(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 60th 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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Cupping at Portland Roasting (No, it's not like spooning)

Thursday morning I had the pleasure of visiting Portland Roasting Company (PRC) to take part in the company’s “Cupping for the People.” This is a free event that PRC puts on once a month to educate people about its coffee and roasting operations. I tried to go last month, but the class was already full, so I had to wait. The wait was worth it and I had another great day of coffee education.

Nathanael May, PRC’s coffee educator and trainer, was our guide for the day. Only three of us were there to participate—apparently several people had cancelled. It was their loss, as we had a very interesting and tasty morning. The first thing we did was take a tour of the warehouse and roasting facility. PRC is located in the building of a former bulk popcorn producer (I didn’t know such companies existed, but then again, maybe they don’t, which could be why PRC has this space).

Nathanael explained that the facility was a good fit because it included both food storage and production areas. As we passed through the warehouse, we could see that here were hundreds of boxes of Muin syrups on the shelf (PRC is the nationwide distributor for the syrup maker). At the back of the warehouse, there were large jute sacks of coffee piled high, each bearing the name of a country or growing region. Coffees from Asia, Central and South America and Africa were all present .

In addition to the regular coffees, there was also a small section of coffee that was labeled “Swiss Water”. Contrary to what you might think, Swiss Water is not some exotic coffee from northern Europe. Rather, it is the name of the method that Portland Roasting uses to decaffeinate its coffee.

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Coffee Snobbery?

Today in the Oregonian’s A&E section, there was an article titled “Non-Foodie's Food Guide.” The article had a tone that mocked Portland’s “foodies,” people who have a reputation for eating only local, organic foods at non-chain restaurants. The article implied that foodies don’t go to the same places where ‘normal’ eaters go.

In addition to food, the article talks about coffee too, comparing some of the more well-known Portland roasters (like Stumptown) to Dutch Bros Coffee, a Grants Pass-based chain. The author implies that Dutch Bros. comparable coffee and more friendly service than Stumptown. One of the Dutch Bros. franchise owners is quoted as saying “We’re trying to be a blue-collar stop. We call our big coffee a ‘large.’” (That quote reminded me of my time working at Starbucks. Once in a while, people would come into Starbucks and tell me they wanted a medium coffee but they didn’t “know how to say grande, or whatever you say here.” I used to smile and explain that I understood English too.)

The piece has received a lot of attention and comments from readers today. On one side, there are people that say “That’s right! Foodies are rich snobs who eat overpriced food and drink overrated coffee!” and there are others that say “Why would anyone go to the chains? Their stuff is garbage!” The third type of comments are those that ask “Who cares? Most of us like to go wherever we can get good food and drink at prices we can afford, and by writing this article the Oregonian is just trying to create conflict where there really is none.” I agree with the  third type of comments.

However, I can imagine some of you thinking when I write about a coffee’s fruit notes and smooth finishes, it seems pretty ridiculous. In some ways I agree, but it’s not that bad if you think about coffee like if it were music. I’ll try to explain what I mean:

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World Cup Coffee and Tea

After checking out the Sterling kiosk on Glisan, I decided to head toward downtown to find a place to sit and write. I didn’t make it very far. A few blocks down Glisan, I came across World Cup Coffee and Tea. I had been planning to try World Cup coffee, but I thought I would go to their café in Powell’s Books. However, since the opportunity presented itself, I decided to stop and check this one out. It turns out that the store on Glisan is World Cup’s headquarters and main café. The company has its offices and its roasting operation there.

World Cup from the outside

While waiting in line, I read some of the company’s literature and I thought I was at another café for coffee enthusiasts. Having visited many similar places, I expected the people in the café to be knowledgeable about the coffee. I walked up to the counter and asked the barista what their espresso was like. She paused for a second.

“It’s really strong. Have you had espresso before?”

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