Oblique Coffee Roasters

February 3, 2011 Will Hutchens

My last café review was about Albina Press, a place that I said could be a good substitute for the Portlandia set (I probably have mentioned the show too much already, but this time it’s more relevant than usual). Coincidentally, the café that I’m writing about today was part of the actual set for Portlandia. That’s right, part of your favorite satirical show about the city we drink coffee in was actually shot on-site at Oblique Coffee Roasters.

Oblique Coffee Roasters

Somewhat hidden away on Southeast Stark, not too far from Laurelhurst Park, Oblique Coffee Roasters is one of the nicer spaces for a café that I have seen around Portland. The café is located inside what used to be a mercantile, built in 1891. John and Heather Chandler, the owners, completely remodeled it after they bought it.

Actually, ‘remodeled’ makes it sound like they just did a little fixing up, and it doesn’t accurately describe what they did to the building. You can see all of the work they did here. The transformation of the building is remarkable, and I don’t use that term lightly. What they have now is a beautiful space that makes a great place to write or drink coffee.

Just for fun. . .free coffee

February 1, 2011 Will Hutchens

It's the first day of the month today, and you know what that means. . . . Tomorrow is the second.

Okay, that wasn't funny-I heard the groans. To make up for you having to put up with all of my bad jokes (and a few good ones), I want to try something. I'm going to give away a bag of coffee to the first person who can identify the café from the picture below. Call it the "It's the First of the Month and I Wanted to Post Something but I was Tired After Yesterday's Marathon Post so I Decided to Come up with Something to Keep You Interested Caffeinated PDX.com Coffee Giveaway Contest".

The coffee will be from a Portland-area roaster. It will probably be a 12oz bag, since most places seem to be reducing bag size rather their prices as the cost of green coffee shoots upward. I haven't picked the roaster or the coffee yet (sponsorship opportunity), but it will be a good one. I won't send you anything that is not fresh. However, if you live a long way from PDX, I can't guarantee that the coffee will be fresh by the time it gets to you. Then again, if you live a long way from PDX, you probably won't recognize the picture in the first place.

Each day, starting tomorrow and continuing until someone figures out the mystery, I will Tweet (I can't believe I just wrote that) a clue to help you. If you're not following me on Twitter, it might be a good time to start (obviously, I'm not above bribery). Click the button on the right sidebar to do that (it's the one with the blue bird). Good luck to all, and here goes nothing. . .

Recognize this?Oh yeah, one more thing. You should post your guesses in the comments section below. You get one guess per day. Please don't break that rule. If this goes over without too many problems, we may try something like it again next month.

PDX Baristas in Action at NWRBC

January 30, 2011 Will Hutchens

I spent most of the day on Friday at the Northwest Regional Barista Championship in Tacoma. Brandon Arends and I went up and worked as volunteers, and we had quite a trip. Portland was well-represented on the first day, with 10 of the 19 competitors coming from PDX. In between cleaning stations and busing tables, I managed to get a few action shots of Portland's finest. You will probably recognize some of them from some of your favorite cafés.

Unfortunately, I did not make it to Saturday's preliminaries or Sunday's finals, so I missed the five Portland baristas who competed on Saturday (including the eventual champion, Sam Purvis from Coava). I'll have more of a recap tomorrow.

Ashley Rauch, from Sterling Coffee Roasters, competing in her first Regional Barista Championship.

Kelly Kieft from Cellar Door Coffee Roasters

Kyle Salmi, Albina Press, waiting patiently for the judges

Marty Lopes, Barista. His boss, at far left, looks pretty nervous.

Ryan Wilbur of Stumpton put on quite a show. He ended up finishing second overall, by 0.5 points.

Ray Penrod of Public Domain was stylin'

Devin Chapman, Coava Coffee Roasters, explaining how the cherries and blood oranges blend well with his coffee. In addition to competing in the Barista Championship, Devin won the first-ever Regional Brewing Competition.

Jenny Dorsey, from Case Study Coffee, showed off her cider-making skills in addition to her barista skills.

Adam McGovern, from Sterling Coffee Roasters, holds court.

Thomas Surprenant, from Cellar Door, was the last competitor of day 1. His hops-infused espresso signature beverage was one highlight of the day.

Albina Press (North PDX)

January 23, 2011 Will Hutchens

The show Portlandia has been in the news a lot lately (it will probably show up a few more times in Caffeinated PDX in the near future), and it would not surprise me if the show’s writers hung out at Albina Press while coming up with ideas for the show. Located a short walk north of the Mississippi district, Albina Press has a lot of Portland(ia) to offer you.

If you were to go online and read through the reviews of the café, you would find that it gets a lot of love (and plenty of hate) for being the best (or the most pretentious) café in Portland. People seem to think the world of it or they seem to detest it. I don’t think you should believe too much of what you read on the internet (yes, I am aware of the irony of that statement) so I went to check it out for myself.

Albina Press in North Portland

Coffeehouse Five-Fighting Portland Syndrome

January 19, 2011 Will Hutchens

For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Stockholm syndrome is a condition where prisoners start to feel affection for their captors. It gets its name from a robbery that took place in Stockholm, Sweden in 1973. Upon their release after being held inside a Stockholm bank for six days, the hostages publicly defended the robbers’ actions, having established some sort of emotional connection with them.

In the Portland version of the syndrome, the rain is analogous to the bank robbers. After a while, you get used to it and may even start to like it. The other day, I was actually glad it was raining as I made my way over to Coffeehouse Five. I needed some good coffee to get my mind back in order.

CH5