Umbria’s relatively new downtown shop was one of six that we visited more than once during 2018;  the reason for revisiting Umbria is simple, we wanted to share it with our other Sunday bikeriderss whom we knew would appreciate its historic elements.  Situated in a stately former hotel – The Sovereign – Umbria successfully mixes historic Georgian elements with modern ones.  The result is visual eye candy for those like us who enjoy hanging out. 

(As an Aside:  Nine years ago we started blogging about our Sunday coffee shop excursions due in part to an acquaintance’s urging: his girlfriend complained she knew of no decent downtown shops close to where she lived.  She actually was right as back then we could recommend only two; that downtown list has grown dramatically since, and includes this Umbria site.) 

Topics covered in late July included: G’s wife D breaking her ankle and needing surgery, at roughly the same time his pick-up was stolen even though he had a club on it;  (in 30+ years this was the 6th theft of one of his 4 Japanese cars.)  M and his wife J –  concerned with finding a more suitable home to age in place – being frustrated once again in this dog-eat-dog real estate market.  And H’s seemingly ideal extended family showing ruptures when two members endangered their relationship with too little sleep and too much alcohol.

In October we talked about the upcoming elections both in Oregon and nation-wide, why Kate Brown appears to be in trouble despite Knute B being two-faced, why Greg Walden shouldn’t be in more trouble given his votes that hurt his rural constituency, and whether it really is possible to flip the House of Representatives.   And we envied E on his sweet consultancy with AARP where he gets to have a national platform to make it easier to construct accessory dwelling units.

710 SW Madison                 caffeumbria.com

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