coffee
 

What is your favorite coffee place to go to for good coffee (and Wi-Fi always good). What is your favorite coffee? I will be visiting Portland next week. I live in California where there is a Starbucks on every corner, and if I am lucky I can find a Peet's. I love non-chain shops.
Thanks!

This doesn't really answer your question (sorry) but I always think a good idea would be to open a really cozy, unique, non-chain coffee shop right next to a Starbucks...

I know that there is a badass coffee opening soon in Portland. Check out there website to see if it opened yet. They have the best coffee!

Isn't Peets a chain?

My favorite coffee houses are exactly that. No $5 "Coffee Latta FooFoo"s, but a plain cup of rich dark coffee for $1. in a real (preheated) mug.

Wi-Fi? No thanks. I like my coffee house to be a place of community and socialization, not isolation. Same with TV. I hate being bombarded with television everywhere I go. Recorded music? Lout enough to hear what I want, but quiet enough to ignore. I like coffee houses that feature local artists' art on the walls, and local entertainment. My favorite in the Albany/Schenectady NY area is Moon and River Cafe at the edge of Schenectady's historic stockade, operated by the same guy who owned Albany's famous "Mother Earth's". One feels more like a guest than a customer.

I am assuming you mean Portland, Oregon? If so, try the Pearl Bakery on NW 9th. I love the lattes and cappuccino's here! Another place that I have had good coffee is Mio Gelato which is across from Powell's, which is only about 2 blocks away.

If you are looking for exceptional coffee you will want to go to Albina Press (4637 N. Albina Ave.) or Stumptown Coffee (downtown loc. - 128 SW 3rd; also locations on Belmont and Division).

I actually don't drink coffee, but my husband loves it and is really particular about what coffee he drinks. We live in Southern Oregon and get up to Portland several times a year. He always makes special trips (several times a day) to these places.

wliwl - there are plenty of cozy, non-chain coffeehouses next to Starbucks. The non-chain places have been there for ages and Starbucks likes to open up in direct competition with them in an attempt to put the little places out of business.

The Fireside, at about 14th & Powell (SE) is one of my favorites, it has Wi-Fi, but mostly because it's open 24-hours.

I prefer Coffee People's (a local chain) coffee to Starbucks. I think they have Wi-Fi.

"The non-chain places have been there for ages and Starbucks likes to open up in direct competition with them in an attempt to put the little places out of business."

I guess I don't quite get comments like this. If a Starbucks opens next to an established coffee house and puts them out of business, then there must not have been any good reason for the little place to exist. Why would regular customers abandon a good place for a Starbucks, unless the Starbucks was better? What you say did happen here, but most of us were hanging out at the old place because there was nothing better. While I won't say Starbucks is the "ultimate" it was a lot better than the existing place and deserved to put it "out of business".

Peet's is a chain of wonderful coffee house with fabulously good, rich coffee. Starbucks was some kind of an offshoot - or the first Starbucks people came from Peet's ...or something like that. I confess to the convenience of having a weak latte in the late afternoon sometime, and for weak coffee you have to go to Starbucks. I saw five people with Apple Powerbooks sitting near each other a couple of days ago....looked like a commercial...and right in Steve Jobs' neighborhood...

Is Saxby's a chain? We just had this place open up near us, and it was great, they have a fire place with books, newspapers, magazines and couches to sit and read, and even a little area for kids to sit and play and read. It felt very friendly and cozy, but I don't know if this is a chain or not...and of course it is here in Vegas, not Portland, but just curious if other Saxby's are around.
Also, in Canada they have a chain called Second Cup that actually has very good coffee and not as expensive as Starbucks.

Starbucks comes into an area and predatorily takes out preexisting coffee businesses; the customers don't usually have a choice in continuing to patronize their former shop.

OK, that's different and certainly not the case here as Starbucks always seem to appear in totally new developments. I've never known one here to replace an existing coffee shop.

wliwl - that reminds me of a place people at our company would go back during the turn of the millennium.

It was a laid back cook, wi-fi enabled coffee house with kind of beat up old furniture - looked a bit like the coffee house on "Friends".

It was called Circadia (I think). Total coffee house by day and hipster barfly hangout after work.

And the ironic thing was that it was actually a test marketing store for Starbucks. Owned and operated by them - but a change of pace from their regular chain look.

I guess the test didn't have the desired results, because after the .com bust they finally changed the sign to Starbucks - and suddenly everyone was in a green apron.

I remember when they bought out Seattles Best and the location at Westlake Center changed to Starbucks. Saw examples like that way too often for my liking.

"Starbucks always seem to appear in totally new developments. I've never known one here to replace an existing coffee shop."

Starbucks is in the process of displacing a family-owned coffee shop in the town where I live; in these older eastern towns that were built-out decades ago, there are no "new developments" in which to build. The older place is two doors down and has been operated by the same family for three generations.

The family-owned coffee shop insists on hiring teens, mostly family friends, which would be OK if they were adequately trained and weren't allowed to have too much attitude. One of my daughter's friends works for Starbucks and gets better pay and benefits than the kids who work at the older place. The old family-owned place can't get away with their dirt and attitude anymore, and seem to be filled with resentment rather than learning a lesson and adapting. The Starbucks is winning customers because they have better service, better hygiene, and deserve the business, IMHO. They certainly aren't undercutting prices!

I remember reading some article concluding that having a Starbucks move into a community actually ends up improving business at the local coffee places.

I believe the reasoning was that people who had never really been coffee drinkers would try Starbucks and then would become coffee drinkers. Basically, Starbucks helps create a larger client base of coffee drinkers.

Anyway, I don't know how accurate the research was, but it was an interesting article.

And I also second the recommendation for the Pearl Street Bakery. We ate there almost every day we were in Portland. Delicious!

Amen to that last statement. As a retired person myself who isn't on Social Security yet and now pays over $500 a month for $2500 deductible health insurance, it was tempting to consider working part time at Starbucks (often touted as one of the best companies to work for in major polls). If I worked 20 hours a week (and can do flexible hours like double one week and off the next or three days a week then off four) I would have full insurance coverage. Lets see -- $500 divided by 80 hours a month is already a $6.25 an hour free bonus on top of salary!

I'm sure there are cases where this isn't true, but I'm kind of tired of hearing about small businesses which are out-dated in service, offerings, and quality being replaced by "big companies" which offer the customer -- and often the community a whole lot more. There are many small businesses which keep up with the times and adapt to the current needs and service to the customer which will survive.