KAPAWS ISKREME

About

Our Historic Building

Story

As has been the case with several historic buildings and houses in Coupeville, the Kapaw’s Iskreme building was eventually moved from its original location to its current location. Another building that was moved is the Recreation Hall directly behind Kapaw’s. The Rec Hall originally housed workers who were building the Grand Coolee Dam in eastern Washington. It was moved to Coupeville following completion of the dam on the behest of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Although the Kapaw’s Iskreme building is often referred to as the Historic Abstract Building, indeed if the light is just right you can still see the outline of the abstract office letters that were on the front of the building for over 50 years, it has also served as a meat market, real estate office, video store, barber shop and coffee shop among others.

The building has been an ice cream shop since 1968 when Jim and Dave Stewart opened the Wet Whisker, a shop specializing in ice cream and coffee beans. Soon they opened another Wet Whisker on the mainland. Eventually they decided to specialize in coffee and changed the name of their company from the Wet Whisker to Stewart Brothers and finally, Seattle’s Best Coffee. That’s right, the Northwest coffee craze started right here in the Kapaw’s Iskreme building in historic downtown Coupeville.

Come visit us and enjoy a ice cream cone in the second oldest town in the state of Washington.

We are open daily from the first Friday in March through the first Saturday in December.