Stop #34: Haven Coffee Co/Updated List/Reflections!
9/3/2022
Link to instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/portlandcoffeetour2022/
I am writing this sitting in a super cute/retro diner, as I’m camping in the town that I work in tonight, since I’m on-call for this lovely holiday weekend. I figured since I am working, I may as well take some of the time I’m not seeing patients to catch up a bit on writing. I’ve been awfully slow about this coffee tour recently — a combination of being out of town, some depressive weeks, and general energy have gotten in my way. I have hesitated to write about much else other than the coffee stuff on this blog, as I want the focus to be the shops, but that’s the truth I’m living right now. I was really inspired when I saw today that I really have made quite a bit of progress. I plan to have a big party when I reach halfway soon (#39!!!) and thankfully, I have a little less out of town-ness this fall to focus on the remaining shops.
This whole adventure has been about finding joy during challenging times in the world, and even since I started the tour (last fall, already! Almost one year ago!), I’ve found it in so many ways. Getting married, other friend’s weddings, traveling, and diving into improv have all given me so much to focus on outside of work, which was my ultimate objective. It hasn’t been an easy year, navigating wedding planning/COVID and changes in my career, but I’m excited to continue to live through that as I visit the remaining shops here. Portland really is a beautiful city with a great community, and even though I don’t know exactly how long I’ll live here, it has given me so much.
So that brings me to #34 — Haven Coffee Co! Interestingly, this one is a bit outside of Portland, which also contributed to it taking forever for me to get there. It’s not terribly far out, maybe 20 minutes in the NW area. It’s not the flashiest location, but they have a parking lot and that’s really special and not terribly common on this tour. I had my dogs with me when I visited the shop since it was my day off, and I always get guilty about leaving them at home since I work so much otherwise. So we took a girls trip over there, and as I sometimes do (very very respectfullly!!!), I asked the staff if they could just come with me to place my order. They were super sweet and really into it; they gave the dogs treats and welcomed them. The dogs were also really happy because they like to sniff the floor of coffee shops to see if they can get any treats. It was a H O T day, as we’ve had a neverending heat wave this summer, so I got a nice iced mocha to accompany me. They sold me on their homemade whipped cream, honestly. They had a large, open space and some seats indoors (The photo I got of the interior isn’t great since I was trying to control the corgis while doing all of it).
I thought the mocha was excellent, and having it half-sweet (as I usually do) balanced out the sweetness of the whipped cream, which was also excellent. My biggest takeway though from this one was actually probably the friendly people. That’s not something I observe at every shop (keeping in mind the fact that customer service is a hard job and I certainly don’t judge). This is a laid back spot too; not super busy, and outside of town in a less stressful area to exist/park. It was a lovely visit.
A side note, but the building is right next door to a grooming/boarding place, and I was able to actually walk in and get the girl’s nails trimmed on this adventure, which I was super pumped out. Shout out to the Muttley Crew as well for that.
