Portland 1: Spella Caffè

I’m in no way an expert on the Portland food scene. Heck I was only there for 5 days, but this town is so chocked full of food content that I can easily recommend a few things to eat or drink without hesitation. Ok, it helped that I was at the IACP (Int’l Assn. of Culinary Professionals) conference so basically every waking moment was taken up by eating, or talking about food. Another great resource was Extra MSG , an online mag devoted to the local food scene, and especially this post here, an itinerary for IACP guests!

So first up is Spella Caffè. Isn’t that card cool? 2 locations (1 cart, 1 super cute “European” cart-sized shop, both about spitting distance from one another), fantastic coffee. Spella also offers you a free water (soda or flat) while you wait, from an incredibly classic counter top fountain. So continental! I think I actually liked their espresso and cappucino better than my Vancouver darling Wicked Coffee, which kind of makes my heart twang a bit because I do love Wicked. Now I feel like a coffee-slut. Darn.

Stumptown Coffee (multiple locations around town) is also a good bet for tasty caffeine, they have great croissants and pastries to boot, and are to be admired for their efforts in the direction of fair trade and sustainable coffee, have a gander at their website for more info. Plus, Stumptown is next to one of Kenny & Zukes two locations. Portland’s answer to the Jewish deli K & Z kind of fell flat for me in the matzah ball soup department (good matzah, way salty broth), although their pastrami sandwich and cabbage salad were both very good. On the other side of Stumptown is Clyde Common which I didn’t get to go to but everyone seems to love it. Next time.

Portland being such a coffee city they have a magazine devoted to the bean: Fresh Cup Magazine, and Yelp as always is a great source of popular opinion.

Tagged as: coffee, portland