Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 5, May 2004

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Chai House at home on Leary Way

By JAMES BUSH

Sometimes you just know you've made the right move.

When Jessica Vidican-Neisius, the owner of Mr. Spot's Chai House in Ballard, first entered her current storefront at 5463 Leary Way NW, she didn't arrive alone. "When I opened the door, a dollar bill came blowing in," she recalls. "I didn't drop it and I don't know where it came from. I said, 'Well, there's our first dollar.'"

More dollars followed. Since Mr. Spot's relocated two years ago after four years at a less visible space on Market Street, business has almost doubled, she says. It's easy to find: her accommodating landlord let her paint a giant sunburst on an outside wall of the building adjacent to Bergen Place.

Vidican-Neisius (whom we will simply call "Jessica") has produced her signature product, Morning Glory Chai, for about eight years. Chai (rhymes with "pie") is a blend of tea and spices traditionally served with milk that's extremely popular in India. Jessica's own blend of masala tea (an Indian spice tea) and spices has been available in selected local stores for about eight years. She originally produced her chai at night in the kitchen of the Black Cat Cafe and at home for a couple years, until her neighbors grew tired of the smell of cinnamon.

The new Mr. Spot's is the perfect home base for her business. Banish the image of a fussy European tea room from your mind: tea is a working-class beverage in most parts of the world, points out Jessica. Dominated by its spacious counter and coffee bar, Mr. Spot's also contains an upright piano and tiny stage which testify to its evening role as a music venue. "This place has always been, for me, about being a venue for the just-starting-out musician," she says. In addition to Jessica's own chai, patrons can choose from almost 50 varieties of teas and 45 herbs. She encourages staff members to try a different variety every day to familiarize themselves with the many choices.

Coffee drinkers aren't given short shrift. Mr. Spot's features a full espresso bar, says Jessica, who says she obsesses over maintaining the high quality of coffee drinks served. "We invested a lot of time and effort to make sure our baristas pull incredible shots and make velvety foam," she says. "So you've got the snobby coffee drinkers and the snobby tea drinkers and they both have a place they can go ... and we've got Guiness on tap for the snobby beer drinkers, too."

There's also plenty to eat, with green salads, falafel, bagel platters, calzones with Greek fillings, soup, and grilled cheese sandwiches on the menu. "It's a gypsy menu. We can't stick to just one continent," she says. The fare is strictly vegetarian. Jessica decided to add a smoked salmon bagel to her offerings a while back and quickly discovered the new item appealed to just one customer: herself. "I'm getting tired of eating salmon," she notes.

Mr. Spot's bakes all its own pastries, most notably the not-always-available chai cheesecake, which is made only once a week and "just flies out the door," says Jessica.

Confirming her status as a pillar of the business community, Jessica visited Southeast Asia and India as part of a trade mission led by Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, which included visits to sites where jobs have been outsourced by penny-pinching U.S. businesses.

She's included a few items she purchased in India on that trip in her small selection of retail offerings, which also includes huge glass bottles containing her Morning Glory Chai (there's a $1.50 deposit on the bottles, which she reuses), a few gift items, a large selection of incense and other "fun little treats for yourself or your friends."

There is one thing that you can't get at Mr. Spot's: a drink after 10 p.m. As Washington state's liquor laws require all-ages venues to either banish those under age 21 at 10 o'clock or stop serving alcohol and Mr. Spot's closes at 11 p.m. on weekends, the taps are locked up promptly at 10. "The kids have been loyal to us," she says. "We just tell the grown-ups to drink up."

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Mr. Spot's Chai House is located at 5463 Leary Way NW. For more information, call 297-CHAI or visit www.chaihouse.com on the Web.