Ristretto Roasters is one of the few coffee shops in Portland that does not serve Stumptown beans. And while we love Stumptown, we also love variety. In trying to find a cafe that served a different brand of espresso, we came across Ristretto's. They roast their own beans right in the cafe. Thus this was next on our list of places to try. We stopped in at the cozy shop, situated right across the street from a really old schoolhouse, on a Saturday afternoon. Like many coffee houses this one bears the typical decor of eclectic furniture and art, however behind a wall in the back lies the roasting room. This is where the magic happens. Albeit stinky magic...or so I'm told.
We placed our order, two cappuccinos and a muffin for me. The girl working the register asked me what size I wanted. That definitely caught me off guard as I'm not used to being asked this question in the more "serious" coffee houses. I had to think for a moment and answered, "The smallest size you have." Then we specified that it was "for here," paid, and grabbed a table. It seemed to take awhile for our cappuccinos to be made, especially given there was no one else in there. Finally one of the gals told us our coffees were up so "he" headed to the counter to get them. Unfortunately they were in paper cups. Nooooooooooooooo. Que disappointing. I think we all know how I feel about paper cups both for taste reasons and size reasons. That big 'ole cup meant there was no way to truly sample the taste of their espresso. Sigh. What we could taste was nice. Sadly it wasn't enough to get all the complexities and flavors like we should have.
So once again we'll have to put off a real review until we can try a proper cappuccino from Ristretto's. I guess it gives us a good excuse to make the trek back up there, yet we'd prefer to make it again because we loved what we were served...not because we didn't get to sample it the way we should have.
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