Community members gather every Wednesday morning from 7 to 9:30am in Kirkland for Eastside Coffee Outside.
It’s still dark out as I pedal my bakfiets cargo bike out of my garage and into the cold Wednesday morning air. My street itself is quiet but still bathed in the unremitting hum of I-405. After heading down Kirkland Avenue, away from the freeway and toward the Cross Kirkland Corridor, I brake to a stop at the Rotary Central Station and start the familiar unloading ritual: the coffee (of course), cups, creamer, dog treats for passing pups, an A-frame sign to let passersby know what’s going on, and even a small Bluetooth speaker for some background music coffee-shop vibes.
It’s a foggy, dark morning, and I see someone approaching with a headlamp. As they get closer I recognize the silhouette of Dylan Hanson, a resident of my neighborhood I met months before on a (warmer) Wednesday morning, under this very shelter. He’s carrying a carafe.
“I decided to brew some Baihao Oolong tea”, he says, setting the carafe down and helping me finish setting up.
That’s what I love about Eastside Coffee Outside – there’s always room for a little something special, brought to us on our corner of the Eastside, by a caring neighbor.
I started Eastside Coffee Outside with the help of Charlie Liban, a Kirkland resident living car-free near Totem Lake. I had seen a video that featured a Coffee Outside gathering in Edmonton, Alberta, and the community-first concept really spoke to me. I sent the video to Charlie saying, “we should do this here.” He agreed immediately and we held our first event less than a month later.
According to the originators of Coffee Outside, it’s “a loosely defined social phenomenon whereby cycling enthusiasts meet at a specified time and location to hand-make coffee, enjoy snacks and meet with friends, outside, oftentimes despite the weather.” While we draw heavily from established Coffee Outside events, on the Eastside we do it a little differently.
You don’t have to arrive on a bike (though we will admire you if you do), and you don’t have to hand-make your coffee (though we will also admire that!) We decided before spinning up this instance of Coffee Outside that it would be great to be able to provide coffee so that people simply riding or walking by could make an unplanned stop. We set up in the same spot every week, at the nexus of two major active transportation routes: the Cross Kirkland Corridor (CKC) and one of Kirkland’s neighborhood greenways.
Over time, we’ve added decaf, tea, and hot cocoa, and folks have started bringing baked goods to share including cookies, home-baked biscotti, and delicious vegan muffins. Eastside Coffee Outside is more than just a caffeine fix; it’s a vital grassroots initiative fostering community connection and belonging in our rapidly polarizing world.
Cities on the Eastside, like Kirkland, are burgeoning as our economic growth pulls in more people who want to be able to live near their jobs. While Kirkland left “bedroom community” status behind long ago, other Eastside cities are making the transition from a footnote on some other city’s Wikipedia page to an urban force in their own right. But jobs and homes, while absolutely necessary, are not sufficient to make a community – for that you need a little special sauce.
“Before a year ago, I hardly knew any of my neighbors,” says Hanson, “After my weekly morning runs along the CKC I was drawn in by warm coffee and muffins; now I almost always see a neighbor from Eastside Coffee Outside when I’m walking to get groceries, riding my bike, or catching the bus.”
“Coffee Outside is such a part of our week that I honestly don’t remember how and when we started going,” says Ashley Knapp, a resident of Kirkland’s Norkirk neighborhood. “I bike my daughter to school everyday and we look forward to Wednesday mornings every week. I’ve enjoyed getting to know people I see on the trail. I get to talk shop about bikes and learn about what’s happening locally, where change feels most possible. I now feel like I’m part of a community, not just living here. My daughter, of course, mostly just loves the homemade muffins and hot chocolate.”
The low barrier to entry, engaging conversation, and friendly faces create a welcoming atmosphere that helps facilitate connection and understanding. Our regulars include young professionals bike commuting, retired folks out for a morning constitutional, dogs on their walks (bark-outs to Shelby, Gan, Summit, Teddy, Pepito, and Marty), and parents doing the morning drop-off with little ones in tow. While many are Kirklanders, we have people who bike, bus, or drive in from Redmond, Bellevue, Bothell, and Seattle. Many work in Kirkland, but some come out of their way just to drop by.
Ethan Karlinsey, for whom Eastside Coffee Outside used to be on his route to work in Redmond, still stops by even though it’s a small detour now.
“After moving to Seattle I was closer to groceries, transit, and other amenities, but it brought me further away from work,” Karlinsey says, “Despite Coffee Outside being a bit out of my way, it is totally worth it to stay connected to the communities I grew up in. Plus the muffins are delicious!”
Amidst a growing loneliness epidemic, many Eastsiders are downright starved for positive social interactions. Where some seek to divide, incite, and manufacture controversy from behind a veil of online anonymity, these face-to-face interactions between neighbors and visitors are the perfect antidote. Coffee Outside builds social capital – the networks, relationships, and trust that strengthen a community.
People are often surprised that we’re there so early and so regularly, but that’s the key. We’re there for the early commuter crowd, the elementary school parent crowd, and everyone in between. Some people come for the whole thing, others just drop in to say hello. After their first visit and dog biscuit, canines know to bring their humans over to the picnic shelter the next time they see us. Several schoolkids regularly grab a muffin without a word and then run off awkwardly.
We show up every week. Rain, shine, ice (seriously), even on holidays – we’re giving USPS a run for its money. This winter both Christmas and New Year’s fell on Wednesdays and we were there, making apple cinnamon pancakes on a camp stove. Our most popular day was during the recent power outages when even Starbucks lost power. We’ve seen people bike or run obliviously by, then weeks later start waving, then weeks after that stop and finally ask, “Hey, what’s going on here?” Some of those folks are regulars now.
When we first started at the beginning of November 2023, we figured if we could make it all the way through winter, we’d be set. There were a few weeks at the start where literally nobody stopped and there were just two of us sipping coffee for two-and-a-half hours. However, the consistency has paid off. This winter, it’s a completely different story.
Making these connections with others has myriad spill-over effects (pour-over effects?), including turning community engagement into civic engagement, especially in Hanson’s case.
“Eastside Coffee Outside put so many faces, names, and stories to neighbors I had seen in passing,” Hanson notes. “It has made me feel more at home in Kirkland and more passionate about my community and helping it become the best place it can be for current and future residents. Inspired by neighbors I met through Eastside Coffee Outside, I found a way to channel my passion for a more safe, sustainable, and equitable transportation system by applying for an opening on Kirkland’s Transportation Commission.”
We invite you to join us at Eastside Coffee Outside in person starting at 7ish Wednesday mornings, virtually on Bluesky at @coffeeoutsi.de (where we often announce the muffin flavors ahead of time), or in solidarity from your own Coffee Outside event.
For more local events, check out The Urbanist’s calendar. Visit Liveable Kirkland for Kirkland-specific events and happenings.
Kurt Dresneris obsessed with finding and building community. He moved to Kirkland in 2009 for a software engineering job, first renting in Houghton, then taking a brief detour through Kenmore before settling in Kirkland’s Everest Neighborhood, where he serves as vice-chair of the Everest Neighborhood Association. Additionally, he’s a cofounder ofLiveable Kirkland, an organization dedicated to improving sustainability and quality of life in Kirkland through building more homes, providing more transportation options, and fostering complete communities.