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
Coffee Fair (PDX)
I took a quick trip up to Coffee Fair this morning at the World Forestry Center. For $8 you could try coffees from ten or twelve different roasters. It was a pretty quiet event compared to last week's Coffee Fest. Many of the roasters were from Portland, but some had come from as far away as Sisters, Oregon and Olympia, Washington. My favorite coffee from the morning was Nossa Familia's Italian roast, brewed in a French press. It was a sweet and toasty dark roast. For those interested in roasting their own coffee, Mr. Green Beans (Trevin Miller) was there to help you decide which coffee to roast and how to do it. I didn't stick around for too long, and only managed to get a couple pictures worth sharing.
An interesting contraption for cold-brewing coffeeTwo booths were giving out free samples of vacuum pot coffee. If I had only known. . .
The vacuum pot was a popular attraction
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
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