Stumptown - Division Street.

Now you all know how much we adore Stumptown Coffee Roasters. We would do just about anything to have a creamy cup of cappuccino from them. Almost anything. Driving downtown, finding a parking space, and then walking forever to one of their locations isn't nearly as romantic as it is when we stay overnight "in the city." Before we moved here, everytime we stayed in Portland we were always downtown and made a point to hit at least one Stumptown once a day. Things have changed now. One of the very first things we did even before we made the big move north was to find the closest Stumptown to our new home. While it isn't super far away (in the grand scheme of things) it's not close enough to make the trek daily. That's probably a good thing for us! All that matters is that we can buy their beans, freshly roasted, at our new favorite supermarket - New Seasons. Still, being who we are we simply HAVE to check out all their locations, right? So first up we stopped in at the cafe on Division Street.

Here is where I should back up a bit. "He" and I came up to look at houses about 2-3 weeks before we were set to move. The trip was a quick one and only afforded us one opportunity to grab some coffee. On our second night in town we figured we'd grab an early dinner and then head over to the Division Street Stumptown for some after dinner joe. Plus, this gave us a chance to time how long it would take to get from Stumptown to the new place. We pulled out of Olive Garden's parking lot around 6:30 p.m. Using the handy dandy GPS we arrived to a lit up, hip looking building around 6:50'ish. On the way in we noticed several people making an exit and before we crossed the threshold I took a quick glance at the hours of operation and saw they closed at 7 p.m. I stopped. He stopped. We left. Neither of us wanted to torture the baristas who were dutifully cleaning up by ordering two cappuccinos a scant 5 minutes before the doors were to be locked up. It was tough...believe me it was tough. Both of us had been craving a good Stumptown cuppa for a long time and you know once you get your heart set on something it can be difficult to let it go. Alas we did. This is partly why the Division Street Stumptown was the first one we checked out.

The place itself is very cool. Old, authentic, Stumptown'ish building with people coming and going, or settling in to read, write, talk, laugh. The line to the counter was LONG. And slow. Three baristas were working that day, yet it took over 10-15 mins. before "he" was able to place the order. I noticed that our cappuccinos looked very different from each other. His looked as if the foam had properly mixed with the espresso, whereas mine appeared to have separated somewhere along the way. Mine was a tad bitter for the first few sips which is not something I've ever come across at a Stumptown before. He was quite happy with his. Overall mine was good, way better than some places we've tried for sure, but for me it wasn't nearly as wonderful as the Stumptown's downtown. We'll be back to the Division cafe for sure and maybe I'll be able to change my thoughts.