Etc — February 2016

There are a lot of books and films in my five picks for February: I've written at length at some of the great food and drink I enjoyed in Washington and Portland, which leaves my cultural consumption to dissect.

1. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
I was a little disappointed by Kate Atkinson's previous book, Life After Life, which prioritised, I felt, style over substance. But A God in Ruins — a companion piece rather than a sequel — really won me over, with its chronicle of the life of would-be poet turned WWII pilot Teddy Todd and his family. The story skips merrily (and sometimes less merrily) back and forth throughout the 20th century, revisiting familiar scenes to add detail, resonance and understanding. Atkinson's writing is so utterly compelling, warm and funny, and flawed though they may be, you can't help but want to spend more time with her characters. Don't worry if you haven't read Life After Life; you can jump right in to A God in Ruins. I also posted a more detailed review on Good Reads.

2. Hail, Caesar!
The Coen brothers' films are so distinctive — and divisive — that you would think that by now most people would know whether the Coens' new releases are for them. I went to see their latest film, Hail, Caesar!, while I was in Portland and I was amazed by how many people left the cinema within the first 20 minutes. Yes, Hail, Caesar! is unstructured and yes, it is bonkers, but it is also hugely entertaining. Josh Brolin stars as a 1950s movie studio fixer, who is having a terrible day. The studio is producing a film of the story of Christ from the point of view of the Romans and his star, the handsome, charismatic Baird Whitlock (played by the handsome, charismatic George Clooney), is kidnapped by a group of communist writers. There are all sorts of other wacky sub-plots and set pieces too: Scarlett Johansson as a fin-wearing femme fatale; a nautical Channing Tatum dance number; Tilda Swinton as competitive, identical-twin reporters; and many more. Set during the same period as Trumbo, Hail, Caesar! is its opposite, but is great fun.

3. Honest Brunch
It's no secret that I am big fan of Honest Burgers but I hadn't had chance to try out their brunch. A few friends and I went to their Peckham location, which opened late last year, on a rainy Saturday. The Peckham restaurant is a lovely space — an airy dining room with the usual industrial accents, a few minutes' walk from Peckham Rye. We arrived at noon and didn't have to wait for a table but it got pretty busy by the time we left. The only problem with going at brunchtime is that there is even more choice! The Honest Burger is consistently in my top three burgers in London, and deviating from it is always tough. In the end, I compromised and ordered the Brunch Burger (£8.50): a beef patty with smoked bacon, Red Leicester, bubble and squeak, ketchup and rosemary-salt fries. It also comes with garlic mushrooms but I asked for mine to be mushroom-less.

And how was it? Well, the Honest Burger still retains its crown, but as a sinful, flavour-packed, brunchtime meat feast in sandwich form, the Brunch Burger is rather good. The brunch menu also includes bacon sandwiches, full Englishes, avo toasts and many other delights. If you can tear yourself away from the burger menu, that is!

4. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker
I spotted Joël Dicker's sprawling, epic novel, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, in Portland's wonderful Powell's bookstore but I didn't have enough room in my suitcase for the 600-page tome. I picked up a copy from my local library on my return, though, and ploughed through it over the course of a weekend. The premise is complicated and, indeed, the novel itself is enshrouded in many different layers of text and subtext. Essentially, though, it is a novel about writers, writing, ambition and love.

The narrator, Marcus Goldman, is a successful novelist quickly loses sympathy as he describes his narcissistic, ruthless crawl to the top. Marcus is writing a book about his former mentor, the titular Harry Quebert — also a successful novelist — who has been implicated in the death of his much-younger lover — a 15-year-old girl — several decades earlier. Marcus wants to clear Harry's name and to uncover what really happened, although these two propositions may not be compatible.

Dicker's novel is clever and self-aware: the chapter numbers count down instead of up, and as Marcus progresses with his own novel, Harry gives him advice on how to write. It's all very meta and, at times, unnecessarily complicated (I don't mind novels being clever, except when the novelist is being clever for the sake of it, rather than to benefit the plot), but Harry Quebert is a compelling read, which reminded me of the likes of David Mitchell and Julian Barnes. I think I'll probably get even more out of it on a second read.

