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Looking for a fresh cappuccino?

If you have to be up at 6 a.m. at least now you have a lush, comfortable welcoming place to ease into the day with the smell of fresh baking and strong coffee.

The most recent addition to Deb Hart’s bumper crop of businesses all living in harmony at the corner of Gulf Road and Marine Drive is Caffe Capanna. The name means coffee hut in Italian but the café is anything but a shack, with richly colored teak floors, a beach stone fireplace, burl and mosaic counters and overstuffed velvet armchairs to sink into. An eclectic collection of artwork decorates everything from the bright walls to the plates your food comes on. “I’ve been collecting them all my life, I just didn’t know for what,” Hart said.
Café manager Melissa Croda starts each day by baking up a fresh batch of scones, breakfast muffins and cookies. “Every morning they wake me up,” Hart said. “Delicious.”

Coming to the Point from Seattle, Hart said she is bringing that city’s insistence on perfect espresso. “This espresso is done right - none of this extra water business. You get the crema on top,” she said. Beyond the straight shot, you can order any espresso creation from the simple cappuccino to the sweet caramel macchiato.

The café’s menu features both breakfast and lunch items available all day. On the breakfast end there is “oeuf plat,” a French-inspired breakfast of baked eggs with prosciutto and Gruyere cheese. You can order it with a glass of chilled, hand squeezed orange juice. For the more lunch-minded there are salami and red onion, tuna or feta and chicken sandwiches on a small baguette. “This is not a deli sandwich, it’s a very French presentation,” Hart said.

More than a place to eat and take a break, the café can also be a place to work, taking advantage of Hart’s other businesses, which make their home in the back of the building. Northwest Permit is primarily interested in permit expedition and facilitation but Hart has expanded the business to offer a variety of secretarial and business support services, from scanning and printing documents to typing your novel.

The café itself has a wireless network so laptop users can log onto the internet while sipping a latte, or use one of two desktop terminals and five laptops for rent. You can even get technical support on the spot from resident computer guru Chris Green. “We’ve got wireless cards here for people who want to buy them and we’ll put them in their computer for them,” Green said.

The café’s official opening is July 4, after which they will open regularly from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

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