Water Avenue Coffee

Walking through the industrial district of inner Southeast Portland, you can find Water Avenue Coffee located in the same building as the American Barista and Coffee School. Bruce Milletto and his son Matt, who run the school, joined forces with Brandon Smyth to establish Water Avenue Coffee. Bruce Milletto is well-known throughout the specialty coffee industry for being an expert coffee consultant and Matt is an experienced barista/trainer/teacher. Brandon Smyth, a former roaster for Stumptown, is also part-owner and serves as head roaster for Water Avenue Coffee. With all of this coffee expertise, you would expect to find high-quality coffee and espresso drinks at Water Avenue’s café, and that is what you get. 

Attention: quality coffee nearby

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Public Domain- Live PDX Coffee Theater

Public Domain was the first stop on my  PDX trifecta the other day and I didn’t talk much about the café, so I would like to fill in some of the details today.

Public Domain used to be known as the Portland Coffeehouse and I had not been to the location since it was remodeled and re-branded. The difference between the two is like the difference between a dark, stormy night and a bright, sunny day. I was stunned by the transformation of what had been a grungy Portland coffee shop into the sleek, sparkling, super-hip-looking Public Domain.

Located one block north of Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland, Public Domain is a café owned by Portland’s Coffee Bean International. When you walk into the café, you notice two things. First, from the smell of the coffee, you know you are in a place that has high respect for the beverage. The aromas are strong and sweet, and they really stand out.

Public Domain

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Dog River Coffee Company

If you happen to be driving to Portland from Eastern Washington and you just cannot drive another hour without stopping (if you’ve got kids, you might know what I mean), Hood River is a good place to get out and stretch your legs. When we drove back to Portland after Thanksgiving, I was hoping to drive all the way to Portland without stopping. However, I was outvoted 3-1, so we pulled off the freeway and drove up to Oak Street, the main street in the touristy part of town. We parked and hopped out, looking for a café. Just up the street, beyond the absinthe bar, we spotted the Dog River Coffee company.  It looked like the type of place where we could get a little boost for the last leg of the trip (the café, not the bar).

Dog River Coffee 

For those of you who don’t know, Hood River is a small town about an hour’s drive east from Portland on I-84. It is located on the southern bank of the Columbia River and is a well-known destination for wind surfers who come to take advantage of the Columbia Gorge’s ever-present winds. It is also a popular place for people who are in transit to/from Mount Hood for camping, hiking or skiing. The downtown is geared for tourists and is full of small shops, restaurants and cafés. If you venture up the hill very far, the town offers some spectacular views of Mount Adams across the river to the north.

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Chilling at the Cloud Seven Café

It was a cold, rainy day when I visited the Cloud Seven Café. Cloud Seven is located at the Northeast corner of Jamison Square, in the same space where Sip ‘n Kranz used to be. I had hoped to find a warm spot to cozy up to an espresso (or two), but it didn’t quite work out that way. I was disappointed when I walked in and found the café to be quite cold. In fact, it didn’t seem that much warmer than outside. I could feel a very cool breeze blowing from the café ventilation system. I wasn’t the only one who thought it was cold inside either. Behind the bar I could see one of the baristas shivering. After a while, I was shivering too.

Just below cloud nine

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Fehrenbacher Hof

Fehrenbacher Hof is a Portland coffee house located in Goose Hollow, just outside of downtown. I would probably never have found it, but some of my friends who live in the area said that I should check it out. The café is a converted old house with lots of the character that comes from being built a long time ago. As you walk around, you hear the wooden floorboards creak beneath your feet, tired from years of service. The space is pretty intimate and it feels like you are in someone’s house.

Fehrenbacher Hof, a great name--if you can spell it

I made it to the Hof on a Thursday afternoon. When I asked the barista what the espresso was like, she seemed a little surprised by my question and told me that it was dark. Hmm. . . That’s not always a bad sign, but the shot I received was a big for a double and was a little watery. Still, I could tell that the coffee was a smooth, low-acid blend that is just slightly chocolaty.

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The Undertown Café (Port Townsend, WA)

One of the joys of being a traveler is exploring new places. Of course, one of the frustrating things about traveling is that sometimes you can’t find what you’re looking for. When I go somewhere new, one of the things I always want to find is good espresso. Unfortunately, I have been to towns where you just cannot find good espresso, no matter how hard you look.

I recently traveled Port Townsend, Washington, located on the Olympic Peninsula at the mouth of Puget Sound. It was my first trip to the area, and when I got there I was really in the mood for some coffee. Seeking the wisdom of “the cloud”, I sent out a tweet asking if anyone knew of a good café in Port Townsend. Someone responded and told me that I should go to the Undertown Café. He did not elaborate much, but I still decided to take his recommendation and check it out.

The Undertown is underground

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Barista

As you may have read earlier, when I went to the Pearl District’s Barista, I tried a very pricy vacuum pot of coffee. Barista is one of the trendier cafés in Portland, and it has an interesting spin to it. Instead of being aligned with a single roaster to provide its coffee, Barista selects whatever coffees it wants to, frequently rotating them. When you go, you might find that the coffee you loved so much last time isn’t even on the menu. Some might find this frustrating, but for those of you who like to try new things, Barista is right up your alley.

Barista

When I was at Barista, they had three different espressos on grind—Hair Bender (from Stumptown), Black Cat (Intelligentsia) and Apollo (Counterculture). For French press, they offered an Ethiopia Mordecofe and for the vacuum pot, an Ethiopia Sidama (Intelligentsia). So many choices! I was really tempted to try the Apollo, but I had gone there specifically to try out the vacuum pot. Therefore, Sidama it was.

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