5. Rams
A reader recommended that I check out the much-acclaimed Icelandic film Rams, but my travelling left me with little time to go to the cinema this month. Happily, though, I caught Grímur Hákonarson's film, which won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes, on Curzon Home Cinema. Rams is as understated as Hail, Caesar! is over-complicated, but although often solemn in tone, Hákonarson's film is also very human and is keenly observed, with an offbeat sense of humour. The story centres on Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson), two brothers who have always lived on neighbouring sheep farms in an isolated Icelandic valley but who, stubborn as their prize rams, haven't talked to each other for over four decades. But when a case of scrapie is detected in one of Kiddi's sheep, threatening the livelihoods of the brothers and all of the other farmers in the valley, everything changes, even the brothers' relationship.

Rams is a concise film, clocking in at just over 1h30, and it is beautifully shot and tightly plotted. If you are looking for the antidote to this year's Oscar contenders, this could be it. And it has only strengthened my resolve to schedule a trip to Iceland this year!

My Picks for the 2016 Academy Awards

The UK release dates of most of the films nominated for this year's Academy Awards made for a rather compressed pre-Oscar season. But thanks, in part, to two Odeon Screen Unseens and a few preview screenings and press screeners, I was able to work my way through most of the films nominated for the eight categories I usually consider.

Best Picture: The Revenant [8/8 watched]
Best Director: Tom McCarthy, Spotlight [5/5 watched]
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant [5/5 watched]
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight [4/5 watched]
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Carol [4/5 watched]
Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl [5/5/ watched]
Best Original Screenplay: Inside Out [4/5 watched]
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Martian [5/5 watched]

I liked all of the eight films nominated for Best Picture apart from Mad Max: Fury Road, which was visually impressive but not really my thing. The Martian was easily the most enjoyable film on the list and I was also very impressed by Spotlight and Brooklyn. For me, though, there could be only one winner: The Revenant. By turns, brutal and beautiful, bleak and bold, Alejandro González Iñárritu's film took my breath away and then some. But beneath the slim plot and sparse dialogue lies a powerful story of survival and revenge. Yes, a González Iñárritu film won Best Picture last year too, but The Revenant is a much worthier victor.

For that matter, González Iñárritu deserves his Best Director nomination this year more than last year too. However, I think Tom McCarthy should get the gong for Spotlight, which is, in many ways, a harder sell: there are no gorgeous, sweeping landscapes or primal instincts. What Spotlight does tell is an extremely important story about truth and corruption as several investigative reporters for the Boston Globe uncover a systematic cover-up of child abuse in the Catholic Church. It is often understated and sometimes even funny, but it is always fascinating and utterly compelling. This is no mean feat given how much of the 'action' consists of the reporters going about fairly mundane journalist tasks.

Among the Best Actor nominees, surely Leonardo DiCaprio can be the only victor. You can see how much he earned his nomination in every scene of The Revenant. This might not be DiCaprio's finest ever performance, but he does deserve this Oscar and I'm pretty sure he will get it. The Best Supporting Actor category was harder for me to call: I haven't seen front-runner Sylvester Stallone in Creed and I was torn between very different performances by two different Marks for my pick. In the end, I went for Ruffalo, who shone in Spotlight, but Rylance was also superbly understated in Bridge of Spies. Nor would I be too sad if Tom Hardy won for The Revenant, although I think it's unlikely.

Unless there is a huge upset in the Best Actress category, Brie Larson is very likely to walk away with the Oscar for her widely acclaimed turn in Room. Her performance captures her character's utter loneliness and despair, as well as her joy, seen chiefly in her love for her young son. But it is Cate Blanchett's performance as the titular Carol in Todd Haynes' film who wins my vote: a sophisticated but vulnerable femme fatale. Blanchett is superb, although some of the credit should go to Rooney Mara, who is, oddly, nominated for Best Supporting Actress. She is great in Carol, but my pick in this category is Alicia Vikander, who can seemingly do no wrong. Her character, Gerda, is the real emotional core of The Danish Girl, even if she should really have been nominated for Best Actress; at least this way, she stands a chance at an Oscar, I suppose.

