right from the get go its been fabulous customer service! I am getting some substantial work done on my car at Dere auto and asked if i could start a tab due to being here for awhile and she said yes! Clean and friendly and they have a new fan! Thanks Unilocal for helping me find this gem!

The concept of this business is great. That being said, be patient while they are taking your order. Our fella was just learning the cash register and was really slow. My coworker didn’t get the sandwich that he ordered but he didn’t care because it was tasty. I had the soup, small salad and a half sandwich. The salad had goat cheese, cranberries and balsamic dressing but not too much. The half sandwich was hearty and the ingredients very fresh. Great deli-​type food.

Delicious lunch! Menu rotates.

Great café, even better cause. The coffee and bagel were wonderful and the service was friendly and pleasant. It is not the speediest coffee in town but I think it is worth the extra minute or two.
My only complaint is the hours. I wish it was open evenings and of weekends so I could come by more often.

This is a little blooming flower in the desert! The lattes are great and prices are fair. I personally like the breakfast sandwiches and the daily soup choices. There really is nothing else like this in the area. I don’t mind waiting a bit longer for the kids who are being trained because by eating at FareStart, you’re really doing a good thing and contributing to a cause that truly makes a difference. I like to think of it as a symbiotic relationship.

I spent 3 years working in the 2100 Building where FareStart Café is located. If you work in social services/​non-​profit — chances are you’ve been to this building a ton of times. It houses some great organizations like Mockingbird Society, YMCA Young Adult Services, Youth in Focus, Treehouse, Summer Search, Washington CASH and others.
FareStart is also a non-​profit that works in conjunction with YouthCare. Together they teach barista and food-​service skills to homeless/​transitioning young adults and the café is a viable training ground for them.
The coffee is from Starbucks, the baked goods are from Macrina and the menu is filled with simple yet solid sandwiches, salads, and soups. The staff (both manager/​trainers and trainees) are amazing, friendly and easy-​going.
Stop by, eat, drink and support a great cause!

Hidden in a commercial building right behind Nguyen’s Pharmacy (this is where you would want to turn into if you’re coming from Rainier Ave.), this was a place that I never knew even existed. The food selection is limited to sandwiches, salads and coffee– but it’s a great place for breakfast, a light lunch or an afternoon snack. I’m a fan of the chicken salad sandwich (although it could use a little more mayo) and I’ve also tried the thai chicken sandwich (which I didn’t like as much because the only «thai» thing about it was the thin smear of peanut sauce and the bean sprouts)
Parking can be a bit hard during certain hours of the day but there’s usually a lot of residential parking just down the block. If you come here in the morning or late afternoon, make sure to drive slowly. This place is located one block away from the Lighthouse for the Blind so please be careful!