Hi Friends! Continuing along with my travel series, we drank a lot of coffee on this past trip to Portland. Every morning we’d wake up and look up coffee shops and cafés in the area. We came across very cool cafés, all with a different vibe to them. Although Hawaii is known for producing delicious Kona Coffee, the café and coffee shop scene is still developing. There are a couple coffee shops on Oahu that are cute and good places to get work done, and in the last month I think a couple more opened downtown. We’re getting there!
To me, the difference between the coffee shops we went to in Portland and the ones I’ve been to on Oahu is the experience. We don’t have very many coffee shops (that I’m aware of) that roast their own beans, AND have the different vibe to them. We visited three different coffee shops in Downtown Portland and they all were in an experience of its own.
GOOD COFFEE
Good Coffee was within a 5 minute walking distance from Hotel Lucia. We stumbled on this coffee shop in Woodlark during our hunt for breakfast and was transported to a posh café lobby. Good Coffee is a Pacific North-West chain that roasts their own beans and has an aesthetically curated vibe to their overall café experience. The colors of their café had a clean and modern feel with gold hardware accents and white tiled areas around the interior.
I really enjoyed the mood and vibe of the café and would probably work/study here often if I lived close to the area. They had some lounge chairs with coffee tables, a bar seating area that overlooks the street, and some big communal tables where people could spread out if they needed to. A majority of the other people in the café were working on something while they were sipping their coffee. It seems like a great place to get work done. I’d personally come here and use their shop as a photoshoot location – it’s that pretty!
DEADSTOCK COFFEE
On day two, we drove to a coffee shop called Deadstock Coffee located in Portland’s Chinatown. Deadstock is a sneaker-themed to pay homage to the sneaker capitol of the country, Portland! It’s very trendy and cool. Very much Hypebeast/street-wear-esque. I definitely felt like I should’ve been wearing some sneakers while browsing in here because the staff and other customers were. The walls are lined with vibrant artwork of Black role models in the arts and sports industries.
Deadstock Coffee pride themselves on being “judgement-free” and provide a chill, laid-back atmosphere. I definitely got that vibe when we walked in and the staff and customers were having engaging conversations with hip hop blasting in the background. They roast their own coffee beans too! There is no menu, but the barista who helped us was able to make us the coffee drinks we wanted. Cool bonus points, check out this latte art!!! Very Instagram-worthy. I wish they had seating available, but very understandable why they didn’t during COVID.
STUMPTOWN COFFEE ROASTERS
On our last day in Portland we decided to try Stumptown Coffee Roasters. We were seeing ads throughout the airport, on social media, and even got recommended to try their coffee from a relative. With five locations throughout Portland, and their beans sold nation-wide, it’s no wonder this coffee shop/roastery is renowned. We were able to walk to one of their locations from our hotel, which was only a couple blocks away. Sadly, their indoor dining was unavailable due to COVID, but we were still able to browse their merch, take a look at their other offerings, and get some coffee. Their latte was my favorite of the three, and I think I could’ve drank their coffee black – that’s how smooth it was!
Through these coffee shop’s websites, I was able to learn that anyone is able to buy their roasted coffee beans and have it shipped! The time we spent at each of these shops provided a different experience, but all very inviting and memorable. I enjoyed getting to try their special roasts and what they had to offer. In the future, I hope to browse through more coffee shops and dive in to the café culture. What is your go-to order at a coffee shop?
Until next time…
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