Stumptown Coffee Roasters — Restaurant in Portland

At first glance, this Stumptown epitomizes a business district cafe; limited seating, gallery-style white walls, and little room to queue up (so, get your drink order ready as you walk in, or scoot aside).

When I bring folks in, I really appreciate that they default to oat milk and don't charge extra for dairy or non-dairy; baristas here have always been pleasantly unjudgemental about my choices. In the front there's bags of bulk coffee and specialty brewing equipment for sale, in the back there's fresh flowers and a soundtrack of melodic punk and metal. The banana bread is amazing, if you get in early enough to get a slice.

But the best thing about this cafe is the staff; a close-knit crew of smart, community-engaged, music-and-tattoo-savvy baristas who seem to genuinely get along with one another and who pull consistently-excellent espresso; equally adept at making regulars feel right at home (and two-time visitors feel like regulars) and at keeping it businesslike when you get your order and go. For those who complain about local brands selling out, this little sliver of a cafe feels refreshingly like all the good parts of how we remember Portland of decades past. Thanks for keepin it...

Since, apparently, I no longer have anonymity on Google reviews--I will be nice and forget about letting the world know how good looking I find which barista and etceteria. Albeit that detail, this handsome crew, full of dapperness--full on life; I beg to differentiate, that my connection is not as shallow as I jest. This is a neighborhood coffee bar, a gem among other Stumptowns. I would conjecture that's its the homiest of all. Sitting on the corner people walk up from there homes grab a cup and do what their day entails. The way it was meant to be. Nothing like the touristy or Ace hotel Stumps or the downtown location, where people in ties only arriving because its close to their corporate job they may hold for several years then move on. No, Belmont conforms and serves a constituent that is repetitive of its originally basin of coffee drinkers, unchanged and by some means untainted. I have lived or worked on Belmont since high school about 2002 and yeah, I still come in for the lattes. I hope this place changes little through the years and the rest of Stumptown changes and grows because it can still listen and tune...

The coffee at Stumptown is great, and the space itself has a nice vibe, warm, chill, and inviting. Unfortunately, the experience was let down by the service.

This was my second visit to this location, and both times the barista came across as quite unfriendly. I completely understand that not everyone has to be overly cheerful all the time, we all have off days, but there’s a basic level of courtesy that makes a difference, especially in a city like Portland where the coffee scene is not only about quality but also about community and connection.

I love that the space doubles as a gallery, it’s such a nice touch and adds something a bit different.

I even overheard another customer commenting on the same thing as they left, so it seems I wasn’t alone in feeling this way.

There’s so much great coffee in Portland paired with warm, welcoming service, for that reason, I probably wouldn’t return to this...