Not even three months after the opening of their Division Street café, the second location of Portland’s newest multi-roaster coffee company, the nearly-unGooglable Good Coffee, officially opened Monday.
Centrally located on the corner of 12th Avenue and Salmon Street in inner Southeast Portland, the café’s bustling atmosphere contrasts nicely to the relaxed, neighborhood-y, sit-and-read-the-Sunday-paper feel of Good Coffee’s Division location.
The new shop features the same squeaky-clean white hexagonal tiles, all-white La Marzocco Linea Classic espresso machine and custom white powder-coated Mahlkönig EK-43 grinder, sleek marble countertops, and Schoolhouse Electric lights seen in its sister café. Rich walnut wood shelving and an abundance of plants warm the place up, and a massive Oregon State flag drapes down the east wall. At 575 square feet, the space is on the smaller side, but the 20 foot-high ceilings and south- and west-facing windows lend it a bright and airy feel.
Coffees from Grand Rapids, Michigan’s MadCap Coffee and Portland, Oregon’s Roseline Coffee are served on bar, and bags of Heart Roasters and Coava Coffee Roasters will soon be available for sale. (The set-up is flipped around at the Division location, which brews Heart and Coava but offers Roseline and MadCap beans for purchase.) Top-notch teas from San Francisco’s Song Tea and Ceramics, tasty treats from Frice Pastry, and delicious spicy chai from Tanglewood Chai (made by the ladies behind Portland’s Either/Or Café) are also on the menu.
The coffee is excellent, and the interior design is spot-on, but what really stands out at both of Good Coffee’s locations is the exceptional customer service. The baristas seem genuinely kind-hearted and clearly love what they do, and everyone who steps through the door is made to feel welcome.
Joanna Han is a contributing editor at Kinfolk Magazine, and a Sprudge contributor based in Portland, Oregon. Read more Joanna Han on Sprudge.
