The suburbs are a rough, unforgiving landscape for coffee shops…read more
At best, you'll have strip-mall stands, parking-lot carts or mini chains that pour a serviceable menu of second-wave offerings and, if you're lucky, won't try to rope you into Sunday services at the church they're fronting for.
At worst, you have places dispensing sugar-laden trucker fuel to customers as quickly as possible and doing as little as they can to keep people hanging around or foster community.
To look at The Coffee Shop from the spaghetti bowl of streets surrounding it in Raleigh Hills, you'd get the sense that it could be either of the above. It's at the end of a strip mall, it's along busy roads, and it's put enough thought into the branding that something has to be up, right?
As it turns out, no. The Coffee Shop may be clinging to the westernmost point of Portland and may serve as its gateway to the suburbs, but understands its role within its community as well as shops in the denser neighborhoods over the bridges and beyond the tunnels.
I only started going here roughly two years ago, but it's become a staple for meeting people in the neighborhood and conducting lengthier conversations. The Coffee Shop is an expansive space that has a modest dining area near its front counter, but effectively a community living room in the back and a sidewalk terrace out front that's workable for about four months out of the year. Each time I've walked in, the tables are consistently buzzing with people swapping ideas, exchanging stories, and occasionally getting some work done.
As with the better shops in town, The Coffee Shop relies on counter service and asks you to order and pick up as needed. There are no wait staff checking in, no bussers clearing tables, and no interruptions to the rhythm of your day. It's a functional third space that just happens to have breakfast items (which I haven't tried yet), an array of baked goods (I never pass up an oatmeal cookie) and a full menu of casual espresso drinks (not great for pourovers or sampling a variety of sourced roasts, but an easy cortado, Americano, Red Eye or latte. And when coffee is the secondary item and you're hitting the first 60-degree days on the calendar, a cardamom-and-honey Cardi B or chocolate-and-cinnamon Mr. Olingo serves as a welcome treat.
The Coffee Shop is on Portland's car-driven outskirts, but is in one of the last segments in which people are encouraged to stay a while. It's flanked by Jan's Bookstore, spas, nail salons, yoga studios, Sesame Donuts, and the area's one true diner. It occupies a much-needed space within its far corner of Portland and displays remarkable urban sensibility in an area where it could've simply gone with the flow of suburban traffic.
The Coffee Shop isn't your last hope for a cup of coffee before reaching the 'burbs, but it's one of the few true coffee shops this far beyond the tunnels.
