About the Museum
The Bakke Coffee Museum is Seattle’s first and only museum dedicated to the history of coffee.
The Bakke Coffee Museum is filled to the brim with espresso and coffee machines, grinders and other coffee related objects, offering a unique view into the history of the drink so many of us take for granted. But even if you don’t drink coffee, there is something here for every curious visitor. Through the lens of a cup of coffee, which has become integrated into countries and cultures across the world, stories of history, technology, design are brought to life through the artifacts of the collection. The core of the museum’s collection is over 300 commercial espresso machines, which range from quirky and eccentric to beautiful pieces of art. There are not many books on espresso history, so it is the machines themselves that contain the story, each one revealing a unique aspect of the evolution of espresso.
Some of Kent Bakke's collected espresso machines on display at Visions Espresso Sales near Seattle Center in the 1990s. The machine on the far right is Kent's first espresso machine, which served coffee at the Hibble & Hyde's cafe in the late 1970s.
About the Collection
The comprehensive collection housed at the Bakke Museum is the result of a lifelong passion for the history of coffee. When Kent Bakke encountered his first espresso machine in the late 1970s, he wasn’t even a coffee drinker. He was in the restaurant business, and he and some friends had decided to open up a cafe called Hibble & Hyde's in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square. By chance, there was an old espresso machine left behind in the cafe space. It wasn’t working, but they were fascinated, and soon had it up and running and serving coffees. (Maybe not very good ones). At the time there were only a handful of machines in the whole city! Using the machine to serve espresso sparked new ideas, and soon the friends made plans to go into business importing espresso machines on the side. This led to trips to Italy to learn more about espresso culture. A growing appetite for espresso in America eventually led to a full-time business importing machines. Kent and his business partners were influential in spreading espresso culture across the United States. When Starbucks began rapidly expanding their cafes, they turned to Kent and his partners to supply them with La Marzocco machines. This relationship lasted ten years, during which espresso drinks became embedded into many American’s everyday lives. And since that time the worldwide passion for coffee has only continued to expand…
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​Throughout his career in coffee, Kent has never stopped being curious about the history of coffee machines. Making trips to Italy during his early years in the business, he asked the espresso machine companies about their old machines. Unfortunately, the answer was usually that the old machines had been thrown out. At the time, the Italian companies had no real interest in preserving the objects of their history. So Kent began searching out and collecting his first vintage espresso machines in the early 1980s. And since that time, he has continued to collect machines of all types and time periods. The Bakke Coffee Museum is the realization of Kent's dream to preserve the history of coffee and share it with others.
Kent making coffee on his very first espresso machine, newly restored, at the Bakke Museum in 2025