Sarah Dooley

Director of the Coffee Enhancement Lounge for Visions Espresso and Instructor for Coffee Solutions Elements of Espresso Courses in Seattle

My coffee career began at a small company we all have heard of, Starbucks. I spent just under a year with the company serving customers at both the Pike Place Market location and the West Lake Center Location. This sparked a love for service and a passion for coffee. In between coffee I spent a good three years in retail specifically, men's suits. I would later move into selling shoes at a high end retailer. Refining service skills and coming back to coffee indefinitely. A few fill in shifts and small mom and pops around the greater Seattle area would bring me to a point of ownership. In 2000 I set up a small lobby kiosk style cafe serving drinks I was very proud of and choice pastries. When the business failed due to a huge dot.bomb industry I closed up shop and went to work for my roaster, Caffe D'arte.

Beginning as a barista and moving quickly up the ladder to retail manager I was able to refine all my past skills set to the tune of coffee. Moving out of retail and into a training position at D'arte opened up a world of challenge and problem solving on both training procedures and varying equipment with sometimes compromising issues. Driven, I got very involved with the equipment side of the business with the hopes of minimizing negatives through more knowledge. For the longest time I felt like I was introducing cafe owners and staff to their equipment for the first time. Something that I still feel is a huge opportunity for trainers, staff and coffees final tastes.

Feeling the need to move out into the big world of coffee, I left my family at D'arte (a huge change) to come to Visions Espresso. Here at Visions Espresso service espresso equipment and coffee wares are their expertise. A fundamental gap was missing and after few weeks of brainstorming, along with the aid of some very dedicated team members, a blueprint was birthed and the rest is history. I am currently the Director of the Coffee Enhancement Lounge, a new addition to the Visions warehouse. A space designed much like a broadway production stage. Offering a rotation of some of the best equipment in the world, it is a great place for baristas and coffee shop owners to educate themselves. Moldable and interchangeable, The CEL is also designed to be leasable space for other coffee voices to use as a platform. Great equipment an interactive yet intimate space forcing everyone to rub elbows and share the process.

Coffee is my full-time job, my part time hobby and mistress of my thoughts. I'm absolutely challenged every day to add to the values I have while continuing to build a solid house of skills. I love it, I really do. Outside of coffee my world I'm blessed with a great husband of thirteen years. Mark and I have two high energy boys. Noah- six and Jude- two. As a family we enjoy camping, hiking, most recently- gardening, baseball games, football, legos are always in the mix and lots of family gatherings including our church family whom are equally a great blessing. We're silly at home and at play often with pranks on family and friends. Never a dull moment and lots of giggling.