Coava and Stumptown

Wednesday was quite the coffee day for us here in Portland. Our first stop was Coava Coffee Roasters on the Northeast side of the city for a fantastic pour-over and a latté. This particular location was featured in one of our favorite TV shows: Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, which is what the title of this blog is based on. In the show, comedian Jerry Seinfeld chooses other comedians to take a ride in a classic car as they travel to a local coffee shop for great conversation. Recently, Seinfeld invited SNL alum and star of Portlandia (another one of our favorite shows), Fred Armisen, to the show and Coava was his choice for coffee. You can watch the episode by clicking here, along with a clip of what makes Portlandia so great. Coava uses a stainless steel filter they designed for the pour-over, which eliminates the filtered taste that comes from a normal paper filter. Their espresso was quite tasty as well.

You can tell Nadene was thoroughly enjoying the moment…

We asked the guy behind the counter if he could direct us to a good place for breakfast in the area, and he recommended Pine State Biscuits, which turned out to be one of the best places we’ve ever eaten biscuits. We got a biscuit sandwich that included fried chicken, bacon, cheddar cheese, and apple butter! It was so great that we’ll have to go back for another one later this week. The coffee here was from a local roaster called Stumptown Coffee, which we visted later in the day, but even the drip coffee they had available here was excellent.

The afternoon was full of great surprises. We walked down Mississippi St. in downtown Portland to discover Blue Star Doughnuts and Ecliptic Brewing. These were both a must for us as we snagged a maple bacon doughnut and indulged in the red ale and porter at the brewery. We had a nice walk along Mississippi and then decided it was time for more coffee.

We had heard of Stumptown Coffee from a number of sources calling it one of the best places for coffee in all of Portland. One of the things that makes this place so unique in our eyes is the cold brew coffee recipe they have created. Not only do they make cold brew, but they have it on tap at most of their locations. Not only do they have it on tap, but they also have a nitro version on tap as well. This nitrogenates the brew, making it very rich and creamy on top (see the video below for the full effect)! It was by far the most delicious cold brew we have ever tasted! They even sell their cold brew in a can with a nitrogen widget just like you would find in a can of Guinness, as well as in the paper milk cartons with regular or chocolate milk added. This place knows how to please when it comes to iced coffee!

After the lovely cold brew, we retired to our hotel, but not before traveling through Powell’s City of Books just down the street. This place is a 3 story book store that engulfs an entire block on Burnside St. You could get lost in this place for days, and it is pretty amazing to walk through. We had coffee later in this place at the end of the day while playing cards at one of the café tables. Great fun.

This was a spectacular day for great coffee and food. We’ll continue to post about our travels and coffee adventures as we make our way to the coast and back in the next few days. Until next time, cheers! Caleb & Nadene P.S. - Favorite sign ever. They really like literal signs...