The Porch Coffee Space — Restaurant in Portland

I genuinely want to love this gem of a coffee shop. But the “pay what you want” system is confusing and feels disingenuous.

I typically pay the market rate + 18-20% tip for the baristas. Once, during one of my first times here, I summed the 20% tip into the price of the coffees, because I wasn’t familiar with the payment pad that they use. Then it brought me to the tipping screen, so I selected 0% tip since I already summed it into the total.

Yesterday, I finally remembered to bring my own cups, so I paid 20% less than the market price, because I’ve seen other coffee shops offer discounts for bringing in cups. I didn’t include a tip, not because I don’t think service workers don’t deserve it, but because I don’t really understand the whole volunteer thing/how this coffee shop splits tips with their baristas.

When I got my coffee, I found a pen15 drawn in the latte art. I thought it was hilarious until I wondered if it was passive aggression for me not leaving a tip.

If tipping is expected, why not state that more clearly? Why bother with this “pay what you want but actually we want you to pay market...

This is a true gem in the neighborhood. It’s not on a busy street, it’s not a flashy shop, it knows how good it is so it stays under the radar. Coffee is OnPoint and I personally drink just drips and espressos. If you mess these two up then you shouldn’t be in the business but The Porch delivers. It also delivers on atmosphere; Cozy, roomy and nice tables to work on but the best part is the porch, hence the name. The place looks like a house and it has a porch of its outside seating. Rain or shine you can just sit there and enjoy your cup. Highly recommend and I hope more and more people get to enjoy this place, thanks to the...

Lovely space, great tunes, and a very welcoming staff. Clearly this little neighborhood coffee shop is special and trying to do something different isn’t he the coffee space here in town.

Reminds me a classic Portland “hangout all day” coffee shop where you bump into all of your coffee shop friends as they roll into the shop throughout the day.

Things to note: Non-profit coffee shop with a self service payment system, staff was very helpful at guiding me through the first time, since then, it’s super easy.

Plenty of...