It's my goal to finish it within less than one year since we went on vacation, ha ha. So, starting today, the return of these posts, featuring Day 5...
Above is the every changing bike sculpture called "Zoobomb". It was within walking distance of of apartment suite and on the way to Old Town China Town where our first stop would be, a hybrid coffee shop/sneaker/sports hangout.
We passed by the famous Powell's City of Books (so large it takes up one whole city block). We'd been there many times before in previous trips)...
I enjoyed seeing this on a window, this flyer of old school r&b groups Zapp plus the Dazz Band!
See the date? Yeah, it's now March 2019.
This place, Ground Kontrol (check out my previous post from our Spring 2012 trip here), is close to Deadstock Coffee, our destination. We'd been here too but it wasn't open this early in the morning. By the way, it was pretty much drizzling the whole damn time we were walking here...
So here it is, Deadstock Coffee. I was hoping we would see the owner (featured in the linked articles and videos at the end of this post). Instead, it was a pair of cool young twin brothers (aka the twinterns, Connor and Chandler Radonich - all of this info, mind you, researched after our visit).
Love their signage!
The shop has a lot of sports memorabilia (posters and mugs like this one of Magic Johnson) as well as a sneaker exhibit on the walls.
There is no "set" or "written" menu. This allows the customer(s) to converse with whomever is working the counter. They also customize drinks as well, which I liked that aspect. What I really wanted was a sneaker stencil on my drink, ha ha. But seriously, yes.
Deconstructed. The owner Ian used to be a shoe designer for Beaverton based company, Nike.
Shoes, shoes and more shoes. Not for sale either.
One of the twinterns making our drinks. We each had a latte. Bert's was a mocha, mine was vanilla and TC's was chai.
Not one sneaker stencil, but three! And they were all different too. They are based on actual shoe designs.
(that's an Iverson mug)
Our latte trio:
LOVE THIS WALL!
Our leftover drink was in there. We still had the museum to hit up after this...
Here is a short video about Deadstock and their concept:
plus a more recent video for your viewing pleasure:
Our drinks were pretty good. We had a nice time hanging out near the back wall. The twins were very nice and chatty. They are both artistic and designed much of their merchandise and every Christmas, they design and paint the hip hop window designs (one year had a version of Peanuts, but every character was black and a hip hop musician). One of them asked if we were from the "Bay Area" which I thought was trippy; I had to tell him we were from SoCal. At least he didn't assume we were foreign, ha ha. The guys there were super nice and the vibe is very relaxed in here. So glad we visited. It was one of the more unique coffee spots we visited. The coffee may not have been "artisanal" but at least they were not pretentious and aloof like at some places.
Articles (oldest to recent):
"Portland's Deadstock Coffee combines caffeine and kicks" Oregon Live, Feb 2016
"Inspired by sneaker culture, Deadstock Coffee finds footing in Portland" Daily Coffee News, March 1, 2016
"Where coffee community meets sneaker culture: Deadstock Coffee" TownSquared, Feb 8, 2017
+ a mention in "Crissle West doesn't hate Portland" featuring the author's itinerary where she visits Portland's businesses owned by people of color which includes Deadstock Coffee, Travel Portland, Dec 26, 2018
Deadstock Coffee
408 NW Couch St. (this is pronounced "KOOTCH" not "COWCH") OMG "cooch"!
Portland, OR 97209
(971) 220-8727
www.deadstockcoffe.com / fb page + reviews from that four lettered site, foursquare
The Portland Art Museum had an exhibit we'd been wanting to see featuring the stop motion movie company, Laika. TC was pretty excited, and so was I to be honest!
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