Best Place to Drink Coffee

[July 23rd, 2008]

Crema

[The Arboretum] 2728 SE Ankeny St., 234-0206.

One of the few top-notch cafes that makes its own pastries. Testament to the humble dignity of Crema’s rustic wares are the spongy chocolate espresso bread and countrified huckleberry scones.

Runner-up: Costello’s Travel Cafe

Albina Press

[Baristaville] 4637 N Albina Ave., 282-5214.

“The Press” is one of the tightest ships at sail on Portland’s ocean of coffee. Owner Kevin Fuller is the man behind the whipstaff.

Runner-up: The Fresh Pot

Stumptown

[Central City] 128 SW 3rd Ave., 295-6144; 1022 SW Stark St., 228-2277.

Hundreds of bike messengers can’t be wrong: Stumptown’s two downtown cafes just beg a detour for locally roasted espresso on the way to work. Drop by the Ace Hotel to witness bleary-eyed tourists converting from Starbucks, or if you have time to sit, the Southwest 3rd Avenue location offers a great assortment of magazines for your perusal.

Runner-up: Starbucks

[TIE] Vivace

[El Dorado] 2287 NW Pettygrove St., 228-3667.This converted Victorian at the less-posh end of Northwest 23rd Avenue is coffee-break central for Willamette Week employees. Look for City Hall reporter Corey Pein sunk in an understuffed armchair, his enviable mop of red hair barely visible behind an enormous mug of Stumptown.

[TIE] Anna Bannanas (see Peninsula winner, below)

Grendel’s Coffee House

[The Inseam] 729 E Burnside St., 595-9550.

One of the few cafes in Portland that could make a good set for a ’90s sitcom: exposed brick, art on the walls, a literary allusion in the name—and 20th-century iMacs for public use. We love it.

Runner-up: True Brew

Starbucks

[Neglected Southwest] There are 37 Starbucks locations in Southwest Portland. Portlanders generally root for the underdogs, but in Southwest, Starbucks’ corporate coffee kicked the little ones in the keister and grabbed top coffee honors. S’bucks is like the minivan of coffee shops—it’s sturdy, safe and reliable.

Runner-up: Village Coffee

Extracto

[The New Frontier] 2921 NE Killingsworth Ave., 281-1764.

The most exciting cafe in Portland right now, thanks to the recent launch of Cherry, a new small-batch roastery that has operated out of the space since May.

Runner-up: Concordia Coffee House/Random Order (tie)

Bipartisan Cafe

[The Outer Limits] 7901 SE Stark St., 253-1051.

The standout collection of political ephemera and housemade pies (try the pear-raspberry!) almost overshadow the perfect neighborliness of this former hardware store in Montavilla. What could be more American?

Runner-up: Space Monkey

Anna Bannanas

[The Peninsula] 8716 N Lombard St., 286-2030.

This sweet little spot in St. Johns is ideal for the determined members of the “Stumpbucks” backlash. Anna uses beans from Seattle’s Caffe D’Arte, which should be sipped at the sidewalk tables for maximum enjoyment. It hits the top of your mouth and spills down the back of your throat with purpose and conviction. A card taped to the espresso machine sums it up nicely, “Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death and sweet as love.” Amen.

Runner-up: North Star Coffeehouse

Stumptown

[The People’s Republic] 4525 SE Division St., 230-7702; 3356 SE Belmont St., 232-8889; 3352 SE Belmont St., 467-4123.The eastside outlets of the Portland coffee empire lack the hip sophistication of the downtown branches, and we like it that way. Whether you haunt the original Division Street location, make a morning stop at the bustling Belmont Street cafe or just grab a weekly half-pound at the adjacent Annex, you know that, for all the international press, Stumptown’s roots are in the shadow of Mount Tabor.

Runner-up: Chance of Rain Cafe

The Ugly Mug

[Sellwoodstockland] 8017 SE 13th Ave., 230-2010.

In the creative-class hub of Sellwood, work-from-home types have a wealth of choices when it comes to coffee shops-cum-home offices, but the Ugly Mug Coffeehouse is the queen of the home-away-from-home vibe. The rustic shoebox of a space plays host to a hive of both worker bees and relaxation seekers, all sucking down artfully concocted Stumptown drinks in the cafe’s namesake ceramic mugs (owner Kim NewDelman actually makes the cups herself). Come afternoon, the couches and tables are filled with folks nibbling Crema and Black Sheep pastries and sipping ginger or lavender lemonades. Rotating art and helpful Public Service Diagrams for Southeast Portland (“Know Thy Surrounding Streets”) on the walls—as well as baristas who can shout out a regular’s order before they open their mouth—cement the cafe’s friendly vibe; all making the Ugly Mug a pretty wonderful place to end up.

Runner-up: Twin Paradox

Jim & Patty’s Coffee Shop

[Siberia] 5015 NE Fremont St., 284-2121.

Who better to feed the Beaumont-Alameda neighborhood’s coffee-and-sweets fix than Portland’s original “Coffee People,” Jim and Patty Roberts. The duo has been slinging beans in one fashion or another since 1974,, but they’ve called a boxy, light-filled space on Northeast Fremont Street home since last year. After all these years, Jim & Patty’s fan base just keeps growing—maybe their legendary, caffeine-loaded Black Tiger milkshakes really are addictive….

Runner-up: Daily Market & Cafe