CoffeeBeer >> Double Shot Buzz >> Seaside 3

Back Buzz - 27 October 2024

Last May, when my friend Rick and I met up in Portland for a week, we spent our first morning walking across town and through the gorgeous Japanese Garden, followed by lunch at a pub up in Slabtown. While we were walking back to our downtown accommodation, as we were going out again in the evening, we decided to stop and refresh ourselves with a mid-afternoon coffee. When we saw the sign that said Never Coffee, naturally the name pulled us in, because probably neither of us had ever thought we’d be having a coffee, or even a beer or meal, in a place called Never. And the fact that we were meeting a second cousin of mine later, whom I’d never met before, at a pub called Wayfinder, starting at Never just seemed to fit.

The coffee shop, which is decorated with a Matisse-inspired mural, features some interesting drinks on their menu, presumably for latte lovers who would prefer drinking something that doesn’t taste like coffee. For instance, the Hug features spicy cacao, smoky chiles, and cinnamon; the Oregon features Cascade hops, dulce de leche, and Jacobsen sea salt; the Holy Grail contains local cherry wood smoked honey, sea salt, and tellicherry pepper; the Rich Kid has rose water, saffron, and cardamom; and the Midnight Oil has sweet fennel seed, star anise, and black licorice. Personally I would always prefer to stick to a Cortado or dry cappuccino myself, with no fluffy flavours. But that's just me.

The cafe's LinkedIn page says that their full name is Never Coffee Lab, which seems a little bit pretentious. It also says that they were founded in 2026--although it was really 2016--and they are staffed “from the stranded crew of a crashed, alien spaceship." So at least they have a good sense of humour. Besides drink-in coffees they also offer a coffee subscription service called “Oh!", and they sell their own coffees, clothes, and cups. Our cortados were perfectly decent, I suppose, although they didn't really inspire an "Oh!" from either of us. I suppose that could be a good thing.

Earlier that morning, we took off from our B&B and walked down the road to the St Honoré Bakery. Even though it was a weekday morning, the place was quite busy, so it took a long time to get our cappuccinos and pastries. But my croissant, which was excellent, was well worth the wait, and our cappuccinos were quite authentic. On our second visit the next morning, we had two more cappuccinos, and Rick had a Pistachio croissant while I had a bagel with cream cheese. And everything was quality.

Inspired by French country boulangeries but with a Northwest touch, St Honoré offers freshly baked bread and hand-crafted pastries. It’s one of those places where the bakers are visible to the customers as they make the breads and bake them in their clay firebrick oven. The cafe, named after the patron saint of bakers, St Honoré, was opened in 2003 by master baker Dominique Geulin, who grew up in the Normandy town of Etretat. After graduating in 1990 from the American Institute of Baking, Geulin returned to France to enter a competition, where he earned the status of “Meilleur Ouvrier de France" in the boulangerie category. He currently serves as the Honorary Consul of France to provide support to French citizens in the state of Oregon. So he seems like a pretty dedicated and busy guy.

The next morning, driving to Seaside on the coast, Rick and I walked from our B&B to the Yamhill District, where we stopped for breakfast at 40 LBS Coffee. The atmosphere was pretty much like any other modern coffee cafe these days, with industrial chic touches here and there, and with the obligatory woman working hard on her laptop nearby. We sat at a little table near the window, where we ordered two cappuccinos, which were fine, but not quite as good as some other ones we've had. My Everything bagel with cream cheese was probably the chewiest bagel I’ve ever had, but I’m not complaining because I like chewy bagels.

Since this original cafe was opened in 2016, two other 40 LBS have opened in downtown Portland, with their Main Street and Washington Street venues serving breakfast and lunch dishes as well as cocktails. Those cafes also offer private conference rooms for rent, in case you’re looking for something like that.

While we sipped our coffee and I chewed away on my bagel, we both wondered what the 40 pounds refers to. The cafe takes cards and US dollars for payment, so it doesn't seem to relate to British currency. And no weight in the cafe was visibly screaming out "40" to either of us. As I haven’t been able to find out anything on the Internet about their name, I guess it will just remain a mystery.

Speaking of mysteries reminds me of an extremely short WhatsApp conversation that Rick and I had later that afternoon, after I had flown out of Portland before him, inadvertently leaving part of my sleepwear behind in the bathroom we were sharing:

Related Links

• All about the Meilleur Ouvrier de France competition
• All about Yamhill County in Oregon, from which Portland’s Yamhill District got its name (Wikipedia)
• All about the Kalapuya Native Americans, of which the Yamhill tribe were part (Lane Community College Libary)
• Underwear isn’t the strangest thing left behind in hotel rooms, according to Forbes Magazine...USA Travel Today...and The Independent