Naked Trees and New Perspectives

One of the best parts of late fall and winter is that the leaves fall off the trees. Yes, you read that right. I like it when the trees around town lose their leaves. I don’t really like tromping through piles of leaf mush, but that’s a minor inconvenience compared to the enjoyment I get from seeing the trees without their leaves.

This is because when the trees lose their leaves, you see a different side of them—they seem stronger, more graceful and wiry. You can see the skeletal beauty of the trees, their knotted branches twisting upward, stretching toward the sky. They have been hardened by the seasons and are prepared to withstand another winter of rain (or snow) and wind. They have a ruggedness that you just don’t see when all of their branches are hidden behind the leaves.

In addition, I like how the disappearance of the leaves opens things up. If you grew up in a part of the world where you could see for miles (as I did), sometimes you might feel trapped in places where the trees block all the views. When the leaves fall off the trees in late fall, the city opens up and you see things that you haven’t seen before or you see them from a different point of view.

That wasn't there before, was it?

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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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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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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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Keeping it Weird

Two more weird things seen in PDX recently.

First, at PSU:

Not my style, but. . .

And, from Southeast PDX:

Would YOU park there?They don't mess around in Southeast.

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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