Alder St · PortlandOpen today till six

Coffee house & roastery · since 2009
✦
The counter at a quarter past seven, the brass machine steaming and the first batch out of the roaster
No. 1 · Honey oat cortado$4.50
Plate I. The counter at a quarter past seven, first batch out of the roaster.
The honey oat cortado in a small glass on a white saucer

No. 1 · The house cup

Honey oat cortado

A double shot cut with toasted oat milk and a thread of raw wildflower honey. The house cup, and the one most regulars never get past.

The counter

Everything to order. Single origins on the chalkboard; ask what came off the roaster this week.

Espresso

House blend or the single origin on the board
  • Espresso3.00Two ounces, thick crema
  • Cortado4.00Equal parts shot and steamed milk
  • Flat white4.50Silky microfoam, no dry top
  • Cappuccino4.50
  • Oak mocha5.25Single-origin cocoa, house ganache

Filter & brew

Single origins rotate weekly
  • Hearth pour-over5.00Poured by hand, to order
  • French press4.50For two, unhurried
  • Batch brew3.50Bottomless before noon
  • Barrel-aged cold brew5.25Eighteen hours, rested in charred oak

The other menu

  • Golden milk5.00Turmeric, ginger, black pepper
  • Hojicha latte5.00Roasted green tea, toasty
  • Drinking chocolate4.50
  • Loose-leaf teas4.00Ask about the tin of the week

From the kitchen

Baked in the back each morning
  • Sourdough & cultured butter6.00
  • Morning bun4.50Orange, cardamom, sugar crust
  • Seasonal galette6.50Whatever the market gave us
  • Granola, yogurt & honey7.00

oat milk in anything, just say — T.

Roasted this week

Twelve kilos at a time, by ear. The farm printed on every bag.

  1. No. 041Huila, ColombiaWashed · 1,750 mCola, red apple, panela
  2. No. 040Sidama, EthiopiaNatural · 2,100 mBlueberry, bergamot, black tea
  3. No. 039Nyeri, KenyaWashed · 1,800 mBlackcurrant, grapefruit
  4. No. 038Cajamarca, PeruWashed · 1,900 mMilk chocolate, plum
  5. No. 037Minas Gerais, BrazilPulped natural · 1,150 mHazelnut, brown sugar
Bags on the shelf by the registerSubscription every second Friday

The room

Fifteen years of getting better at being a room. Most of it arrived secondhand, and stayed.

The front room in morning sun
The front room
A portafilter on a linen cloth at the counter
The counter
The round table by the window with a French press
The table by the window
Green beans going into the drum roaster
The roaster, rebuilt 2014

2009A secondhand Probat, a corner shop with good light, and a stubborn idea: coffee tastes better when nobody is rushing.

2011The fluorescents came out. The oak shelving came in from a closed library in Sellwood, and the books came with it.

2014The drum roaster. Cast iron, 1950s, twelve kilos a batch, rebuilt over one winter by a man named Gus.

2019The kitchen opened. Sourdough, a morning bun, and a galette that changes with the market.

2024Fifteen years. Same corner, same roaster, a few more chairs.

— Mara & Tomas, who still open on Sundays

Mara and Tomas behind the new counter on opening day, 2009, the shop still half furnished

opening day, 2009

Find us

Green door, quiet end of Alder. Laptops after eleven, dogs whenever there is a chair.

Reservations

None. Walk in.

Address

214 Alder Street
Portland, Oregon

Get directions
Monday to Friday
7:00 – 18:00
Saturday
8:00 – 18:00
Sunday
8:00 – 15:00
Telephone
(503) 555-0142
Post
hello@alderandbrass.coffee
A hand-drawn map of the four blocks around Alder Street, the shop's door marked in green
Plate II. The four blocks around Alder Street. The green door is ours.

drawn by Mara, not to scale

The green door and the shop window, from the pavement on Alder Street
Plate III. The green door, from the pavement.