Portland Coffee Tour! Stops 37, 39, and 40 (Marino Adriatic Cafe, Blue Kangaroo and Honey Latte) + FAREWELL TO PDX :(
December 2022 (Written in June 2023)
Hey all! If you’ve stuck with me this far, thank you so much! While I had hoped to reach 78 shops on my list for Portland, life had other plans this past year. After some soul searching in regards to myself and my partner’s careers, we ended up deciding to move one city north, up to Seattle. We moved in December, and it’s been such a crazy whirlwind ever since, but I’m finally back to blogging since things have calmed down a bit! All this to say, 40 shops is still pretty dang good, and I will provide my rankings/categories in the next post before starting a BRAND NEW SEATTLE TOUR, but I wanted to talk about my final three shops here first.
Marino Adriatic is a small, family owned European coffee shop off of Division street, and was one of the shops that was a little less of a typical modern feel, and a bit more of a cozy experience. I unfortunately don’t have any photos because the phone I used was stolen and many photos did not save, but it was CUTE inside. I got their Turkish Coffee special, which is their specialty drink, and I loved it! It’s a very strong coffee but very tasty, and has a regal set up in terms of the dishes that they use for it. You do get a little cube of sugar with it as well. (Pictures can be found fairly easily on their instagram too). I totally want to go back next time I’m in town. It reminded me of a small european coffee shop I used to go to in undergrad in Marquette MI, and I used to joke with my now husband that it felt like we were in someone’s living room, which is honestly not a bad thing! Some of my favorite stops in this tour were the less conventional shops, as you may now notice.
Blue Kangaroo, which is located in Sellwood, is one of the coffee shops that I think I would call a good “neighborhood spot”. I honestly think it’s one of the more underrated areas in Portland — it’s very walkable, right near the river, and a little bit more subdued than some other parts of town. Parking was not awesome, but that may have been it’s only flaw and that’s been a fairly common theme this whole tour. I think that it fits the vibe of the area well: friendly and community oriented, but relatively non-pretensious! I got a plain iced latte, and I remember liking the espresso a lot, but also, I really took notice to how kind their staff was. I also chatted a little bit with a local about my upcoming move, since at this point, I was just starting to get prepared to come up here. This one definitely deserves some love! I think they would also be a really good study spot, and I saw on their instagram that they’ve previously even hosted study nights in the past, which is super cool and not all that common!
And finally.. Honey Latte. It actually is kind of funny that I ended on this one since I gone once before for a coffee social/meetup with a discord group. I remember at the meetup feeling like the vibe was kind of the essence of Portland — in part, because we had a really funny situation occur where everyone at the meetup sat at a couch/table area, with some guy already sitting there who we assumed was part of the group. We all went around and introduced ourselves, but by the time we got to him, he just said “Yeah, I’m not a part of this.. I just sat here and you all sat around me so I went with it…” That said — we invited him to the group, but I don’t think he ever joined. I hope it was as memorable for him as it was for me. On both occasions, I got their specialty drink, which is the honey latte (makes sense). It has oat milk, local honey syrup, and cave painter espresso. The first time I went I got it hot and the second time I got it iced, and I would say I liked the hot version actually a little bit better (which is not typical for me!), but they were both very good. It’s definitely on the sweeter end but I could tell that the honey was higher quality than the kind that most places use, and I think the combination of that with oat milk was really nice. (Actually oat milk is their default — I don’t even think they use dairy). The vibe of this one is fairly modern and bright, happy vibes with a lot of seating (one of the bigger ones). I think it could be great to visit for a number of things, including meeting new people based on my experience!
And that’s all for Portland! It’s been so fun to experience all of the cool local shops, and I’ll always be grateful for the happiness that it brought me when I lived there. I will be posting my list of favorites soon, stay tuned!
PS: Stop 38 was skipped because it was Blue Legion Motorcycle Co/Coffee and it did not exist when I attempted to go there. Oops!
