World Cup Coffee & Tea

Not friendly, too many hipsters and college kids taking the seats for hours. Stopped going 4 yrs ago.

Feel free to visit this place if you want to be discriminated against by a white male staff person. My partner and I stopped in the café to take a break from the crowd inside Powell’s (what an amazing shop!). Daetan, my partner, was trying to connect his tablet to the internet before getting another coffee (we had already gotten two cups from this location earlier in the day). I was exhausted from working late the day before, and then biking around Portland all morning, so I put my head down on the table at which we were seated for a brief moment. Shortly after, a staff member came over and told me that I «must maintain the appearance of wakefulness.» Excuse me? Since when is it illegal for me to lie my head in my arms in public? We had been sitting in the shop for about 5 minutes when this occurred.
I am a licensed social worker, and the only other time I’ve seen this happen is when my clients, who are homeless, fall asleep in public spaces because they have no where else to go and are exhausted from trying to find safe spaces to just exist. Now I know exactly how they feel when they come to me in crisis because of dealing with shit like this all day, every day. For being made to feel like they aren’t worthy of occupying space, like more privileged people around them. Needless to say, I will never patronize any branch of this café again.

Exploring Portland by Coffee: Day 5 (9÷17÷14)
You don’t go to World Cup in Powell’s for the coffee. That’s for sure. You go to meet someone or read a book that you wish you had the money to purchase at Powell’s.
I went to World Cup for exactly the aforementioned reasons. However, as far as the coffee was concerned (the primary reason for this sort of review), I was highly underwhelmed. The coffee tasted over extracted and overly nutty/​cardboard-​y.
Additionally, the seating is in a cloistered part of Powell’s, which I understand to contain food and drink within the store, but the seating is uncomfortable, and the long tables are hefty and are conducive to neither conversation nor solitary studying or reading. Also, with large windows but no means of egress, you sort of feel trapped in a large fishbowl.
On the upside the baristas are very nice and they have a punch card if you’re interested in being a regular there.
All in all, however, I was just very unimpressed.

I have been here from time to time and always have liked their coffee and eats! I didn’t realize until today that they had a GREAT Chinook Book coupon for a buy 1 get 1 free pound of coffee. Perfect timing for I’m running out! The lady there today was friendly and nice, not hurrying me, and was just great. They ground my coffee too. It was a deal! Right in Powell’s too, which was/​is very convenient. I highly recommend stopping by if you are at Powells!

Really good espresso drinks any they allow you to select 2,3 or 4 shots for 16 ounce at no additional charge (Love This!). A very nice selection of pastries and almost always have tables available. Yep, I’m a fan.

Reading is cool. Coffee is hot.
Their book policy is super generous & lenient. If you were so inclined you could sit here all day drinking coffee and treating Powell’s as a giant lending library. Or get a window seat and watch the zoo animal hooligans outside on Burnside. Good coffee, down to earth baristas, and kickass pastries. Also they’re open late and have punch cards that you can use at 18^th & glisan.
Lots of people on laptops here, no duh, but I’d say the number of book-​readers is much higher than other coffee shops, which gives it a sweet intellectual vibe.

It was cold out and we just had dinner. His mom mentioned she’d like to stop by Starbucks or something to get a hot chocolate but as we decided to split at the bookstore, I figure, why not try a hot chocolate at a local joint rather than a corporate giant? So I took the liberty to get her a medium sized hot chocolate and a small soy milk for my monster.
The pastry case looks like a joke to me and this is coming from someone that just failed her «no sweets» challenge yesterday (I lasted one full day) by having and enjoying her Christmas tree sugar cookie — on a stick! I don’t care what you all are thinking. I love sugar cookies especially the overly sweet frosting! I then confessed to Victoria C. and Cristal C. I feel like a failure for a split second but I technically earned that because I hit the gym every single goddamn day; rain or shine, ill or not!
Anyway. I adore the setting because the tables and the people made me yearn to own an iPad and to sit there whilst sipping my quad espresso over ice and eating a chocolate chip cookie and/​or a brownie… blogging and Unilocaling away.

