Tucked insideย Revive Upholstery & Design is a charming, petite new coffee bar offering a taste of Holland. Prince Coffeeย fillsย two crucial needs:ย forย specialty coffee in the North Portland neighborhood of Kenton, and, whether people know it yet or not, forย stroopwafel. More on that later.
โI felt like there was a big need for better coffee in this neighborhood, especially because I think thereโs a lot of people like me who live here and appreciate it,โ said Katie Prinsen, Princeโs owner. After more than five years working at Baristaโincluding time spent managing its NW 23rd Avenue locationโand two years searching in vain for a spot in her chosen locale, Prinsen and the owners of Revive decided to share a space.
Occupying the front of the building, Prince Coffee comfortably combines natural wood, thrift-store furniture, a hand-built bar, and Reviveโs showroom pieces (donโt sit on those!). โBeing in a shared space helps because it already has a great aesthetic,โ Prinsen said. The space is small and homey, andย every element feels intentional. Prinsenย designed the coffee portion of the space herself, building the shelves, enlisting her dad to build her navy-wainscoted and copper-topped bar, and hunting through thrift stores for furniture and tchotchkes.
โThe design of it was partially up to the space,” she says. “You have to go with what the space wants, almost, which is really weird because [there was]ย a different feel that I was going for and then this is what came out.” She adds, laughing, “Which I love.” Prinsen saysย sheโd intended a Dutch vibeย because sheย spent part of every summer growing up visiting her fatherโs family in Holland.
That doesn’t mean Prince doesn’t feature one important aspect of Dutch culture thoughโin fact, it gets co-billing with coffee on the website.
So, what is a stroopwafel? First of all, “stroop” rhymes with ropeโโor dope,โ saysย Prinsen. โStroopwafel is basically a sweet dough thatโs pressed and has a buttery, cinnamon-y caramel sauce in between. [Stroop] is not actually caramel, it is a little more buttery tasting.โ Everythingโdough, stroop sauce, wafelsโis made and assembled in-house. In the morning, when theyโre literally fresh off the presses, Prinsen recommends enjoying them as they are. However, you could alsoย place one on your coffee mug to warm itย up or, like Prinsen, dip them in your cappuccino.
Prinsen became a fan of the sweet delicacy from her frequent trips to Holland. โI was obsessed with stroopwafels,” she says. “Weโd get off the plane and I would be like, โAll right, letโs go!โ The only place you can get them fresh is at markets in Holland, and I loved thatโthere was just something about fresh stroopwafels thatโs so good. So I packed my suitcase full of them when weโd come back home and give them to my friends.โ Naturally, sheย wanted to incorporate this piece of her childhood into her cafe.
Youโll also find Portlandย roastersย Roselineย and Coavaย on the menu at Prince. Prinsen chose themย carefully, taking stock ofย what would work well in the neighborhood, what would work well for her new small business, and what would work well for her. โI knew fromย having worked at Barista and working with so many different coffees all the time that I would get bored [if I had]ย one roaster; I also knew that, being a startup, I wanted to keep it to local roasters so that they could help me out.โ
Her espresso drinks are made on a two-group La Marzocco Linea Classic, withย a Mahlkรถnig K30 Twinย grinder housing a coffee from each roaster. Prinsen uses a FETCOย for batch brewing, which she grinds on a Mahlkรถnig Tanzania. Prinsen bought theย equipment with a โtinyโ loan and built out theย cafe with her own funds. โI love beautiful cafes, donโt get me wrong, but I really wanted to show that you donโt have to have the most ridiculous build-out ever to have ridiculously good coffee.โ
Prinsen serves thatย ridiculously good coffee in hand-thrown ceramics made by Portland-basedย Ashley Hardy. โI have three different [-size] cups,” says Prinsen. “I feel like people get so weird about their little drinks, like cortado, Gibraltar, macchiato. Thatโs why I have a set price for my milk drinksโI just want people to get what they want, not worry about the price.”
Prince’s pared-down menu is inspired by the simplified onesย she saw in Australian and New Zealand cafes a few years ago. โI feel like itโs really simple, but sometimes people get confused by it,โ she said. But once customers get used to the simpler language of the menu, she feels they prefer itโโthey donโt have to worry about it, they just know.โ
Itโs not just the menu, though, that reflects Prinsen. The whole store, from her imported industrial stroopwafel press to the dad-built bar and the warm welcome customers receive as they walk through the door exude her personality. Now that her first cafe, named for the Dutch plural of her last name, is up and running, whatโs next for Prinsen? โI would likeย a second location with a full kitchen, and Iโll probably expand what I offer as far as Dutch food and pastries go.โ Our mouths are already watering.
Rachel Grozanick is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Oregon. Grozanick has contributed previously to Bitch Magazine, 90.5 WESA in Pittsburgh, and 90.7 KBOOย in Portland. Read moreย Rachel Grozanick on Sprudge.