Italians love their coffee, but do Seattle and Bellevue coffee drinkers? The Bravern is considering filling its gaping coffee hole with Italy's largest coffee company, Turin-based (and -roasted) Lavazza.

It has the biggest market share in Italy, and its coffee beans are sold all over the world, including in U.S. grocery stores. Now the 114-year-old company is exporting cafes to the U.S., beginning in Chicago, including an Espression by Lavazza cafe at The Drake Hotel on Michigan Avenue (picture courtesy of Lavazza). The company has nearly 300 cafes worldwide, only seven of them Espression by Lavazza.

The company wants to open in the Seattle area, but there's a snag. Just as The Bravern has had trouble finding a local coffee shop for its new upscale shopping center, Lavazza has had trouble finding a corporate franchise partner to secure a Bellevue or Seattle foothold.

"When we started talking to people, there was a steep sales decline at most cafes, and nobody really knew how long or how steep the decline was going to be," said Tom Woodworth, senior investment director for Bravern developer Schnitzer West.

So he looked to Italy, where even Starbucks has yet to venture. The Bravern likes that Espression by Lavazza cafes also sell sandwiches, salads and desserts developed with world-renowned chef Ferran Adria of El Bulli in Spain. They also dig the aesthetic, which includes modern furniture from Italy and photographs that appear in Lavazza cafes and its popular wall calendar.

Lavazza likes the Seattle area for its population -- it wants to be in the top dozen U.S. markets -- "but also because Seattle has the highest per-capita coffee consumption in the U.S., so it's an interesting city for us," said Joerg Oberschmied, chief operating officer for Lavazza's North American retail business.

What would you think of Lavazza at The Bravern, or anywhere in this area?