Every time I visit World Cup I always seem to be «served» by the same barista who seems meek and afraid, doesn’t ennunciate, address you directly or loudly enough when speaking to you (I got coffee with my mom who is a visitor to Portland and also hearing impaired; if she didn’t have me with her she would have had difficulty and frustration with her visit)
It seems in this economy, you can afford to do your job well. I know Powell’s recieved a lot of flack for letting go a bunch of employees this past year but maybe they should let some more go?

The warm stagnant air and hours spent walking around browsing always make me think I need coffee. I’ve always regretted it. The baristas make me feel like shit. An empty tip jar is a huge red flag. I’m really not hard to impress on the service front. I was in food service for five years, a barista for four. I know all about the undesirable situations you go through in this line of work. But, seriously. Four hipsters to do what should be at max a two person gig and all of them still pathetically failing?! No acknowledgement while waiting for one of them to pull away from their inside conversation which is non-​stop. Sure, the coffee was good enough; but it took so long to get two small lattes I thought they were harvesting and roasting the coffee, milking the cow and pasteurizing the milk, and generating the electricity for the machine by hand crank… Obnoxious!

The best mochas in town and free Wifi! Great combo.

This is my 3^rd time here today. Today! It must be love.
You may see a line, but it goes quickly. I just went through three shifts of baristas and they all have a sense of humor and are not snotty at all.
You might have to wait a bit before you can snag a table, especially if you have a group or something but its a wicked cool place to grab a cup of Joe and get your read on.

I’m pretty sure there are reviews on this place, but it’s probably attached to the Powell’s reviews. So, yeah, I’ll take the honors of being the first reviewer. Oh yeah! *Doing the cabbage patch*
This is a nice coffee shop with a communal feel. There are a few long bench tables that seem to encourage sitting a little closer to strangers. I’m not used to that, since I hate people, but it’s kinda nice.
I ordered the almond croissant it was so bomb diggity. I’d fly back to World Cup just to get me another. It was slightly sweet and kind of cakey on the inside.
As my bf and I were having coffee and mini breakfast, I declared that I love Portland and want to move there. Again, it just felt so cozy and made me realize we Californians are so insane and rude and plain obnoxious. Or maybe I’m speaking for myself.
Anyway, if you’re in Powell’s, definitely get a good book, coffee and an almond croissant. And get to know your «neighbor.»

A coffee shop in the the mecca of the literary world? A coffee shop where you can read your potential purchases before you decide what to buy? Score!

I had the worst skim-​latte at World Cup in Powell’s. I was so looking forward after everything I heard but the drink (though aesthetically pleasing) had little flavor and tasted a watered down and a bit like day old coffee.
Good for a photo op and not much else.

I love this place, mostly because it is an appendage of powells. I love picking out a few books and looking through them over a cup of tea. The tables were probably throwaways from my middle school library, but I never notice this when my face is buried in a book. The atmosphere is fine for reading. Even though the café is dangerously close to Portland’s posh epicenter, it is not pretentious or loud or poshlosty; just a nice place to read and have something to drink. World Cup also has giant ceiling to floor windows that let you look out on to burnside and 11^th, watching the streetcar circle while the rest of Portland walks by. thumbs up.

i was lost in a sea of books, struggling to remember my own name and fighting off some seriously low blood sugar.
Then you came along with your beautiful and flavorful vanilla latte and scooped me up.
No. I don’t want to try something that you’ve been concocting on your break-​time, Mr. Barista Man. I just want that yummy hit of vanilla and espresso and milkiness.
Yeah make it all pretty for me with the fancy swirls and patterns. I don’t care. I mean ultimately it’s cool, but let me be honest with you… i’m about to inhale that shiz.
Bravo. Belissimo. Uh huh. That’s what i’m talkin bout.
Thank you World Cup. You complete me.

OH… I don’t know… it’s depressing. Maybe it’s the lighting in there. There are always lots of sad-​looking people gazing out the window wistfully at what, I don’t know. Lots of chaos with newspapers and books everywhere, super old tables and chairs and the area behind the counter where the food lives is sketchy at best. I feel as if I am going to get a contact-​depressive-​disorder if I go in there. It just needs some order and better furniture. The coffee’s good.
UPDATE: a remodel of this World Cup coffee /​reading area is in the works soon, with more comfort and better lighting… stay tuned!