As visitors to 155+ independently owned coffee/tea/bakery shops around Portland, we are heartened when we come across a new gathering spot in an underserved area.   And so it is in Gateway where the proprietors of Jet Black recently opened one of Portland’s few vegan shops.   What the owners have taken on in terms of remodeling a former insurance office building that is bound on two sides by arterial streets, was quite a challenge.   What they achieved in terms of product – a homey outpost that feels like new construction even with the cinder block walls, plus a sizable outside patio that takes one’s mind off the car traffic – is quite remarkable.  Whether the surrounding neighborhoods will embrace it is still to be determined; but we’d be regulars if Jet Black were in our neighborhood.

Today’s twosome covered a wide range of discussion topics including: the joyous arrival of D’s new Sprinter van for touring/camping, and accessing some of his wife’s and his favorite mountain destinations; upcoming is a trip to the Redwoods, followed by an excursion back east that’ll take in a Wisconsin high school reunion, seeing Hamilton in Chicago, and visits to the Badlands, and Big Horn mountains; and his recommendation of the thrilling theatrical performance by Vin Shambry in Gun Show.  H then gushed about his wife and his surprise at seeing a high quality original play in Juneau, AK about their Treadmill Mine in the 1920s, where miners worked 24/7 and the area and mine’s owners boomed, until disaster struck; the stunning blue icebergs of the Tracy Arm south of Juneau; and Homer’s beautiful setting in Khatchakam Bay with the Kenai Mountains as a backdrop.  And D then topped those with his recollections of outings into the Brooks Range, as well as the Rangell and St. Elias Mountains.

http://www.jetblackcoffeecompany.com          11157 NE Weidler

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