• Home
    • About
      • Home
      • About the Site
      • The Authors
      • Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
      • Email me
    • Reviews
      • List of All Reviews
      • Best of Portland by year
        • Reader Survey: Best of Portland Food 2017
        • Best of Portland 2015
      • Steakhouse Roundup
        • Steakhouse Reviews Introduction
        • El Gaucho Steakhouse
        • Morton’s Steakhouse
        • Ringside Steakhouse
        • Ruth’s Chris
        • Steakhouse – Results
      • Product/Business Reviews
        • Retailer Reviews
        • Product Reviews
    • Topics
      • Food Writing
        • Alcohol Related
          • Beer
          • Wine
          • Spirits
        • April Fools Stories For Portland
        • Contests and Competition
        • Food Memories
        • Travel Writing
      • Authors / Book Reviews
      • Cheese information
      • Interviews: Honest dialog with people in the Portland food industry
      • Portland Food and Restaurant News and Discussion
      • Recipes
    • Guides
      • Guide to Portland coffee
        • Portland Coffee Guide
        • A Map of our favorite Portland coffeehouses
        • Reader Survey: Best Coffeehouses in Portland 2017
      • Guide to Local Wine Shops
      • Guide to Portland Bakeries
      • Guide to Portland Distilleries
      • Guide to Portland’s Beer Shops
    Portland Food and Drink

    Portland Food and Drink

    Restaurant News and Information For Portland Oregon Area Restaurants and Bars

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Send me email!

    Bikini Coffee Opening Downtown? Caffe Vita Coming to Portland?

    By PDX Food Dude 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?

    Related

    Category: Portland Food and Restaurant News and Discussion. Related posts about Caffe Vita.

    Previous Post: « Manzana Closes To Be Replaced By Palomino Restaurant
    Next Post: Interview: Sarah Hart of Alma Chocolate »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. FoodRebel says

      June 21, 2008 at 6:49 pm

      FD,
      Have you ever had Argan Oil? Same treatment than the Kopi Luwak…

    2. Food Dude says

      June 21, 2008 at 7:38 pm

      Hmm… we could have an all poo civit processed dinner!

    3. lilhuna says

      June 21, 2008 at 8:24 pm

      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

      June 21, 2008 at 9:53 pm

      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

      June 22, 2008 at 4:14 am

      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

      June 22, 2008 at 9:16 am

      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

      June 22, 2008 at 1:13 pm

      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

      June 22, 2008 at 2:28 pm

      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

      June 22, 2008 at 10:12 pm

      Vita is good. Tribunale is good.

      Albina Press is better. Apizza Sholls is better.

      Been & done all, many, many times…

    10. Caryn says

      June 22, 2008 at 10:15 pm

      We already have a source of kopi luwak… legare’s on clinton…

    11. bshingler says

      June 23, 2008 at 3:31 pm

      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

      June 24, 2008 at 7:02 pm

      “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

        June 24, 2008 at 8:34 pm

        @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.

      • Food Dude says

        June 24, 2008 at 8:39 pm

        Insert rolling eyes

    13. davec. says

      June 25, 2008 at 12:05 pm

      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.

    © 2023 · PortlandFoodandDrink.com • See Terms of Service and Privacy Policy