Park Avenue Café

Of all the cafés  I have visited in Portland, there is one for me that feels like home more than any other. Located on the corner of Park Avenue and Market Street near Portland State University, Park Avenue Café has become something like a second home to me. The past two years I have spent many hours in there studying, hanging out with friends, drinking coffee, writing and just thinking about where to go next in life. It is the place my wife and I were drinking coffee one hour before my son was born and the first place we took him when we left the house the next day. The baristas know me well enough that they often have my drink ready when I get to the counter. The other day, instead of waiting in a long line, I sat down to write a little to wait for the line to clear. While I was sitting there, Jodine, one of the baristas, brought me my drink without even ordering. She made my day. 

Look for the red umbrellas

Read More

The Honorable St. Honoré

I went back to explore Portland’s “Trendy-Third” (23rd Ave) area this week. When I had earlier asked for café recommendations, one of my MIM classmates (Badih) recommended the St. Honoré Boulangerie. Had my French been a little better, I would have realized that it was more of a bakery, but since they have coffee available, it’s close enough for me.

Read More

Portland Spice

A funny thing happened to me today. At least I thought it was funny.

I was walking home on the park blocks today when two twenty-something women in a small white car stopped and rolled down the window.

"Excuse me," the brunette riding shotgun said, "do you know where Spice is?"

I thought for a second. "No," I replied. I'd never heard of it. "Is that a restaurant?" I asked her.

"Umm," she looked at me, chuckled and said, "no, it's a strip club. . ." and then they pulled away. 

At first I was a little embarrassed that I couldn't help her. Then I thought about it and realized it was probably a good thing that I couldn't.

It made me laugh all the way home. 

Is it the Coffee or Is it the Café?

In my travels around the area, I have found that there are two main types of café. The first type is focused on the coffee. Places like Barista, Coava, Nor’West, Ristretto, Extracto and Heart, some of which I have yet to visit, are run by coffee purists. These people want the coffee to always be at its top form. If you ask a question about their coffee, they can tell you about the coffee’s origin, its roasting profile and all of the subtle flavors it has. They can list you their top five favorite coffees of all time, who the leaders of the specialty coffee industry are, what makes a single-origin espresso unique, etc. Above all else, the owners and employees of these cafés care about coffee quality and they want you to share their passion.

The second type of café is focused more on the café experience. Palio or Caffè Umbria are examples of cafés that fall into this category. Coffee is important—no question about it—but these cafes want to be a meeting place for more people, a place where students, writers, and bloggers go to study or write. They often have a wider food menu or more comfortable surroundings. Some people are really drawn to one type of café or the other. Before I started to learn about specialty coffee, I would have said I preferred the café experience (as long as the coffee was drinkable). After talking to the coffee enthusiasts, I now appreciate both types.

How about you? Are there other types of cafés that you like to visit? Are you a regular at a certain café? Why do you like that particular one so much?

Artists Hit the Right Notes

It was a beautiful crisp fall day here in Portland yesterday. After rushing to get a week’s worth of laundry done, I needed to get out of the house and go look for stories (and of course, some good coffee). When I walked outside, I noticed two things: First, it was much cooler outside than the day before—fall is here—and I was glad I had elected to wear my fleece. Second, I could hear an outdoor concert taking place at the PSU campus. That piqued my interest, and I decided to go listen for a while.

It’s pretty common to have lunchtime concerts at PSU. They usually take place once a week, weather permitting. I’m not sure who decides what group gets to play on stage in the commons, but the concert series is a great opportunity to perform and be heard by anywhere from several hundred to a couple thousand people. Up and coming bands who are looking for exposure can put their music out into the public eye (ear, rather) and see what kind of reaction they get. As you can imagine, the talent level and quality of the music varies greatly from week to week.

I have listened to many of these concerts over the past two years, and I like to watch how the crowd reacts to each band. Most of the time, people sit down for a couple minutes and then move on (if they even stop in the first place). Once in a while the band is good enough that the crowd grows over the hour, but most of the time the people don’t stay around for long. They’ve got too much to do, and the music is not compelling enough to keep them around (Hmm. . . sounds kind of like blogging). Sometimes you can tell that a band has brought a core group of followers—they stand up close to the stage and dance or applaud wildly after each piece.

Read More