In the writing categories, I would really like for Inside Out and The Martian to win Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively. Inside Out is wonderfully imaginative, clever, funny and touching, while The Martian is pure cinematic entertainment. I suspect that both will lose out, to Spotlight and The Big Short, respectively, especially if the latter two don't pick up any other big awards. Ex Machina, one of my favourite films of 2015, feels like it came out a long time ago, so I'm pleased to see that it still picked up a nod for Best Original Screenplay.

Here are links to all of my reviews for the nominated movies:

The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Carol, The Danish Girl, Inside Out, Joy, The Martian, The Revenant, Room, Spotlight, Steve Jobs and Trumbo.

The Queen of the Night — Book Review

"'Lilliet Berne' was in every way my greatest performance, but almost no one knew this to be true," explains Lilliet Berne, the tragic heroine of Alexander Chee's sweeping epic novel, The Queen of the Night. She grew up in Minnesota and fled to New York after the death of her family, acquiring the name Lilliet Berne from a New York graveyard. She joins a circus as an equestrienne and then arrives in Paris in the latter half of the 19th century, taking on a series of other 'woman of the night' roles: prostitute, courtesan and, eventually, opera star.

By 1882, she is a celebrity — the Kim Kardashian or Lady Gaga of her day, except that beautiful as her singing voice is, she never speaks in public. The final pinnacle of success for Lilliet is to perform an operatic role written specifically for her. "For a singer, this was your only immortality," she says. "All the rest would pass." But when such an opera is written, it contains secrets about Lilliet's scandalous younger years that only four people could know and that threaten to ruin her. As she tries to work out who is responsible, she delves back into her past looking for clues.

Chee's novel is meticulously researched and richly imagined, in terms of both historical detail and its compelling but flawed central character. Set amid a rapidly changing Paris, caught in the middle of the Franco-Prussian War, it transcends the world of opera, politics and espionage. Really, though, The Queen of the Night is concerned with love and especially fate. In its most literal sense, Lilliet talks of an opera singer's Fach — a German word meaning the range and type of roles a singer is fated to play. Lilliet's Fach is as a Falcon or a tragic soprano. "Nothing to fear from a fate that was already yours, then, except, perhaps, that it would never leave you," she says.

Structured itself like an opera, The Queen of the Night borrows heavily from Greek myth; the marks of Orpheus, Icarus and Narcissus are all there. Complex and imaginative, Chee's novel makes for a fascinating read. It is long and slow-burning at times but well worth persevering.

Disclaimer: The Queen of the Night, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is out now. I received a pre-release copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

12 Specialty Coffee Shops To Visit in Portland, Oregon

Portland feels to me like the coffee centre of the universe and it is home to dozens of specialty coffee shops, cafes and roasters. I didn't manage to visit them all during my three-day visit, but I did pretty well, visiting 12 different coffee shops and cafes, including the five I took in on my Third Wave Coffee tour.

I've created a Portland specialty coffee map, which highlights the places I went to, and included brief reviews of them all below. I have grouped them by neighbourhood, but as some have multiple locations around the city, I have geo-categorised the branch I visited; in my map, I have only included locations that are within easy reach of the downtown area. A nice thing to note is that many of these places open as early as 6 am during the week.



Downtown
Stumptown
Perhaps the most iconic of all of the roasters in Portland (AKA Stumptown), Stumptown Coffee's fame extends well beyond the city limits. I've visited several of their New York cafes, but the first step of my Portland coffee education had to be a visit to Stumptown. Luckily, their downtown cafe on SW 3rd Avenue was only four blocks from my hotel, so I was able to stop by a couple of times.

The downtown location is large and attractive, with red-brick walls, lovely art and plenty of room to sit in and enjoy your drink. I've tried their cold brew and nitro cold brew before, and both are great, but this time, I focused on the Chemex options (they also do French press, but no V60 or Aeropress). I tried both the Peruvian and the Rwandan coffees ($4.25) through the Chemex; the former was probably my favourite, but both were expertly brewed and the staff were very friendly and knowledgeable. They even open at 6 am, which saved me from terrible airport coffee before my early flight.

