Caffeinated Seoul

Last week, I went to Seoul, South Korea, to attend a friend’s wedding and participate in a reunion of sixteen present and former Portlandians (currently living in four different countries)—Gangnam style. The trip turned out to be a fantastic cultural, social and culinary experience. In between rounds of Korean barbecue, soju (a popular Korean spirit made from rice) and even some still-squirming raw octopus (not as bad as it sounds), I spent some time checking out the city’s coffee scene.

Compared to Portland, Seoul is huge. Actually, compared to most places, Seoul is huge. The city has more than ten million residents and the entire metro area has more than twice that. In most ways, Korea is as modern as the United States, and in some ways—the efficiency of its public transportation or its communication networks, for example—more developed. Seoul’s specialty coffee scene, though not quite as cutting edge as Portland’s, is growing rapidly, with more good coffee available to Koreans than ever before.

Korea is a very welcoming country, though the language barrier can sometimes be a challenge. My own Korean is limited to hello and thank you, but fortunately, I did not have to explore Seoul’s coffee on my own. Jinsu Lee, one of the team members who worked on our Caffe PDX project, organized the coffee tours. Cory Klatik, another team member, joined us for some of the coffee expeditions as well.

Prior to the trip, I knew coffee was very popular in Korea—this summer Reuters published an article that detailed how quickly the number of cafés has grown in Seoul. Regardless, the sheer volume of cafés shocked me. In some parts of the city, each block has three or four cafés. Sometimes they are literally next door or on top of one another.

One of Seoul's more interesting cafe iterations

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Caffe PDX – Read. Find. Drink. Smile.

One question people regularly ask me is, “Where should I go for coffee in Portland?” Sometimes I stumble over the answer, because Portland has so many good cafés. While I would like to send them to all my favorites, I usually just give them two or three suggestions. When the SCAA Event came to Portland earlier this year, for example, I put together a few coffee tour ideas for visitors.

To make life easier for Portland’s coffee explorers, a group of friends and I have been working on a side project called the Caffe PDX SmartMap. Located at caffepdx.com, the site is designed to make it easier for you to find the best cafés and coffee shops in Portland. It highlights thirty of our favorite cafés around the city. We visited the shops, took some pictures and wrote up some descriptions that capture the spirit of each one. Visit Caffe PDX’s About page to learn more about our team.

Caffe PDX - click the image to check it out

Our goal was not to list every café in the city (Google does that quite well already). Rather, we wanted to highlight cafés where we are confident you will get a good cup of coffee and a unique Portland experience. Ultimately, the plan is to create a mobile app that will put a café guide in your pocket, but that is still under development. If you sign up for email updates (right-hand sidebar, this page), I will let you know as soon as it is ready.

When you visit Caffe PDX, click on a café name or on one of the map pins to bring up a quick snapshot of the café. Click ‘More info’ to bring up larger photos and the full café description. Caffe PDX is still “in beta” (the tech people tell me that’s code for  the testing phase), so you might come across a bug or two that we will be weeding out over the next few weeks. Time permitting, we will also add more features and maybe a couple more cafés.

Use the site to plan a weekend coffee adventure with your friends. Share the site with others so they too can find good coffee. Drop us a line and let us know what you think. We’re always looking for ideas of how to improve things.

Most importantly, have fun exploring Portland and enjoy your coffee!

Downtown PDX café update

The downtown coffee scene got a little bit more competitive this summer. Several well-known PDX cafés opened new locations in the downtown core. If you happen to be exploring, you might stop in and check them out.

In the Pearl District, the Red E Café has set up shop inside the Ecotrust building. Fans of the original café on North Killingsworth now have a place to visit when they head to the Pearl. Sipping iced coffee while enjoying the Ecotrust’s unique architecture is always a treat, or you can grab your coffee and head up to the roof for a new perspective on Portland.

Red E

Case Study, of Northeast Sandy Boulevard, opened a pop-up stand on Yamhill Street, just around the corner from the Central Library (in what used to be Finnegan’s). The pop-up is a predecessor to Case Study’s new café, expected to open this fall at the corner of 10^th and Yamhill.

Case Study's pop-up

Phuong Tran, former US Barista Champion and owner of Lava Java, is making her first foray into the Portland market. She opened a coffee kiosk inside West End Bikes at SW 11^th and Stark. Maglia Rosa (pink jersey – it’s a bike thing) serves single-origin espressos roasted by Stumptown and gives away smiles at no extra charge . The kiosk is open to the street, so passersby (and not just bike enthusiasts) can easily access the new shop.

Maglia Rosa's Phuong Tran

Finally, Billy Wilson opened his third Barista café at 529 SW 3rd Ave. The stripped-down ambience falls somewhere between a sophisticated saloon and stylish soda fountain. The white porcelain tiles and large windows really brighten up the café.  As a new twist, the latest Barista offers pourovers made to order.

