Fresh Pot

When it Portland I often find myself with time to kill on Hawthorne, so the Fresh Pot is always a stop for me. Tasty mochas and there’s usually seating available near a plug to re-​up your phone or get some work done. Of course, Powell’s is an added bonus. It may take a few minutes for your drink, but the baristas’ attention to detail is well worth it.

It gets crowded here but it’s convenient because it’s a attached to Powell’s. There were many open tables today and and the manager kept glaring at me over his espresso machine eventually asking when I was going to buy something. When I said I wasn’t ready and would be shortly I overheard him making remarks to his coworker about how «this is not a park people can just hang out in». I bought some tea after letting the other guy know rude I find his boss and then he felt the need to explain to me how a business works. If I wasn’t in a sling and trying to get a bunch of work done, I would have just left. I definitely won’t be back. Ownership should really rethink management.

Good service | Good location
$
Can’t say that I actually had one of their drinks (yet), but we ended up getting a bag of Stumptown coffee beans from them. Nice little cozy coffee place right next door to Powell’s Books. Quick, friendly service. It’s a popular place so if you don’t find any seats to sit down and enjoy your coffee, take it with you and walk around the bookstore :)

What does a person who does not drink coffee have any business being in a coffee shop? Well, to be honest Fresh Pot is attached to Powell’s Books, so that is a good start. But, even though I do not partake in the beverage that makes 99.9995% of Portland function in the mornings, there are still items one can get and in my case that happens to be hot chocolate.
Most coffee shops tend to have hot chocolate on their menu, but several phone it in while others like Stumptown use Woodblock and New Seasons uses Holy Kakow, Jim & Patty’s does a mean Mexican hot chocolate and Starbucks (even though most think of it as evil) does a white hot chocolate that I have never seen at any other place at all. So, I’ve made my rounds.
Fresh Pot, as said above, is part of Powell’s and I had time to kill before work. The barista asked for my level of chocolate on a 1 – 10 scale. Funny. So I replied that my level would be CHOCOLATE. For only $ 3. It was as good as advertised (if it were advertised). The hot chocolate was killer. It was up there with some of the good ones and reasonably priced. I didn’t catch what sort of chocolate was used but it’s rich.
If you are a hot chocolate type of individual than Fresh Pot is place you will deem appropriate to get your daily dose of Vitamin CHOCOLATE.
Enjoy.

Excellent coffee, friendly baristas, good music selections, and a great bookstore attached– this is a surprisingly great neighborhood caffeinery.

Great place to stop by in the winter season.
The sever was nice and also makes a very good coffee. I got mocha and the art made by him was very cute.
He made my mocha was strong than other places making mocha but it has its own special flavor.
It is inside Powell book store so great place to have coffee.
Books+ coffee, RAWRRRR

Great coffee, great people working behind the bar. One of my favorite places in Portland.

Fast and friendly service. Small Americano and a GF muffin for 5.25, pretty good pricing. Fast wifi and a few window seats. I would say seating is the only issue, I think there was maybe 7, or 8 tables, so it fills up fast sharing space with Powells. It’s a quick walk from my place, and I will definitely come back.

This is my first time at Fresh Pot and it may well be my last. There is a blackboard sign above the counter that says «Welcome to Fresh Pot.» Is that just more of that Portland hipster irony?
It’s 1:59 pm PST on Sunday, May 10, 2015, and the woman working here (the only woman working here at this time) just tried to give me the bum’s rush after I literally just sat down. Not only that, but when I tried to give customer feedback about it, she got defensive and tried to argue with me about it.
I have been on this planet 51 years and in all that time NO ONE working in any kind of dining establishment has ever tried to rush me off. Especially after having just arrived.
I noticed that she did it in response to some white guy prompting her to do it. You know, lady, this is Portland in 2015. Just because some entitled white man wants you to do something, doesn’t mean you should do it. You should be smashing the patriarchy, not upholding it.
She claims she did the same thing to 3 other tables. I wouldn’t know; I was busy trying to meditate before making a very difficult life decision. But that was rudely interrupted. That’s right, lady, you *were* rude. This isn’t Lutece; this is a coffee shop. Who designated you the customer spending quota nazi? This kind of treatment of customers is incredibly stupid. It’s not conducive to customer enjoyment, digestion, or *likelihood of return business,* and therefore it’s not good for Fresh Pot’s bottom line.
If you are more likely to create a hostile environment than a welcoming one in a food service establishment, then maybe you should rethink your career choice.

Some time ago, I gave this place something of a bad review. Mainly because they had one employee that in five trips got my order wrong four times, and never once greeted me. Well they did the right thing and fired the jerk, so now this place rules! Good coffee, easily on a par with Peat’s better than Starbucks, for sure.

Perhaps the best Americanos in Portland. I know that’s saying a lot. I did put a ‘perhaps’ on there just in case. However I really don’t think I need it; I’m just adding it so you don’t think I’m being flippant here.
My criteria: excellence in shot pulling, willingness to kill a shot, and consistency. I’ve been going for 10 years (10? Really?! Damn I’m old…) and I can count on one hand the times a less-​than-​stellar shot made it into my cup. In the immortal words of Miley Cyrus, «That’s pretty cool».

