Case Study Coffee Roasters — Restaurant in Portland

I felt bad for the staff, which did their best, but my experience here was awful. I was on the max and needed to use the bathroom while also having some time to kill before meeting a friend to go camping, and I went to this coffee shop because I read the reviews.

I spent $7 on a croissant to go to the bathroom and thought I'd set my luggage down and journal for a while. Nope... The table I sat at was next to one occupied by a woman having paranoid psychotic delusions about me, so glaring at me and saying things in Chinese (clearly believing I was out to get her). She was pouring coffee on the table and placing crumbs in it, and she had gotten the floor very dirty already. Then, she swiped all the coffee off the table onto my pant leg and shoe. I told the staff and suggested that maybe they could call someone. The barista looked miserable as he came over and kicked her out after a while, inspiring her to shout more indecipherable scorn at me as she left.

Honestly, this was kind of traumatic for me. I was pretty nervous, and I couldn't relax and eat more than a few bites of my pastry, let alone journal, and then I had to wear dirty pants until I could change. I came into Portland just a few times from the suburbs during my trip to Oregon, and each one included multiple incidents like this (culminating in my friend's car being broken into twice in like five hours with police online system and phone lines not even usable for a report). I wouldn't go back to Case Study, and probably couldn't without having...

As a former barista, I understand firsthand how important it is to provide warm, respectful service—especially on a busy Monday morning when people are just trying to start their day. Sadly, my experience at Case Study Coffee recently was far from that.

I had a brief interaction with a young woman behind the counter (short brown hair with blonde accents and glasses) that left me feeling both dismissed and uncomfortable. I simply asked if the drink she handed me was the second item I had ordered. Rather than confirming politely, she responded curtly, “It’s on the cup.” The cup wasn’t even turned forward for me to read. A simple, “Yes, this one is also yours,” would’ve gone a long way.

As someone who used to frequent this café regularly spending time, money, and supporting the business I was taken aback by the tone and lack of basic courtesy. Even worse, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being racially profiled. The energy and demeanor toward me felt markedly different from how other customers were being treated.

This experience was disheartening and unacceptable. I hope the staff is reminded that kindness and respect should never be optional especially toward...

I’ve been to this location on SW 10th fives times now. It’s been a consistently good experience with predictably good pour-overs and drip coffee. They’re using the Kalita Wave for pour-overs and usually have two or three offerings for beans available to choose for your brew. They are pricey though, at $5 for roughly 12oz. Drip coffee is nearly as good for $3 for a 12oz cup for dine-in with $0.50 refills.

The customer service is surprisingly good for PDX; they don’t seem annoyed to be making you coffee and are willing to chat with you about the specifics of the brew process, coffee-to-water ratio and so on. ;-)

Seating and atmosphere is reasonable. At max capacity there’s probably room for 50 people to be seated at the bar or a small table. The wrap-around windows and clean, modern aesthetic make for and enjoyable time sipping some coffee. They have all the usual brew gear and whole bean coffee for purchase.

The one weak point is food selection. It’s usially pretty minimal and overpriced. They usually have bagels, croissants, and cookies—all things carb. But it’s pretty minimal. I’d love to see them expand this as I’m sure other...