Barista III

You serve what? (a lesson in expectation management)

Most cafés hang a sign in the window near the door telling customers what brand of coffee they sell, but not all. The other day I visited an unfamiliar shop in Downtown Portland that was tight-lipped about its coffee.  

“What kind of espresso do you have?” I asked the barista.

You would have thought I asked her for her phone number. She shot me a look that told me not to ask stupid questions. “It’s store-bought,” she replied, curtly.

Now it was my turn to give her a look—a puzzled one. In all the cafés I have visited, this was the first time someone said an espresso was “store-bought.”

Confused, I sputtered, “Any…particular store?”

She looked at me coolly and said, “It’s from Cash and Carry. Do you want one shot or two?”

“One, thank you.”

Inwardly, I dreaded the first sip of the espresso, but to my surprise, it was drinkable. While the coffee would not stand out in a tasting competition, it did not have any off-flavors or obvious defects. Considering the circumstances, I was satisfied. Never underestimate the power of low expectations.

West Coast comforts

What does a Portlandian do when he visits Boston?

One guess....

Sterling Coffee moved! (but not too far)

Trader Joe’s decision to expand in Northwest Portland was good news for fans of the quirky supermarket, but the expansion pushed Sterling Coffee out of its space. Fortunately for fans of the coffee kiosk, Adam McGovern and Aric Miller, Sterling’s owners, found a new spot to set up shop. This week, Sterling moved around the corner from its original location into M Bar, a petite public house on Northwest 21^st.

M Bar aficionados need not fret. M Bar did not disappear. Rather, the two beverage purveyors are joining forces. The space will be Sterling in the mornings and afternoons, and M Bar in the evenings. Sterling redecorated the bar to reflect its 19^th century style. The new location gives customers a place to sit and enjoy—dare I say it?—“sterling” coffee without facing the traffic or the rain*. In a new twist, Sterling’s sharply-dressed baristas serve espressos in shapely snifters that send coffee aromas directly to your olfactory receptors. This is common in barista competitions, but it is the first time I’ve seen it in a café setting. Could coffee cocktails be next? We’ll have to wait and see.

Elegant espresso

Upcoming Event

On Sunday, June 17^th, Sterling and M Bar are celebrating their new partnership with a public party billed as “the marriage of Sterling Coffee Roasters & M Bar.” Coffeehouse Northwest will be closed so that all Sterling Coffee family and friends can gather and witness the event. A live band playing Cuban music is scheduled for the reception. The party, open to everyone, runs from 8am-4:30pm.

Vitals

Location: 417 NW 21^st Ave, Portland, OR  97210
Hours: 7am-4:30pm Monday-Friday

*just because you dare, doesn’t mean you should

Coffeepreneurs: The story behind Water Avenue Coffee

The Portland coffee scene has changed dramatically over the last three years, as several top-notch cafés and roasters have opened their doors. The (mostly) friendly competition between cafés has pushed everyone’s quality standards higher, propelling Portland to the top spot in the country for being able to find great coffee. One of the best of these new coffee companies is Water Avenue Coffee. Located in Portland’s Inner Southeast Industrial District, the shop sells excellent coffees in a setting that welcomes you to the neighborhood.

When you walk into Water Avenue, it is clear a great deal of thought went into designing the café. The shop is spacious, with a hefty wooden bar made of reclaimed Oregon fir wrapping around the shop from front to back. Painted gray walls give the café a mellow, understated ambience. Sturdy cement floors remind you of the building’s industrial past. Behind the coffee bar, the roaster cranks out batches of meticulously roasted coffee, whirring and crackling as it transforms pale green beans into lustrous brown gems.

A wealth of coffee experience behind the bar

Water Avenue has only been open since 2010, but the owners’ coffee experience goes back much further. Bruce Milletto is a Specialty Coffee Association “Coffee Luminary,” well known for a lifetime of work shaping the specialty coffee industry. He founded Bellissimo Coffee Advisors in 1991 and partnered with his son Matt to open the American Barista and Coffee School (ABCS) in 2003.

Matt Milletto, Bruce’s son, grew up around the coffee industry and has worked in coffee steadily for the last twelve years. Since 2003, he has been teaching and training at ABCS, where he serves as vice president. Matt also founded Barista Exchange, a networking site for the coffee industry that has more than 13,000 members.

Brandon Smyth, Water Avenue’s third owner, has been working in coffee for more than a decade and a half. A former roaster for Stumptown, Smyth is the coffee buyer and the head roaster for Water Avenue. He also teaches a roasting class at ABCS.

Matt and Brandon were kind enough to sit down with me to share the story behind the company.

Brandon Smyth, Matt Milletto and Bruce Milletto, the co-owners of Water Avenue Coffee

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