I come here every now and then, mostly because of Powell’s.
Sometimes the staff will decorate your beverage in a way that makes smile.
I ordered a medium/​12 oz cup of hot chocolate for $ 3.00
Having worked in the food service industry, I tip a-​buck-​drink.
Total: $ 8.00 for two hot chocolates. REALLY?
Even without a tip – REALLY?
Regardless, espresso drinks are good here, menu is small, and there are some pastries.
Seating is limited and crammed.
The place is appropriate for a short stop (if you must – en route to something else when you don’t have time to wander other cafes nearby.
On a Sunday night, the noise is pretty average. But most of the time, it’s «buzzy» and lots of distractions and foot traffic.

I regularly haunt this café, thanks to the great music, perfect single origin americanos, and comfortable seating. The proximity to Powell’s means you can get inspired, and then ride a caffeine buzz while typing away. However, this place has never been good at noticing what makes it special, and what made it special for the longest time was a barista named Bethany. She was the queen of customer service, and took the time to learn the names of regular customers, and would ask questions about what we were doing. Some dreary winter evenings I’d really look forward to going there, because her upbeat attitude would just cheer me up. With Bethany gone, the customer service is on par with every other café in the southeast: detached, disinterested, depressed. Hipster, hollow, superficial. Bummer. They had something, if only for a second.
Edit: the customer service has improved, but the new hires cannot pull shots. Head up the street to Albina if you’re looking for quality espresso.

It’s just a little café inside the Powell’s Hawthorne bookstore. Few seats. Pretty dark in there if you are not close to the outside window.
They serve Stumptown coffee.
Service is very cold, as pointed out by other Unilocalers.

Stumptown? More like GrumpTown if you ask me.
Mr. Dark-​Hair-​in-​a-​Ponytail Hipster Barista is consistently cold, unfriendly and curt and for Portland, that’s really saying something. While Pete’s across the street might be an eeeeeeeeeevil corporate chain, at least the employees are always friendly. I want to hang out at this Fresh Pot but every time I go, I get the distinct feeling that I am not welcome. So I go to Pete’s instead.
The coffee is just ok. I’m not a coffee snob so I’m not qualified to judge. But I’ve had better coffee elsewhere. It’s pretty pricey too.

This was literally the best coffee I have ever had. I just got a plain coffee and my boyfriend got a hot Chai. His cup was massive and almost overflowing but they had the perfect about not to spill over the edge; it was beautiful. The Chai smelt so good, but I didn’t try it. My coffee was just their regular coffee with half and half with one packet of natural sugar; it probably didn’t even need that much because it was so flavorful.
We had also gotten two gluten free cakes. I got the blueberry lemon cake with frosting, while my partner got a lemon poppy seed cake. Both where so moist and delicious that I wanted to get another. The texture wasn’t grainy at all and the frosting was a very nice touch. There wasn’t too much to over power the whole cake. The lemon poppy seed didn’t have any frosting, but was just as moist as the blueberry. Like I said, I wanted more!
The only thing I didn’t like is the fact that you have to go threw another store to get to it. You can’t just walk in from the street. The entrance is in the bookstore next door, which is nice for people that love books. For me it was just a little awkward to walk into a different store to just go get coffee.

I was looking for a caffeine fix while I was on Hawthorne with some friends, and Fresh Pot popped up on my search. Great choice! Genuinely friendly staff, and Stumptown Coffee is always a win in my book.
Since it’s connected to Powell’s, it had a pretty quiet scene — everybody was either reading or on their computers. In other words, great place to read or study, not a great place to carry on a conversation like I was trying to do. Sorry neighbors!
Actually, in regards to studying, the place is more dim than I would like, so I probably wouldn’t try to read for too long here, but laptop stuff would be great!

There aren’t a lot of coffee shops nearby that are open past 9pm, but Fresh Pot happens to be connected with Powell’s (in fact, you can usually only enter through the bookstore and not separately) and thus is my saving grace when I need some caffeination and wifi later in the night.
The baristas are friendly and the coffee is consistently good — although the background music can be hit or miss (occasionally it’s been slightly grating) — so count me as a fan!

We were early for an appointment and needed a place to kill time and get something for breakfast. Unilocal pointed us to Fresh Pot.
It did give us a place to hang out. It is a kind of minimalist spot with maximum signage scolding you for one thing or another. We were there before the book store opened so the stern not telling you to enter through the bookstore didn’t apply. So many signs!
It is a scruffy place with fairly slow service but it got the job done, caffeine delivered. And a tasty muffin.

Pretty cool place. Basically Starbucks but more pretentious (in a good way!) and a little more expensive. Granted, their coffee does tastes like they care more than Starbucks and they also have more non-​dairy options than just soy which is nice. They also have gluten free baked goods which was awesome! The gluten free coffee cake was very delicious.
The place was a big grungy but that’s Portland for you… check out their bathroom while you’re there! It’s covered in drawings and quotes– I happened to have a sharpie in my bag and added a few things myself :)