Meet Jonathan Pak, the owner of Overcast Coffee Company in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Overcast Coffee Company opened in 2020 and believes in the importance of community — that’s why they buy all of their coffee and ingredients from small, local businesses in Seattle. The coffee shop also donates to Recovery Cafe, which provides support, resources, and a community of care for those recovering from life’s hardships. Stop by to chat with Jonathan, sip on espresso, and try their delicious prosciutto panini.
Bonus: Check out their second location Overcast Coffee Bar on Union Street!
Get to know more about Jonathan and Overcast Coffee Co in this week’s Business Spotlight Q&A.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What’s your favorite part about the community your business is in & why?
Overcast Coffee Company was created in June 2020 in hopes to create a welcoming environment that served amazing coffee for Capitol Hill. We believe that everyone deserves access to quality coffee regardless of where they live. We are a local, Asian-owned company that seeks to bring specialty coffee to everyone.
Seattle is known to be the “coffee hub” of America, but we noticed that there was a huge complacency and snobbiness that came with “specialty coffee.” We are here to change that!
We strive to create a unique and enjoyable coffee experience for our customers. Our mission is to make quality coffee accessible and to build a community of coffee lovers. All of our goods are sourced locally (merchandise by local Seattle companies (Miir with art done by Stevie Shao), print and other merchandise from a small Filipino woman-owned business (Midnight Supply Company), pastries from Macrina Bakery, chai from Travelers India Inc.) and partnerships with other small local businesses (Metier Seattle, Metier Brewing, Optimism Brewing, Frankie and Joe’s, Emerald City Spine, etc). We love our community and hope that we can continue to support those around us.
Why is it important to you and your business that people #SpendLikeItMatters?
Spending money at diverse small businesses can have several significant benefits for consumers and society as a whole. We are strong believers that our customers should know where and who their money goes. We do our best to create an environment that is focused both on our customer’s experience, but also on those who work with Overcast Coffee.
We work with several local small businesses to create a space for our customers that will continue to support other businesses in and around Seattle.
As a business owner, what’s the strangest or craziest idea you’ve ever tried?
We create several different in-house made syrups! One of our seasonal syrups involves using a fruit shrub syrup with our coffee. The balance between “acid” and coffee is a tough line to tread. We love the depth of flavor that fruit adds to coffee and do our best to test all different ratios to create unique flavors within our shop.
Most recently, we have created a strawberry mint shrub with sparking lemon juice to mix with our ceremonial grade matcha!
What’s something your customers may not know about you or your business?
All of our coffee is seasonal and are picked during the peak of each season. Our coffee rotates every two to three months to highlight each region.
Early spring-early summer is our Latin America / Central America coffees, early summer-fall is our African coffee season, and our fall-winter goes towards Asia Pacific coffee back into our Latin American coffees.
All of our coffee is specialty grade (we have a Q grader that grades the coffee we get) to ensure optimal flavor and profile!
What are some of your favorite local businesses and why?
We love our community of small businesses around us!
We love Metier Brewing and the work that they do to support their community and awareness of those around them.
Boon Boona Coffee is also an amazing coffee shop that creates awesome relationships with women minority-owned farms overseas and also within Renton and Seattle.
Anything else you’d like us to know about you and your business?
We understand that Seattle has so many different options for coffee. What stands out for us and our shops is that we love connecting with everyone that comes through the shops. We look forward to serving you and let you know everything that is special about the coffee that we are serving that day.