Stumptown Coffee is located at 128 SW 3rd Ave, nr Pine Street. Their HQ and Tasting Bar, which offers public tastings at 3 pm, is on the East Side at 100 Salmon Street. Website. Twitter.

Case Study
I visited Case Study, one of the first third-wave coffee spots in Portland, as part of my Third Wave Coffee tour. Their downtown location is bright and roomy, with lots of stools around the large, central coffee bar and a few small tables at the sides. They serve espresso-based drinks and hand-brewed filter coffee (Chemex, French press and Kalita Wave dripper); I tried all three of the latter, and each was very well prepared, with careful attention paid to bringing out the best of each coffee. Case Study is also famous for their syrups. I don't usually like syrups in my coffee, but we tried one of the most delicious salted-caramel pastries I've ever had.

Case Study is located at 802 SW 10th Ave, at Yamhill St. They have two other locations, much further north and northeast of downtown. Website. Twitter.

Barista
Barista has four cafes in central Portland, each of which is beautifully decorated with a combination of exposed brick and art-deco accents. I walked past the large, bustling Nob Hill location but stopped for coffee at their smaller but just as chic downtown branch, in the historic Hamilton Building. Barista don't roast their own coffee, but showcase a rolling edit of coffee from some of the best US roasters. While I was there, they had coffee from Vancouver-based 49th Parallel and two local roasters, Coava and Roseline.

There was no hand-brewed filter coffee in the downtown branch (although they had cold brew from Seattle-based Kuma), but you could choose from a couple of single-origin espressos. I tried a macchiato with Honduran coffee from Coava, which was prepared wonderfully, with excellent latte art. The downtown branch of Barista is really busy and there isn't a lot of seating, but I picked a quieter, late afternoon time to visit and was able to sit and enjoy my coffee and people-watch.

Barista is located at 529 SW Alder St, near Alder. They also have locations in the Pearl District and Nob Hill. Website. Twitter.

Heart
A while ago, BuzzFeed featured some of my photos of Revolver in Vancouver in a list of coffee shops you wished you lived in. Heart's downtown cafe wasn't included (Portland is noticeable in this guide by its absence), but it is seriously beautiful, with its gorgeous monochrome decor and sexy little espresso machine. Nor was it a case of style over substance: my macchiato ($3.50) was very fine indeed and the busy cafe was great for people-watching. Heart roast their own coffee, but I forgot to check which espresso variety they were serving while I was there; I expect it's difficult to go wrong with your coffee choice. If you are lactose-free, the home-made cashew-almond milk is supposed to be excellent.

Heart is located at 537 SW 12th Ave, at Alder St. Their East Side branch is at 2211 East Burnside St (NB: it's pretty far east). Website. Twitter.

The Society Cafe
Even my hotel, The Society Hotel, had a great cafe in its lobby — another concept it shares with the similarly stylish but pricier Ace Hotel (which has its own Stumptown cafe). I had a couple of cortados ($3) at The Society Cafe, and they were both made expertly by the lovely, friendly barista, with latte art among the best in the city. The Society Cafe uses coffee from Ristretto Roasters (see below) and they also serve a mean avo toast ($5) and, once the sun is over the yardarm, cocktails.

The Society Cafe is located at 203 NW Third Ave, at Davis St. Website. Twitter.

Olé Latte
The last stop on my Third Wave Coffee Tour was to one of Olé Latte's three Portland coffee carts. We visited the cart located in the Alder Food Cart pod, where our cheerful barista made us each a Portland Pine latte (with syrup from the Douglas Fir). They also serve more standard espresso-based drinks, pourovers ($4) and cold brew ($3), and sell lovely ceramic mugs, made by one of the baristas. Olé Latte also has a pay-it-forward system, in case you would like to do a good deed and buy someone a coffee. Olé Latte is a great way to combine two key Portland trends: coffee and food carts.

Olé Latte is located at 1003 SW Alder St, near 10th St. They also have carts at Portland State University and in Happy Valley. Website. Twitter.

