Portland coffee stops:Stumptown at the Ace Hotel

Carla and I bummed the couches in one of the rooms people from Verve were staying at. (Told you. We made this trip a cheap one!) Aside from the Ace Hotel being an awesome building with its antique architecture and vintage cabin-like feel, they have a Stumptown attached to the lobby. This is heaven: starting your day off with a great coffee by just walking downstairs while you're still in your jammies. The shot of Hairbender I had was the second best shot I had from our trip. On top of that, they use one of my favorite espresso machine, a La Marzocco Mistral. Although I have never actually worked on one, I just like the way the look because it reminds me of something futuristic like the Jetsons!


Photo courtesy of Architecture-page.















Photo courtesy of Portland-ground.

Portland coffee stops:Barista

Going to Portland made me very sad about the lack of selection of good coffee houses in San Jose, and a big emphasis on good. Our first stop was to a new shop called Barista, but unfortunately they are closed on Sundays. It looked to be a really small shop. I was jealous of the fact that they had, not one, but TWO cute two-group espresso machines: a little Synesso (which is what my family's shop has) and a La Marzocco.

They also had some other great looking equipment like a siphon bar, which I have never had a cup of coffee from.
It really was a shame that they were closed because they looked be serving coffee from Intelligentsia and Olympia (Oly), which I have never heard of before. These two coffees would have been a nice change to try, since almost every other place we went to serves Stumptown Coffee. Speaking of Stumptown, that was actually our first stop, since it was in our hotel lobby. More to come!