Portland, Oregon
The best coffee in Portland
Nine Portland roasters and cafés, arranged so you can do most of them on foot.
9 places
Portland's coffee is concentrated tightly enough that the right answer is to pick one neighbourhood and walk it. Buckman is the best single choice on the east side — four serious roasters inside a short radius. Kerns, just north, carries the same energy around Heart's roastery café.
Concordia is a quieter north-east pocket worth the detour, and the Pearl District covers the north-west with more polished, loft-style rooms.
1.Coava Coffee
Buckman
The flagship, and the anchor of the best coffee neighbourhood in the city. Start a Buckman crawl here.
2.Roseline Coffee
Buckman
Roaster-café in the same walkable cluster, and a useful contrast to Coava's house style.
3.Push x Pull
Buckman
Small, focused and firmly in the modern camp. The kind of bar where the menu is short because the decisions have already been made.
4.Marigold Coffee
Buckman
Women-owned roaster operating since 2009 out of the Buckman Coffee Factory, working small-batch and seasonally sourced single origins.
5.Heart Coffee
Kerns
The roastery café, and the clearest expression of Portland's clean minimalist approach — light roasts, single origins, nothing hiding behind milk.
6.Extracto Coffee
Concordia
Roasting on a vintage cast-iron machine in a residential pocket away from the east-side crowds. Worth the trip for the room as much as the cup.
7.Sisters Coffee Company
Pearl District
A family-owned Central Oregon roastery running since 1989. The Ethiopians are the reason to go.
Order: an Ethiopian pour-over
8.Carnelian Coffee
Mount Scott–Arleta
A genuine neighbourhood gem in the south-east, far enough out that you will mostly be among locals.
Order: the Thunderegg cortado
9.Puff Coffee
Sunnyside
Duane Sorenson's post-Stumptown roasting project, which means decades of sourcing pedigree behind a comparatively new name.