Know Thy Food Cooperative

I just returned from my first trip to the Warehouse Café & Market and I cannot say enough positive things about this little gem. Located in the charming Brooklyn area, a few blocks off of Powell on Milwaukie Ave, the café shares a wall/​doorway with a colorful and well kept kid’s consignment shop next door – which is fitting because the Warehouse Café is a family friendly place that offers shows and activities for kids every weekday morning! I’m told Tuesday’s at 10 a.m. are especially fun because of a performing duo called Olive and Dingo.
Although it has free wifi, delicious organic baked goods, sandwiches and sides, it isn’t the place for quiet study or work because it is so kid friendly. It is clean, bright, and the small grocery holds a surprising variety of local organic produce and products. They also function as a coop where members order their items online at a steep discount and pick up their stuff on Tuesday and Wednesday each week.
The employees were abundantly helpful and sunny. The manager actually pulled out her iPad and Googled «coconut nectar» after I found a bottle of the stuff and asked how it was made. They were patient and informative and seemed invested in their place of business – something we don’t often see.
The prices are competitive and reasonable – for organic, mostly local and clean food. I compared them to People’s Coop and New Seasons and found them to be quite reasonable. I think the folks who complained about the cost are used to shopping at Safeway or Fred Myer and don’t understand the extra cost for organic, pesticide-​free foods & pasture raised and grass-​fed meat-​what can I say… it’s a choice. The café also stocks plenty of clean, nutritious snacks and drinks for kids. It is actually a great place for parents to spend time with each other, perhaps over coffee and a fresh galette, and not have to worry about the kids making noise or being bored. And for a bonus, on your way out you can stop in the shop next door and find whatever you need in their beautiful selection of quality clothing at bargain basement prices. All-​in-​all a pleasant, clean café serving good, wholesome, reasonably priced food (early bird special: coffee & bagel for 3 bucks!), with a small, but well stocked market (even bulk food!) attached. Boy, I wish they were around when my kids were small, I would have practically lived there :)

This is a great place in my neighborhood that is always friendly and welcoming. Quick service and helpful staff make coming here on the way to work a great start to my day. The PNW on the menu is delicious! Definitely worth checking out!

Convenient place with a variety of organic foods and snacks. Service is aloof and poorly trained. Don’t need Starbucks obsequiousness, but I also think staff should take responsibility for a mistake they make on a charge by apologizing, which didn’t happen here. In fact, she behaved as though I were to blame for pointing out the error.

The coffee here is great and the veggie sandwich is spectacular. Service isn’t overly speedy but there is plenty to look at in the market while you wait.
The kids area in the back is awesome– best place to take your kiddos for entertainment while you get a yummy treat too. Look up the schedule online to see who they have lined up.

I love this place!
I often find myself driving out of my way to come here for a mocha or a sandwich. Luckily for me, I work just next door, so I am often close enough to walk. The food is all delicious and I feel good knowing that a lot of thought and care has gone in to selecting the ingredients and the farmers/​vendors/​distributors that sell them. What you put in your mouth is of extreme importance. I am always super happy to support businesses that share my ethics.
And if you’re here, pop next door to Hazel & Pear and say ‘Hello!’.

Great little place. The market is convenient when you need a thing or two. But the coffee is good, as are the café lunch items. The smoothies are exceptional, I think I’ve tried every kind.
The service is really hit or miss. I had someone spend a lot of time helping me with a dietary need, and more recently, I had someone spend 15 minutes making my coffee.
But warehouse also has a great sitting area with a toy area for kids! Nice touch. Overall, much better than the average coffee house.

This place has really got location going for it or rather the area around it doesn’t have all that much competition since there isn’t really a grocery store within the Brooklyn area. The food for sale inside is of good quality, but high price. It’s kind of cool that there are a lot of-​the-​wall items such as the pirate bread instead of Dave’s Killer Bread, but all that comes with a price. Overall, this place is a higher-​than-​normal quality convenience store.

1. They are the only café in town that I know of that uses organic milk in their coffee drinks
2. They are hands-​down the best source for a variety of healthy beef jerky
3. They have a fantastic area for kids to hang out in and a separate area for people who want to sit far away from kids.
The market has an interesting history. It was started with a kick-​starter campaign that was mostly funded by the neighbors who wanted it. It’s run by a tenacious mom of 5 who is uncompromising in her commitment to offering the very best, mostly locally produced foods, including meat. A buying club is run out of the same space. If you like the market items and you have a few people in your family or a bunch of health-​oriented roommates you would benefit from joining the buying club for the discount.

This is a pretty neat little neighborhood grocery store and café. It’s all organic and pretty gourmet and the taste of everything is wonderful. The reason I’m only giving it 4 stars though, is because one, the prices are really high. I know the quality of things there are amazing, but at the same time for such a little, and not super fancy neighborhood like Brooklyn is, I think it’s a bit out of place. Two, a few of the people there are kind of rude and pretentious. I hate that. I go there when I absolutely need an ingredient for something I’m cooking, if Bobs doesn’t have it, but that’s really the only time.

Super Awesome. Ridiculously tasty sandwich with a gluten free bread that rocks. Good service, chill vibe, only complaint is they’re so freakin’ far from my house in NE! :) Great place to stop for a bite on the way to a walk through Oaks Bottom — yum yum yum!

