Good Coffee — Restaurant in Portland

After an unusually late Friday night bedtime, I lounged around all morning until I decided to take a stroll with my small dog from the Pearl to Slabtown. As a very tired person does, I proceeded to look for a coffee shop to wake my zombie body up. I stumbled upon Good Coffee, so I approached two girls with dogs and asked if they knew if I could bring my dog inside. They said they weren’t sure, but probably, so I felt confident enough approach the barista area to ask if it was ok to have my dog in my arms while I ordered. There were two males who were cold as ice, not one smile, not one hello, and barely a look to acknowledge my peasant existence. Finally, I look over to see a friendly female who acknowledged it was ok for me to order with my dog (or so I thought—maybe she didn’t hear me). *And for the record, I’m not a let me take my dog everywhere and blatantly ignore the rules type. Anyway, one of the icy males took my order and all I felt was irritation and attitude when he said, “just so you know, we don’t allow dogs inside.” Alright, cool man, totally get it and worked in customer service before, so I know it’s annoying when people think they can do whatever they want, BUT I asked the female, I didn’t see the sign on the outside until I left, and frankly, I was a zombie before coffee, so give me a break! It’s not the policy that bothers me—I completely understand and respect that, but the customer service was awful. I won’t be back, but I hope the male baristas can learn to at least crack a smile and say hello when customers walk...

The coffee is really good, which tracks. It’s strong and flavorful, rich and smooth. It’s really expensive though, too expensive for a daily coffee, ($5 for a drip coffee after tip), so I only go rarely. The baristas are friendly which is really nice, but the espresso drinks can be slow, and they are often chatting and moving slowly even with a line. I walk by here on the way to work and if it were reliably faster and more affordable I’d go more often for sure. In terms of atmosphere it’s clean and has nice light pouring in - they could add the sound absorbing pads that a lot of restaurants have on their ceilings to reduce clatter and background noise - the tile walls and hard surfaces make it unduly loud....

I’m giving five stars for the service alone!

I’d ordered a cappuccino and was mistakenly charged for an extra drink. But I stupidly didn’t realize this till much later when I received the email invoice and saw the details. I replied to the email and left a comment, not expecting a reply since it’s system generated. In less than an hour, someone had personally responded and promptly gave me a refund to my card. I was amazed at the speed of service recovery and quality of customer service.

Oh also, the coffee was good, the barista was friendly, and it’s a beautiful space. I was there on a warm day and the staff had left the front door open for ventilation, which I really appreciated. 10/10...