Water Avenue Coffee

Walking through the industrial district of inner Southeast Portland, you can find Water Avenue Coffee located in the same building as the American Barista and Coffee School. Bruce Milletto and his son Matt, who run the school, joined forces with Brandon Smyth to establish Water Avenue Coffee. Bruce Milletto is well-known throughout the specialty coffee industry for being an expert coffee consultant and Matt is an experienced barista/trainer/teacher. Brandon Smyth, a former roaster for Stumptown, is also part-owner and serves as head roaster for Water Avenue Coffee. With all of this coffee expertise, you would expect to find high-quality coffee and espresso drinks at Water Avenue’s café, and that is what you get. 

Attention: quality coffee nearby

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Caffè Pallino

Caffè Pallino, on SE Division, is not a bad place to go if you´re looking for a place to get together and meet for breakfast or lunch. I went there on the recommendation of another café owner in Southeast PDX. When I walked in, the barista at the counter greeted me pleasantly. She didn’t have too much to say about the coffee, though, except that it was from Caffè Umbria. The double espresso she made was drinkable.

Pallino is the spot

The café space is very open, with several large, south-facing windows. It looked like they would open up onto the street during the summertime. I enjoyed the light, airy feel of the café that the windows provided. Sunlight happened to be pouring in that day, a rare treat in Portland for this time of year. The café has two large common tables, a couple couches and some smaller tables along each end of the café. I saw several groups come in and use the large tables while I was there.

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(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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The Rocking Frog

Today’s adventures took me to Belmont Street, where I stumbled across the Rocking Frog Café. With a name like that, I couldn’t resist stopping into see what I might find. On the corner of 25th Avenue and Belmont, the Rocking Frog occupies an old green house. Go in, hang your coat on the rack and make yourself at home. At least that’s the feeling I got when I walked in. The café looked like someone’s living room that happened to have a coffee bar where the dining area would normally be. A few vintage lamps hung from the ceiling, and there were books everywhere—on either side of the old fireplace, on shelves next to the fridge and in the alcove that acted as the library, where I sat.

Rock it

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