This place is awesome. The atmosphere is relaxing, the staff are really nice, the food is delicious (if a tad out of my usual budget, but only because I’m a broke college student, and keeping a local business afloat is not cheap) and the coffee is heavenly! I don’t know what a couple people on these reviews are talking about, it’s not expensive at all. I pay $ 2.50 for a large Americano and they use double shots. That’s cheaper than Starbucks and a thousand times tastier.
P. s. To the lady who flipped out about the surcharge for credit card purchases over five dollars: credit card companies charge insane amounts per transaction, and it probably costs them more than they’re charging you extra. This is a very common practice for small businesses. The fact that you tried to pull two tiny transactions in one visit is downright inconsiderate and rude, and even more so considering that they were trying to help you out in the first place and got a nasty review for their troubles. If you were my customer, I’d be just fine with you taking your business elsewhere.

I am always looking for cool and new things to do with my daughter. This was a hidden jewel in the community. First they have great sustainable food. and its like a little trader Joes market inside. Great local jams and honey. We stopped in for the weekly kid show where they can sing and dance. it was a jazzy, blues song and dance which we loved. The show was called telluas Dad. he’s super cool check it out if you have little ones

Warehouse Café has seen such an improvement in the past few months! It is in my neighborhood, so I frequent this wonderful business to get my daily dose of caffeine. The newest seating area is bright and well-​lit by big, happy windows facing the street and offer comfortable table space for studying. There is ample seating away from the black-​hole of the children’s play-​area in the back of the building where families gather. This a a family-​friendly establishment, and they have really found a way to create a great balance for us folk who love Know Thy Food, but don’t necessarily want to get attacked by balloon animals and ukuleles whilst checking our email. I’m excited to see what they have planned next! Great job, KTF!

We will so be back to this place! We stopped in for lunch to check the place out and loved it. Everything from the paninis we ordered, to the amazing organic products they carried, to the kombucha ON TAP, to the weird little quirky people that work there, is totally worth the drive for us. I’d really like to go back when they have the kids performers going on. I’m sure it gets crowded since the place is a bit small but who cares! And a plus for us is that it’s connected to Daisies and Dino’s kids consignment shop:)

I gave this place a shot, because free wifi is every college student and young professional’s big draw. But after my experience I will not be going back.
If you have a child, or have empty nest or craving ovaries syndrome, this is the place for you. Organic food, burnt coffee, and an out of tune banjo to entertain children is here. Do not expect to have any time to study or socalize and do not expect comfy seats and practical height tables for reading or internet surfing. The food looked okay, a bit spendy for simple but organic foods. This place was also a food co-​op or something as many people (and their six children) came in and got boxes of what appeared to be in season foods.

Very friendly service, wonderful atmosphere for parents and kids, good food, (and so-​so coffee at somewhat high prices, hence, the three stars), make Warehouse Café a community-​oriented place that’s perfect for parents and kids alike.
They also bring in speakers who talk about interesting subjects. I’m not a mom. I don’t have kids, and it was a bit distracting for me, but I could see the joy in the audience of mostly moms and kids at being able to talk to adults and know their kids could play openly and easily.
I can see why Warehouse Café is beloved by the community!

Oh, how I wish Warehouse Café were closer to my house! I love that they source so many of their offerings locally and it shows when you taste the freshness. I have been impressed by the warmth and friendliness of the staff, even when they’re slammed. I was surprised to read the review that is personally attacking the owner and her children. Besides being really inappropriate and mean-​spirited, I also don’t feel that the reviewer is accurate. Judging one’s kids from one experience is just not okay. As a mother, I would hope that you can give others the leeway to have bad days.
I love that there is a children’s consignment store in the same building (which came in handy when my daughter spilled an entire smoothie on herself during our last visit) and I’m also very excited about the fresh market that has been added to the space. If Warehouse Café were on the Westside, it would be a regular stop for me and my kiddos. As it is, it’s a treat to visit when we’re in the big city. I have dreams about the bagel and herbed cream cheese they serve. It’s that good.

The Warehouse Café is quickly becoming a regular stop for me and my kiddos. I love small, locally owned businesses offering a service that’s needed.
In Portland there’s a HUGE market for indoor places where kids can play. And where there are kids, there is a requirement for snacks/​drinks for them and coffee for said parent. In comes Warehouse Café with a great solution!
The coffee has been delicious every time. They offer a big train table and other toys for kids to play with. They have a big open space that’s not too distracting for kids to run around in. It’s also connected to Daisies & Dinos, my fave local kids consignment store.

This is my second three-​star review. If a place is just «A-​OK» I usually don’t take the trouble to review it. However, we’ve been meaning to stop by this place for a while. It’s in our neighborhood, and there’s a Chinook Book coupon for it.
The space is kind of weird, but that’s fine. The woman working there was super nice, and really apologetic when our food took forever to come out. My Cobb salad was okay (not bad, nothing exciting), and my partner’s sandwich was pretty tasty. Contrary to what the menu said though, he ended up with a salad and a side of sandwich. Tiny little thing. The whole experience was A-​OK, but we definitely won’t be hurrying back.

Nice place! It’s enormous and would be great and totally accommodating for a group meet-​up. Wide open, staff is friendly as all get-​out, coffee is decent and while I haven’t gotten to have lunch yet… it all sounds great. Very healthy, creative salads and sandwiches, with options for kiddos and allergy-​sensitive folks.
Welcome, welcome, Warehouse… little by little, Brooklyn’s gonna bustle yet again…