by Jennifer V.

For the past year, I’ve been really interested in exploring new coffee shops around Portland. There’s just something about the atmosphere of a coffee shop; the quiet background music, and the sight of people on their laptops doing work while sipping on their drinks, that is just so calming and pleasing to me.

The coffee community in Portland is actually really close-knit and very supportive of each other’s businesses. I’ve met a lot of cool people within this community through my boyfriend who is a barista himself. At least once every few months, the community would come together to host “latte-art throwdowns”, which are basically tournaments for who can make the best latte art. I’ve attended a few and they’re really fun.

Here are some of  my favorite coffee shops that I’ve visited:

1) Deadstock Coffee

Located in Chinatown, this black owned coffee shop is for those who love coffee and sneakers. The entire shop is sneaker-themed and the people who work here are huge sneaker enthusiasts!

2) Kiosko

Kiosko coffee is a closet-sized, Latinx owned coffee shop that is located along the southwest waterfront. I love coming here because I love that it’s near the river, plus they offer a variety of unique signature drinks such as the “True Mexican Mocha” (the cup at the top in the photo) that I order every time I come here.

3) Case Study Coffee

Case Study is my go-to shop because there’s one down the street from my house and I always go there to to do my homework. There’s a location downtown on SW 10th, super close to PSU campus!

4) Push x Pull Coffee

Push (and) Pull coffee is one of my favorite coffee shops because the staff here is so friendly! Plus I like the nice open space.  

5) Coava Coffee

Coava Coffee has multiple locations but my favorite one is the downtown one, which is just a couple streetcar stops away from PSU. The downtown location has two floors, and plenty of seating and tables for those who need to get work done.

6) The Arrow Coffeehouse

The Arrow Coffeehouse not only serves great coffee, but they also serve fresh-baked pastries, and breakfast and lunch food! They’re located on NE Martin Luther King Blvd.

This is just a short list of the many amazing coffee shops that I’ve visited in Portland. I am still on an ongoing quest to find new ones to visit everyday, what are some of your favorite shops that I should check out?