Bakke Coffee Museum (Seattle)

Bakke Coffee Museum

Seattle’s only museum dedicated to the history of coffee. Located in Ballard, the collection centers on commercial espresso machines and treats them as primary documents for understanding technology, design, and cultural history.

Founding

Kent Bakke encountered his first espresso machine in the late 1970s while opening Hibble & Hyde’s café in Seattle’s Pioneer Square — a Victoria Arduino that he began repairing himself. He later built an importing business that supplied espresso machines to Starbucks for ten years.

In the early 1980s, during visits to Italian manufacturers — particularly the Bambi family at La Marzocco in Florence — Bakke discovered that historically significant machines were being discarded. Finding no preservation interest among the manufacturers themselves, he began collecting. “Already so much history had been lost.”

The Victoria Arduino from the original Hibble & Hyde’s café is preserved at the museum.

Collection

Over 300 commercial espresso machines spanning multiple eras, ranging “from quirky and eccentric to beautiful pieces of art.” The collection is explicitly framed as a lens onto broader narratives: “stories of history, technology, design are brought to life through the artifacts.”

Named machines on display

Espresso Machine No. 1
La Marzocco Small
E-61
La Cimbali Pitagora
La San Marco 70
La Marzocco Comet
Disco Volante
Coffee & Toast
Home coffee machines (category)

La Marzocco connection

La Marzocco eventually established a factory in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood — the same neighborhood as the museum. This makes the Bakke collection a node in a living La Marzocco lineage rather than purely archival.

Visit

Address: 4600 Shilshole Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107 (Ballard)
Walk-in: 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month, 12pm–4pm, free admission
Guided tours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday at 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm (appointment required, ~1 hour, free)
Transit: Metro bus routes 17, 40, 44; D Line stop at Ballard Bridge

Policies

No outside food or drink
Service animals only (not emotional support animals)
Photography for personal use permitted; no tripods
No large bags, weapons, or smoking materials

Closures

New Year’s Day, Easter Sunday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve.

H and H Coffee