Sundance Espresso in Selah Is the Kind of Coffee Shop Washington Needs More Of

Selah, Washington is not often written about. It’s in a valley just north of Yakima, where the land quickly changes from scrubby flatland to basalt canyon walls. Most people who drive by on Route 12 don’t stay long enough to form an opinion about it. But there is a coffee shop on South 1st Street, right next to the McDonald’s that anchors the shopping strip. It makes people want to stop and come back.

Sundance Espresso has been doing this quietly, with not a lot of attention. People who care about where their food comes from will notice that it has D&M Coffee. It also has the kind of local ownership that makes a place feel different as soon as you walk in. With almost 370 reviews, the Google rating is 4.7, which is really hard to keep up with that many. A 4.7 isn’t a fluke. It takes a lot of mornings like this to earn it.

From what I’ve read, it’s not just one thing that draws people in. You have to work harder than it sounds to make this combination work. Very good coffee. Real food choices. Having a gift shop inside the café is a unique touch that reviewer Rachael Byrd said, along with “comfortable seating,” made the place worth mentioning. It seems like people aren’t just getting drinks and leaving when you read the comments. They seem to be there for a while. Location data shows that people visit for five minutes to an hour, which is about the right amount of time for a place that can be used for both a quick stop and a place to think.

The Instagram account, which goes by the name sundance_espresso, has about a thousand followers and posts with a roughness that seems on purpose at this point: seasonal specials like a spiced pumpkin shaken espresso, coffee-loving tips for cold weather, and the odd reminder that a hot drink is a good way to spend a gray afternoon. “Everyone deserves a tasty beverage” is their new slogan, which is so simple that it almost sounds like a mistake. Most likely, it’s not. Being friendly in that way tends to build something when it’s done consistently.

It’s important to note that Sundance works in a coffee culture that isn’t exactly underserved. There are more espresso stands per person in Washington state and the Pacific Northwest as a whole than almost anywhere else in the country. There is real competition for a regular customer. There are drive-throughs, walk-ups, full cafés, and shops owned by roasters. Sundance has built a Facebook following of over 2,200 people in a city with about 8,000 people, which suggests it’s found a good spot. Not just on the coffee, but on the whole time they spent there.

The café is open from eight in the morning until six at nite, which is the full course of a workday. Each person pays between one and ten dollars, which makes it more accessible than some of the more stylish coffee shops in the area. There’s something nice about going somewhere that doesn’t make you feel like you need to explain why you’re there during the week. That could have been the owners’ exact thought process: keep the quality high, the price low, and let the room do the rest.

When you walk into a place like Sundance Espresso, you get the sense that the people who run it actually go there. Many reviewers have said nice things about the cozy atmosphere, the helpful staff, and the gift shop that seems to be there just because someone thought it would be nice. These are all signs that the owners of the business have thought about what makes a local business worth having in the area, not just worth opening.