Portland Coffee Hangouts

The five of us, on this slightly chilly early morn, had a very stimulating ride out the relatively new SE 53rd bikeway, to gawk at all the new development on Woodstock, and revisit a shop that appears to us to have made extra efforts to provide a variety of opportunities for its clientele to sit and stay a while.

With vivid murals inside and out, varied seating possibilities, and super frendly staff that seem to really enjoy serving the regulars, it feels like the clientele are coming to their 2nd home.   Of course, having a sense of humor helps.

Among our topics were the latest on T’s two college-age children; the latest outrageous statements from Donald Trump and his wannabees, our appreciation for what Bernie Sanders has attained, and our wonderment how Papaccino’s new exterior mural could already show the Tilikum Crossing Bridge and the Milwaukie Max line.

4411 SE Woodstock

H has ex-pat friends living outside of Geneva, who in their retirement now spend 2-3 months a year in Waldport.   As one of them, the distinguished international jetsetter Monsieur Bill, was visiting and curious about our Sunday morning outings, D and H took him to the Rockin Frog for a great example of a quirky, relaxed atmosphere that – we feel – aids our morning converstaions.

This morning we were lucky to score the Frog’s library. The Frog has other comfortable areas in which to hang out  – the living room/counter area has a fireplace and soft chairs, there’s a room with games to play towards the back, and there are a series of nooks out back – but the library is our favorite.

Since B spent 30 years with the International Labor Organization, and D in his youth was a member of the IWW, this morning’s discussion focused initially on the struggles of the American and international labor movements, then morphed into the weirdness that is the Republican primary circus.     To say the least, the discussion on both topics was spirited.

Two members biked cross town to sample this outpost of Revolucion, which is located in the new Portland Mercado on SE Foster at 72nd.   Though the Mercado doesn’t officially open till 9:30 on Sundays, Revolucion opens at 7:00.

Revolucion has some very interesting artistic and colorful touches in its ordering area, but you don’t see them when you are sitting down as it uses the indoor and outdoor tables/chairs of the Mercado itself for its customers.  The indoor seating felt too  institutional-like, so we enjoyed the big wooden picnic chairs outside.

Topics today included H’s upcoming return to the Canadian Rockies after 16 years; M’s recent epidemiology meeting in Boston, and the history of how this annual conference morphed to become more inclusive of practitioners rather than just upper management;  M’s daughter Lauren’s 1,500 mile bikeride through the northwest; and a comparison of how our bucket lists were so different from each other.

7238 SE Foster    revolucioncoffeehouse.com

Good Coffee, although being relatively small in floor space, has an awe inspiring amount of variety in its newly built site.   Very stylish, the shop has lots of seating options, including a table that feels quite secluded; the walls have a craftsmanlike wood stucture that shows off an array of attractive items, in addition to coffee cups and supplies; and there’s lots of glass to make the shop feel airy and bright.   We sat on the couches, though, and had to lean far forward in order to have a good discussion.

But a good discussion we did have, talking about two local theater productions we liked, that were in the similar genre: The NW Classical Theater’s Goodnight Desdemona in which which a fictional struggling academic plays out in her mind how characters from Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear, would respond similarly to certain events;  and Post 5’s raucous, sometimes over-the-top, production of 12th Night.  Staying in the arts, we then covered the “everybody reads book,” The Residue Years, which we thought was a bold choice given the in-your-face language and senstive topic of addiction.     4747 SE Division     http://www.goodcoffeepdx.com

Adjacent to the Space Monkey Coffee Shop and across from the Mt. Scott Community Center, the library’s priority is to be a bustling sit-down breakfast and lunch spot.   That lesson hit home when we went to the counter to order and were told we’d actually have a waiter take our orders.  As weekly coffee shop goers for the past five years, we were a bit out of our element.

Today’s discussion topics focused primarily on 2 topics: our pleasure that the recently opened Mercado down the street on Foster appeared to be successful, and our frustration with the racism and classism that still exists in our community that prohibits many – including an acquaintance of M’s – with one-time legal troubles from finding suitable employment.

5513 SE 72nd     arletalibrary.com