Penny at Belvi settles lawsuit with Charbucks

SEATTLE, Washington - In my unfortunate days of working on the Eastside I was a regular customer at one of the few espresso oases over there, Belvi Coffee in "downtown" Bellevue. A couple years ago the owner, Penny Stafford, filed suit against Charbucks for, among other things, their negotiation of exclusive arrangements with retail property developers that she alleged to be anti-competitive.

Turn out that Penny and Charbucks finalized a settlement in April. The news story is light on details as the settlement is confidential but notes that Charbucks tried to portray Penny as a "barista wanna-be". The fakers are (most of) the Charbucks baristas, Penny is as fanatical about beans and shot-pulling as anyone I've met.

I'll go try to squeeze some more details out of Penny.