Coava Come Home

Coava Roastery and Brew Bar

1300 SE Grand Ave.

Portland, OR 97214

7am-5pm everyday

Coava Coffee are Matt Higgins and Keith Gehrke, two coffee roasters who had the audacity to take a look at the Portland coffee scene and believe they had something more to offer.

Roasting for a little over a couple years now, Coava has made an impression with all coffee geeks in Portland. You can find their beans at the Red E on Killingsworth, Crema Coffee + Bakery, and occasionally Billy has them on rotation at BARISTA and BARISTA II. (I don't know if BARISTA's second location at 1725 NE Alberta is officially called "BARISTA II" but that's what I call it.)

But now Coava has a place to call home. Well, they have a kiosk to call home.

Located inside Bamboo Revolution's materials showroom at 1300 SE Grand, Coava has an incredibly beautiful space where they are now serving incredibly crafted coffee.

Coava will serve you a coffee ($2), espresso ($2), macchiato ($2.50), cappuccino ($3) or a latte ($3.5). As of now, there is no flavoring at Coava and the choice of sizes is not your own. The coffees, americanos and lattes come in 10 oz cups, while the other drinks come in their traditional sizes.

In a city where "coffeehouses" have slowly evolved into "coffeelabs," Coava is just another example.

Taking the time to learn as much as possible about the environment, the people and the process behind growing the beans is the first step. They also have a temperature-controlled green room for storing green beans on site before roasting.

But the beans are only half the story. Coava makes sure that each piece of equipment put in play is well-tuned and efficient. Producing coffee only via pour over, Coava knew they would be going through many paper coffee filters. So instead they opted to design a durable and reusable filter with wider holes that allow for more oil molecules to sneak through and add to the flavor complexity of the coffee.

Right now the seating options at Coava are limited to the reuse of Bamboo Revolutions' makeshift tables with stools, but soon more seating will be available.

Coava is also featuring Crema baked goods including scones, muffins, croissants and their new nut, seed and fruit granola bar.

Veni Vidi Vici, Vita?

It has been rumored for a long time that Seattle roasting powerhouse Caffe Vita has been searching for a place to set up their own shop here in Portland. Currently they service coffee to many small coffeehouses such as Goldrush Coffee Bar and Caffe Destino, as well as some restaurants such as Violetta.

At one point Caffe Vita was close to sealing the deal at a location on the corner of SW Ankeny and SW 3rd Ave (smack between Voodoo Doughnuts and Stumptown). The plan was scrapped last fall but it seems it has been resurrected.

Turns out Caffe Vita's owner Mike Mcconnell is also the owner of a successful Neaopolitan pizzaria, Via Tribunali. It seems that both Caffe Vita and Via Trib will be shacking up together in that SW 3rd Ave location.

While I'm sure this isn't exactly the coffee splash Vita had hoped to make in Portland, it is certainly more financially viable and gets Vita that much closer to having an assertive coffee presence in Portland.

Curious about what this pizza/coffee mash-up will look like? Luckily Vita and Via Trib just recently opened their first joint location in Seattle's Pioneer Square and there are photos!



There is no open date as of now, but feel free to swing by the site currently under construction and peep the wood-fired oven from the window.