Parnassus Cafe & Art Gallery

As a frequent coffee drinker and a former art student, I spent a lot of time at Parnassus Café. I was always served with a warm greeting as well as a good cup of coffee. Their espresso is best on campus, in fact, the vicinity. Their punch card system (for each coffee bought, a punch is received — no worries, no physical harm ;-) was a wonderful incentive for returning customers.
The staff is always great, and maybe because many ended up being my classmates.

This hidden little gem inside the Art building at the University of Washington is a quirky little coffee shop run by students.
I actually didn’t know of that this place existed until a professor recommended it. You enter the Art building and go down the stairs. Walk through the hallway and it will be on your right. It’s student run and all the tips go directly to support the art students. They have a simple coffee menu, along with some tea (loose leaf in tea bags), and offer a few donuts (Top Pot) and other pastries. It’s open around 7:30 am making it a great place to go before heading to work or your 8:30 am class. It’s also open throughout the afternoon until early evening (around 5:30 pm) so it’s a place where people can chat or even study/​get some homework done. The place isn’t giant, bigger than Ugly Mug, but does offer very big tables that you can place your study/​work materials on. There tends to be a good flow of people but tables seem to be open fairly often.
I personally like getting the teas here. I would prefer loose leaf but loose leaf in tea bags is alright. They are cute little pouches! I like the earl grey, vanilla spice and peach ginger. They offer a few others as well. All the tea bags are the same price and you can choose the cup size (all the same price no matter the size). The hot water they use is piping hot and you can feel it even through the cup sleeve so be careful! I haven’t tried their actual coffee here, but if you’re looking for the beautiful latte art and what not, I don’t think this is the place to go.
The students that work here are friendly and seem to always be smiling so the vibe is good. The music they play is definitely old school and on the jazzy side. Overall, kind of a quirky little place that seems like a good place to chat!

Parnassus is housed in the basement of the art building. The staff are friendly, and they have quite a bit of seating. Their menu is by the register on the counter, and they accept husky cards as payment. In comparison to other places on campus, it feels quieter while still having music playing. It can be slow sometimes, so make sure to stop in when you have a break longer than 10 min. The coffee is better than other campus locations, but nowhere near the quality of many Seattle coffee shops.

Located beneath the school of art, Parnassus is a student-​run café.
The coffee is fine. Of course, there is much better coffee. If I really wanted a good cup of joe or a latte, I would walk 5 minutes to a place on University Ave, but for coffee on campus Parnassus is just fine.
Unfortunately, I could never study here. The music they play is very loud and it never turned off or lowered.
Also, they say it’s an art gallery, but that is an overstatement. There are a few student works on the wall, but it’s hardly a gallery.
If your on campus, Parnassus is probably your best bet for a decent cup of coffee.

Everyone who works here is really friendly! It gets fairly busy in between classes, but their Americanos beat all the rest on campus.

The coffee here isn’t great, but the people are super nice. If nothing else, it provides an alternative on campus to a place like Starbucks.

As far as I’m concerned, Parnassus is the only decent place to get coffee at the University of Washington. At the other coffeeshops I’ve heard them playing talk radio discussing voting against gay marriage bills and/​or soft rock. Parnassus plays indie rock and electronic music. The other coffeeshops use Tully’s coffee which sucks. Other places on campus make the drinks so hot they burn your mouth and if you order soy it’ll come out charred. Baristas at Parnassus are properly trained. They have Morning Glory chai and a variety of sandwiches including vegetarian and vegan options. They put students’ art on the walls.
Also, the students who hang out in Parnassus are much cuter and better dressers, which is a bonus ;)
Free wireless if you’re a student. Only downside is that it’s cash only.

I like that this little coffee shop is tucked in the dank basement of the art building. It is an oasis in an otherwise fairly stark hallway in an aging building, adding a lot of character and life. They have tasty pastries and serve fair trade coffee while the rest of the campus serves Tully’s (meh…). It is a nice place to sneak away to for a little writing/​reading/​thinking break. Just don’t try to go between classes…

Okay, I admit that one star is a poor rating… but it is actually a rating of «decent» when put in context of other cafes and restaurants on UW campus.
Their coffee tastes like crap… but, better than Tully’s, which is what all the other places sell. Their pastries taste like they were dumpstered from the alley behind starbucks downtown. I guess they’re on par w/​tullys on that one.
Conclusion? Go here, not because its good, but because your options are so damn limited if you are on campus. At least there is interesting (debatable) art to look at on the walls. And some of the students who work there are alright.

Parnassus is still the best coffee on campus, even though they no longer use dilletante’s chocolate in their mochas. The environment is more relaxing than most in the U district with music that doesn’t dominate the air. Their art changes often and showcases more nontraditional pieces than most. Like everywhere else, it’s a little insane if you show up right after classes end. The stand-​out thing here is their pastry selection. They choose their suppliers well and offer a good selection.
Also noteworthy: Parnassus is a fund raising vehicle for art scholarships.
Cash Only

In the basement of the Art building is a lil’ student run coffee shop. It gets three stars because most every other cup of coffee served on campus is absolutely awful — and this is ridiculous given both the proximity of the UW to tons of great independent coffee shops, and the quantity of coffee consumed by students…
Its a small, dark, dim little place — but its a little haven for art students needing caffeine and not wanting to hand over their few dollars to tullys. so if you’re already on campus, need a place to sit for a bit, and some caffeine — sure, Parnassus is a good bet for convenience — but head over to the Baci Café in the Henry Art Gallery for a nicer place to relax, equivalent (or better?) coffee and tasty bites.