Retreat — Restaurant in Seattle

I've been here before and previously had a wonderful experience. As a vegan, it was easy for me to get tomato soup and I even added a delicious vegan pistachio pesto.

I was quite disappointed by my experience here the other day and felt compelled to write a review. I initially asked the barista on input deciding between the s'mores hot chocolate or the gingerbread latte, cautioning I don't do well with coffee tastes, and the gingerbread latte was recommended, so I got that with oat milk. I also ordered the sweet potato taco made vegan. I brought my own mug and asked if they had a for here mug instead and they said that would be no problem, as I'm trying to reduce my waste. When my order was ready, it was in a paper cup, ignoring my request for the mug. The drink also tasted heavy of coffee flavors, so they offered something else. I asked for the hot chocolate instead, mind you I'm vegan and requested oat milk.

The barista came back with the new drink and my taco, but I immediately noticed there was a chipotle dressing over the taco, which I remember was not vegan. I inquired and my taco was taken back to check. I took a couple sips of my drink and immediately was confronted with the fact that it was real milk. As a 12+ year vegan for animals, this was incredibly upsetting and disappointing to me. The barista returned, letting me know the taco was not vegan and they'd remake it. I also inquired about my drink thinking it was made with real milk, and it was confirmed. I got a very brief apology. And that was it.

Someone else brought my new drink, now a 3rd time wasting lots of paper and plastic lids, as well as my new taco made vegan. As a waste conscious individual, it was so upsetting how much was wasted. I hated to think that the drink and taco were tossed and animal products were wasted on my watch.

I never got anyone else checking with me or even a manager coming up to formally apologize. It was an unpleasant experience, so I don't recommend this place as a vegan or with allergy concerns, as it felt pretty careless and so many mistakes were made that were hard to...

Probably about 3 years ago Retreat took over the space of the prior coffee shop. It was immediately much louder with speakers placed over the area where patrons sit making it very difficult to work or have a conversation. Eventually after a year or so, they toned the music down a notch so people could have normal conversations again. The louder the music, the more people had to raise their voices to be heard. I don't know the reason to have extremely loud music at a coffee shop? If you look at the most successful coffee shops, none of them have extremely loud music; they have music playing in the background. Why not follow their business plan and allow people to be able to work without noise cancelling headphones, and have conversations at a normal volume without having to yell at each other?

For some reason even as I sit here at 6:45 PM a barista keeps yelling out orders that are ready. She does this during the day as well. People that order coffee, pastries, etc are standing or sitting nearby because they are waiting for their orders. If they are further away, they will come back to the counter to periodically check if their order is ready. There is no need to constantly yell out each order. Can someone get her to stop yelling please! Please! I am sure it is grating on her co-workers as well. No one enjoys listening to a person yell while they are at work or trying to have a normal conversation.

The wifi was very poor for a while where it had been difficult to load a single simple web page without it timing out, it was impossible to work there, but I think during the year or so of COVID they improved the wifi so pages are loading at a decent speed. Things are picking up and they recently expanded the square footage by taking over the real estate office next door so it's not as crowded.

I really enjoy their grill cheese sandwiches and selection of beer and...

The future is bright for Retreat!

I used to come in regularly, and then fell off during the pandemic and due to a lot of staffing changes. The culture had shifted and I wasn't as productive as I had previously been working from the space. I say this to explain, I understand some of the frustration people have had over the last year. All of that has changed now!

I came in last week to meet a friend who lives nearby. It has been a long time, maybe even a year since I've been in. Upon walking in I saw a familiar and kind face. Zoe was back! She was the heart and soul of this place and took some time to travel and adventure during the pandemic. Everyone deserves those opportunities. But I could not be happier to see her back!

After brief discussion I learned that she was back in the management picture and they had added Tim to the management team. He is a legend! These two individuals are seasoned industry leaders, all heart, and both people and product focused. Their team adore them and that says it all! I came back today to attempt to work only to find them scrubbing out the bar fridges, the legs and undersides of tables, high dusting, and closed for a "deep cleaning" day. I wasn't disappointed, I just loved seeing the ownership they were taking of their space!

So yeah, I'm excited for the future of Retreat and will be regularly taking my business there in the days' months and years ahead! If you haven't visited, it's always been a beautiful place with a dynamic and dreamy location, but the team is...