Caffè Pallino

Caffè Pallino, on SE Division, is not a bad place to go if you´re looking for a place to get together and meet for breakfast or lunch. I went there on the recommendation of another café owner in Southeast PDX. When I walked in, the barista at the counter greeted me pleasantly. She didn’t have too much to say about the coffee, though, except that it was from Caffè Umbria. The double espresso she made was drinkable.

Pallino is the spot

The café space is very open, with several large, south-facing windows. It looked like they would open up onto the street during the summertime. I enjoyed the light, airy feel of the café that the windows provided. Sunlight happened to be pouring in that day, a rare treat in Portland for this time of year. The café has two large common tables, a couple couches and some smaller tables along each end of the café. I saw several groups come in and use the large tables while I was there.

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Ristretto on a Rainy Day

November has arrived in Portland, bringing cold, gray, damp miserable weather. Grayness, however, is just an excuse for me to drink more coffee. Hooray! So on a rainy Portland afternoon, I took the yellow MAX line north to the Overlook Park stop. From there I walked up Failing Street, crossing over I-5 and through the trendy Mississippi Avenue neighborhood. After walking for about fifteen minutes, I reached Ristretto Roasters.

Ristretto is one of the places I have had on my list to visit since I read about it in MIX magazine in September. The company has two stores, the Beaumont cafe on Northeast 42^nd and the one on North Williams. The Williams café (the one I visited) is considered their “flagship” store, though they still roast their coffee at the Beaumont café. When I walked in the door, I could immediately tell that Ristretto is a place focused on the coffee and not just the café experience. The aroma in the air that greeted me told me that much.

Ristretto

Walking up to the bar, I saw on the board that they had two espressos available—the Beaumont Blend and an unnamed single-origin. I asked the barista which single origin she had on grind. Her eyes lit up and she exclaimed “Panama!”

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Coffeehouse Northwest

I struck out the other morning for Coffeehouse Northwest (CHNW), one of the leaders in Portland’s single-origin espresso movement. I was confident that I was going to drink some good espresso and learn more about coffee, which is something that I would not have guessed from its appearance. The first time I saw the café, I was walking along Burnside and had just passed a bunch of taverns, so I didn’t give it much credit as a café. I wrote it off as just another Burnside dive. I was grossly mistaken. Fortunately, Brandon Arends corrected me. The people inside Coffeehouse Northwest are very knowledgeable and passionate about their coffee.

You might not realize what's inside

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Chasing the Black Cat (Red E Café)

In multiple conversations with people around Portland, I have been told that one of the best espresso blends on the market is Black Cat—an espresso blend from Chicago-based Intelligentsia. In hushed tones, people discretely tell me that it might be better than Stumptown’s Hair Bender blend. It can be hard for a Portlander to admit that there is an outsider’s coffee that beats the hometown hero, but many do say they love Black Cat.

Since I heard about it so much, I knew I had to try it. The trouble was that Intelligentsia doesn’t have a café in Portland, at least not under its own name, so Black Cat is hard to find. Asking around, I was told that Crema used to have it, Barista has it some of the time and that Red E is the only café in town that consistently carries it. I hadn’t been able to make it to Red E yet, and  my Black Cat dreams kept getting stronger and stronger until I finally went to North Killingsworth to find the Red E and its magical brew.

Ready for the Red E

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Spella Caffè

When I left the house on my way to Spella Caffè, it was one of those crisp fall mornings when you can see your breath. It started out sunny, but before long a cold fog had rolled in and it looked like it was going to be one of those gray days that drive Portlanders to drink lots of coffee. Fortunately, we have lots of options to help us deal with the grayness. Spella is one such place. I had heard good things about it from a barista friend and wanted to see if he knew what he was talking about.

As I walked down through the city, I had visions of stopping in, having some espresso and sitting down for a while. When I got there, I found that to be impossible, since Spella doesn’t have any chairs. In fact, the café has barely enough room to stand up if there are more than five customers inside, which there were when I arrived.

Spella

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(Kid-Friendly) Café Au Play

A couple of you have asked me if during my wanderings I have run into any kid-friendly cafés. It’s not always easy to find places to take kids when you go out. I can understand why. Most of the time, I avoid places where kids are likely to be making lots of noise. However, people with kids (me included) don’t always want to leave them at home and it is nice when to find a place that is geared to handle them.

It is no easy task to run a kid-friendly café. There was an article in the Oregonian last January that discussed the decision of Sip ‘n Kranz, a Pearl district café, to close its kid playroom in an attempt to improve business (the café has since changed ownership and no longer operates as Sip ‘n Kranz). Stories like these are bound to scare others from making their cafés any more accommodating for the little ones, making them few and far between. So when I find kid-friendly cafés, I’ll be sure to tell you about them.

I recently visited a couple of places that were kid-friendly, Gigibar and Bella’s Garage. They are both cafés first and kid-friendly second. By accident, I also stumbled a café whose main objective is to be kid-friendly, Café Au Play. Here’s the back story:

Café Au Play

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Gigibar: A Linguaphile’s Café (closed)

I went to Gigibar the other day out at the corner of 60^th and SE Division to drink some coffee and to meet with a fellow MIM graduate, David Hubbard. I arrived around 10:30am, and had the café to myself when I arrived. Gigi, the owner, greeted me and asked what I wanted to drink. I asked her about her espresso and she told me it was Bella Selva, an organic coffee roasted by K&F Coffees, a Portland company. She said it was a lighter roast that was kind of chocolaty. I ordered a double ($2) and went to sit down. The coffee was nice and toasty, not over-extracted or bitter. 

Gigibar

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