Portland Food and Drink

Restaurant News and Information For Portland Oregon Area Restaurants and Bars

Bikini Coffee Opening Downtown? Caffe Vita Coming to Portland?

By Last Update May 14, 2017

Roman Candle Baking Company PortlandThe Notorious Bikini Coffee is Opening Portland Location

That’s what the signs say around er… 5rd and Stark? Anyway, you might remember they caused quite a stir when they opened in Salem earlier this year, where sales immediately doubled. Coffee is served by buxom bikini-clad women.

Personally I think this kind of sexist shop, pandering to a small group of men who can’t keep their minds out of the gutter for even a moment, is disgusting. I mean, I’ll be going there everyday, but only because I only live 17 blocks from there, and the lines at Stumptown are just so darn long! Otherwise I wouldn’t go near the place.

UPDATE: Bikini-clad women don’t work in Portland’s climate. The cafe closed in 2009

Speaking of coffee, I got a note that Caffe Vita coffee is opening a store on NE Alberta street

This would be interesting, since they have four stores in Seattle, and one in Olympia. Could we be seeing the first counter attack to Stumptown’s assault on Seattle?

Does this mean we will finally have a source for the rare Kopi Luwak coffee. From their website, “This coffee comes from East Java, Indonesia, where a large civet called a Luwak ingests ripe coffee fruits that post-digestion is harvested, washed, and roasted.” Mmm… now I’d take that over a plain $15 cup of coffee any day! Besides, I’m one of those guys that would take a sip, look at the barista, and say “This coffee tastes like crap!”.

Is it any wonder I’ve been banned from so many coffee houses?

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Comments

  3. lilhuna says

    Vita has been slowly moving into PDX for sometime now. They have begun wholesaling around town, and looking for a retail location for the past year at least.

  4. pederson says

    I like Caffe Vita coffee. This will be good for Portland without a doubt. They also own a great pizza shop on Capitol Hill called Via Tribunali. If only they’d land one of those in Portland as well.

  5. Cuisine Bonne Femme says

    I’ll second the Via Pizza wish. I too like Vita, they will be a good addition to the Portland coffee scene. I also think it’s funny that Portland is now a desired destination for Seattle based coffee and other independent businesses (Ace Hotel). For the longest time no one up there would give poor ugly step-sister Portland the time of day. Now it seems, especially in the coffee and food world in general Portland has usurped Seattle in regional and national reputation.

    One thing though, the Vita location seems really odd to me. Not a lot of foot traffic, weird intersection, bad parking(?), and no Max stop there. What is over there anyway? There is an weird store called Pooja International Market, but that’s all I can think of.

  6. BF says

    CBF: The location is actually a smart one. It’s a cool old building ripe for renovation. And if you get in now on Interstate, you’ll be set up for the development slated for the next five years. The Pooja Market is going bye-bye for a new multi-purpose development, and the old Crown Motel spot is under development now. Also, a few doors down is Pause, which is a (thankfully) under-rated neighborhood restaurant/bar.

    And check out the Caffe Vita website: http://www.caffevita.com/index.php?page=locations . A neon sign like that will fit right in on the boulevard.

  7. Cuisine Bonne Femme says

    Ah, hadn’t thought of it in those terms – you are right BF and that neighborhood needs a good anchor. Also, love the neon so thanks for sharing that. I just hope they don’t play their music as effin loud as Albina, and are a bit less prickly with their service than Albina can be at times. If so, then I’ll be there all the time.

    Kind of sad to see Pooja go actually. Not sure why though. I think I went there once to buy ghee and some butter chicken mix and rice.

  8. ChrisH says

    I lived just up the street from the Queen Anne Caffe Vita in Seattle for a year, and I have very fond memories of my month on unemployment, getting the NY Times and walking there every morning to drink coffee and read the paper. I was always annoyed that that location, at least at the time (2003) didn’t take credit cards, which cost them my business a few times. They did always have good muffins and pastries, though, which was a plus.

  9. MrDonutsu says

    Vita is good. Tribunale is good.

    Albina Press is better. Apizza Sholls is better.

    Been & done all, many, many times…

  11. bshingler says

    Living at Beaverton’s westside (deep in the suburban fields) we could only dream of being close in to a neighborhood coffee shop like Stumptown. Happily, I’m here to report we do have the real deal in coffee called JavaMama at Scholls Ferry and Nimbus. With an old diedrich roaster tended by JavaMama’s owner Kenji, my days tasting a lot better now.

  12. Mel says

    “I think this kind of sexist shop, pandering to a small group of men who can’t keep their minds out of the gutter for even a moment, is disgusting”

    Okay there killjoy. You’ve got quite a leap there w/ bikini clad and gutter minds. I guess the baristas wearing those bikinis must be immoral whores too?

    What truly is ‘disgusting’ is people so self-righteous that anything out of their narrow-view world is labed as being ‘wrong’.

    • Mostly Running. says

      @mel-

      From the original:
      “I mean, I’ll be going there everyday, but only because I only live 17 blocks from there, and the lines at Stumptown are just so darn long! Otherwise I wouldn’t go near the place.”

      You could have kept the quote you cite going a bit longer and let yourself writhe in the ignorance of your post. But you’re right, no one has a sense of humor these days.

  13. davec. says

    Oh boy, If Caffe Vita comes to town does this mean we’ll get to see “The Hebb” around town again. He seems to have sunken his claws into Caffe Vita and they fly him around the world to bring his unique “one pot” concept to thrid world countries. New places for “the Hebb” to gentrify.