Case Study Downtown

Early last week, I spent some time at Case Study’s new café, at Southwest 10^th and Yamhill, across the street from the Central Library. My impression? As they say, “the rich get richer,” and Portlanders have yet another good café where residents can meet to enjoy quality coffee, right in the heart of downtown.

If you were to walk by the shop and just glance inside, you might think the new shop is a place to go for an after-work pint or two. The shop doesn’t sell anything stronger than espresso, but it has the ambience of an upscale tavern. This was intentional, according to Christine Herman-Russell, Case Study’s owner.

“The seating is a little more spread out in here,” she said. “It gives the café more of a public house feel and seems to encourage more conversation.”

In the center of the café, a long, smooth copper bar invites you to sit for a drink. Vintage light fixtures hang low from the high ceilings, their swooping filaments enveloping the café in a warm, amber light. With large, floor-to-ceiling windows, the mood of the café varies with the weather, changing from bright and lively to dim and reserved as clouds pass by overhead. In the northeast corner of the shop, a vintage Probat roaster sits patiently, waiting to be fired up. Echoing the original café, one of the café’s most prominent features is the ‘exploding spider’ light fixture hovering over the espresso machine. Its copper color complements the coffee bar.

“This one is similar to the other Sputnik [what the baristas call the original fixture], but it’s a little more elegant,” said Ricky Sutton, the head of Case Study’s coffee program.

Bright and shiny

Unlike the Northeast Sandy shop, which still sells some Stumptown coffees, the downtown shop will serve exclusively Case Study coffee. Brewed coffee will be made with a Fetco brewer (once it is dialed in, according to Sutton) instead of a French press.

Open little more than a week, everything inside the café feels new—you can still smell a hint of sawdust and varnish mixed in with the coffee aroma. The shop’s large windows provide a unique vantage point from which you can observe Portland’s downtown pulse. From my table, I watched as torrential downpours sent Portlanders scurrying for cover, rushing to avoid a mid-day soaking. When the sun came out, people strolled more leisurely, enjoying autumn in the city.

The new café’s grand opening is slated for December 3^rd. Until then, as Case Study employees get used to the new space and work out the kinks, the shop will be open from 7am-5pm every day. After the grand opening, the plan is to keep the shop open until 10pm, for the after-dinner coffee and dessert crowd.

All lit up at nightCase Study’s second shop is easily accessible without a car, sitting at the crossroads for both the street car and the MAX lines. If you can avoid the temptation to sit and watch Portlanders passing by the large windows, it would also be a good shop to sit and work.

With yet another quality shop to visit, is it fair to say that Portland has officially entered a ‘golden age’ of great coffee? I dare say so.

Vitals
Address: 802 SW 10th Ave (map)
Hours: Sunday-Saturday 7am-5pm
Coffee: Case Study
Wi-Fi? Yes
Recommendations? Grab a cup and sit at the window to watch Portland pass by
Website: http://casestudycoffee.com

Caffe PDX – Read. Find. Drink. Smile.

One question people regularly ask me is, “Where should I go for coffee in Portland?” Sometimes I stumble over the answer, because Portland has so many good cafés. While I would like to send them to all my favorites, I usually just give them two or three suggestions. When the SCAA Event came to Portland earlier this year, for example, I put together a few coffee tour ideas for visitors.

To make life easier for Portland’s coffee explorers, a group of friends and I have been working on a side project called the Caffe PDX SmartMap. Located at caffepdx.com, the site is designed to make it easier for you to find the best cafés and coffee shops in Portland. It highlights thirty of our favorite cafés around the city. We visited the shops, took some pictures and wrote up some descriptions that capture the spirit of each one. Visit Caffe PDX’s About page to learn more about our team.

Caffe PDX - click the image to check it out

Our goal was not to list every café in the city (Google does that quite well already). Rather, we wanted to highlight cafés where we are confident you will get a good cup of coffee and a unique Portland experience. Ultimately, the plan is to create a mobile app that will put a café guide in your pocket, but that is still under development. If you sign up for email updates (right-hand sidebar, this page), I will let you know as soon as it is ready.

When you visit Caffe PDX, click on a café name or on one of the map pins to bring up a quick snapshot of the café. Click ‘More info’ to bring up larger photos and the full café description. Caffe PDX is still “in beta” (the tech people tell me that’s code for  the testing phase), so you might come across a bug or two that we will be weeding out over the next few weeks. Time permitting, we will also add more features and maybe a couple more cafés.

Use the site to plan a weekend coffee adventure with your friends. Share the site with others so they too can find good coffee. Drop us a line and let us know what you think. We’re always looking for ideas of how to improve things.

Most importantly, have fun exploring Portland and enjoy your coffee!

Downtown PDX café update

The downtown coffee scene got a little bit more competitive this summer. Several well-known PDX cafés opened new locations in the downtown core. If you happen to be exploring, you might stop in and check them out.

In the Pearl District, the Red E Café has set up shop inside the Ecotrust building. Fans of the original café on North Killingsworth now have a place to visit when they head to the Pearl. Sipping iced coffee while enjoying the Ecotrust’s unique architecture is always a treat, or you can grab your coffee and head up to the roof for a new perspective on Portland.

Red E

Case Study, of Northeast Sandy Boulevard, opened a pop-up stand on Yamhill Street, just around the corner from the Central Library (in what used to be Finnegan’s). The pop-up is a predecessor to Case Study’s new café, expected to open this fall at the corner of 10^th and Yamhill.

Case Study's pop-up

Phuong Tran, former US Barista Champion and owner of Lava Java, is making her first foray into the Portland market. She opened a coffee kiosk inside West End Bikes at SW 11^th and Stark. Maglia Rosa (pink jersey – it’s a bike thing) serves single-origin espressos roasted by Stumptown and gives away smiles at no extra charge . The kiosk is open to the street, so passersby (and not just bike enthusiasts) can easily access the new shop.

Maglia Rosa's Phuong Tran

Finally, Billy Wilson opened his third Barista café at 529 SW 3rd Ave. The stripped-down ambience falls somewhere between a sophisticated saloon and stylish soda fountain. The white porcelain tiles and large windows really brighten up the café.  As a new twist, the latest Barista offers pourovers made to order.

Barista III