To Troutdale And Beyond: A Look Inside The New Good Coffee HQ

Right at the eastern edge of the Portland metropolitan area, nestled in between the Columbia and Sandy Rivers, you’ll find the small town of Troutdale. Known as the “Gateway To The Gorge,” Troutdale enthralls people with its natural beauty. From the views of the mountains to the river running through town, this is six square miles of picturesque Oregon splendor. The only thing missing from Troutdale’s Pacific Northwest checklist was the presence of a well-established specialty coffee roaster. Now they’re in good hands.

On June 22nd, the town welcomed brothers, and owners, Nick and Sam Purvis as they opened the doors to Good Coffee’s new headquarters. Sitting at a combined total of 10,000 square feet, this building allows Good Coffee to run their operations under one roof. Formerly the home of a winery and tasting room, Good has inherited of a 3,200-square-foot roastery, office space, and a large outdoor patio to welcome guests in. While previously roasting at Buckman Coffee Factory for the last several years, building their own roastery has already paid dividends, allowing Good to streamline their process while serving multiple Good cafes and hotel partners in the Portland metro.

“Our process and our overall flow has improved with our new location,” co-owner Sam Purvis tells me. While the benefits of having their own roastery are undeniable, Sam believes the value extends to the customer as well. While guests are ordering their coffee, they have the opportunity of looking through the glass windows behind the bar and directly into the roastery, giving them a chance to observe the secret sauce of what makes Good Coffee good.

 

“Space is an important concept for us,” Sam Purvis tells me. “We wanted to create visibility to our roastery, so we can welcome the consumer into our production process. Having space and welcoming people in is super important to us.”

Good Coffee has received a warm welcome from the Troutsdale community—in both the literal and figurative sense. Within their first week of opening, the Portland metro area saw temperatures reach 115 degrees, the highest in the state’s history. Luckily for Good, they’re a stones throw away from the Sandy River, and they have a refreshing coffee soda on the menu. From Troutdale locals, or Portlanders passing by to cool off, this new location is already proving to be a required visit while in the area. Since they opened during summertime, Good will get their fair share of people taking their coffee to-go as they dive into recreational activities.

“One of my favorite types of customer interactions are the ones who are grabbing a coffee before they head to vacation, before their favorite activity, or just grabbing a drink as they start their weekend. I love that we’re included in their routine that provides them joy,” Purvis tells me.

With the influx of customers visiting in their first few weeks of opening, Good Coffee had to accelerate the calibration period of opening a new coffee shop. This includes the flow of the shop, roasting, and dialing in their new machines. When purchasing their new equipment, the brothers Purvis approached this in three different phases: gear for the bar, their roastery, and for in-house quality control. In the back of house, they’re roasting on a Probat P12 (12 kilo). For quality control, they use a combination of home brew methods and standard coffee shop equipment. Whether it’s their Ratio Eight, Chemex, or FETCO XTS2130, they’re dialing and profiling their coffee across the whole gamut. On bar, they’re pulling shots on their two-group La Marzocco Linea Classic, and providing drip coffee from their Wilbur Curtis G4 brewer. Their grinders of choice are the Malhkönig K30 and Malhkönig E65S grinders.

Looking ahead, Good will continue its growth with an exciting new project in the Portland area. In March of 2022, you’ll see Good Coffee in the newly renovated Concourse B at Portland International Airport. As part of the PDX NEXT construction plan for the airport, PDX will undergo a series of transformative projects that will bring more Pacific Northwest-inspired architecture, local restaurants and shops, and inclusive design to the airport. Incorporating Good Coffee into those plans checks the boxes for PDX to have a Portland coffee company serving the airport, but this is also a stamp of approval for Good Coffee to take flight as an emerging coffee brand to watch, with big plans on the horizon.

Giovanni Fillari is Brand Marketing Specialist at Nike and the publisher of @coffeefeedpdx. He is the honorable mention Sprudgie Award recipient for Social Media in 2018. Read more Giovanni Fillari for Sprudge.