Night Owl
If you're looking for caffeination while at the Portland Farmers' Market, Night Owl is your best bet. They are a local roaster and don't have a bricks-and-mortar cafe but serve pourover ($3) and French press ($2.50) coffee at the market. You can also buy beans at their stall. I had a Colombian pourover, which was pretty decent.

Night Owl is at the Portland Farmers' Market, 1010 SW Park Avenue, near Main St. Website. Twitter.

Pearl District
Christopher David
Part lifestyle boutique, part florist and part cafe, Christopher David is a great destination for combining your shopping and coffee needs in the trendy Pearl District. The cafe is large, bright and tastefully decorated with some of the items you can buy in the shop. The coffee is from Water Avenue and a macchiato will set you back $2.75. On our tour, we tried the signature drink, the Cafe di Nini ($3), named for one of the owners, which is a surprisingly tasty combination of espresso, rice milk and vanilla syrup. The breakfast (various avo toasts) and lunch menus also looked delicious.

Christopher David is located at 901 NW Tenth Ave, at Kearney St. Website. Twitter.

Northwest
Sterling Coffee Roasters
Petite and purple, Sterling's 21st Avenue cafe is located in Nob Hill, a ten-minute walk northwest of downtown. There is room for about seven or eight people to sit and barely any standing room, but it is a lovely, well-run coffee shop. They weren't serving hand-brewed filter coffee while I was there (there was a batch-brew coffee on offer), so I ordered a macchiato ($3, I think) and perched at one of the tiny, white-tablecloth-laden, pine-cone accented tables. The coffee was good (with very good latte art), the baristas were very friendly and the people-watching was top notch.

Sterling Coffee Roasters is located at 417 NW 21st Ave, between Flanders and Glisan. They have another branch a few blocks south. Website. Twitter.

East Side
Coava Coffee Roasters
I spent most of my time in Portland pronouncing Coava to rhyme with guava, but it actually rhymes with Jehovah. The name refers to unroasted or 'green' coffee. Coava has been roasting since 2008, and they now have two coffee bars, both on Portland's East Side: a brew bar on SE Grand Avenue, and an espresso bar, further east on Hawthorne Boulevard. Being a brewed-coffee kinda gal, I stopped by the brew bar on a sunny Monday afternoon. They had obviously been roasting when I arrived because the air was thick with the dark, sharp notes of freshly roasted coffee.

The Grand Avenue location is huge, occupying a converted warehouse that is kitted out with the aforementioned brew bar, the roaster, lots of communal tables and various pieces of local artwork for sale. You can buy the tables too, but they aren't cheap. They were serving two espresso and two filter-coffee options while I was there: I chose the Honduran Benjamin Miranda variety (which, I later realised, I had just enjoyed in my macchiato at Barista) brewed through the Chemex ($4, I think, although mine was on the house as I also bought a bag of beans and a travel tumbler). The coffee was even better brewed this way, and I enjoyed my drink while basking in the afternoon sunshine and chatting with the charming baristas. I bought a different variety of Honduran beans (Porfirio Castellanos) to take home with me and, brewed with my Aeropress, they have produced some truly excellent cups of coffee.

Coava Coffee Roasters' brew bar is located at 1300 SE Grand Avenue, at Main St. Their espresso bar is at 2631 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, near 27th Ave. Website. Twitter.

Ristretto Roasters
Local roaster Ristretto has three cafes around the city, but their East Side cafe on NE Couch Street is the most central. I stopped by the Couch Street location on my coffee tour; in case you were wondering, Couch rhymes with pooch! We took part in a coffee cupping session, experiencing and trying to describe the aromas and taste notes in three different Ristretto coffees. Our barista made the process educational and fun. The coffees we tried were all Central/South American and I really liked their Colombian Pijao coffee in particular.

Ristretto serves espresso-based drinks, cold brew ($3) and Steampunk filter coffee ($4) — they have the same cool Alpha Dominche Steampunk kit as Macintyre in London; again, I regretted not having the chance to try out coffee brewed with this siphon-like method. Ristretto's Couch Street cafe isn't the hugest, but it was relatively quiet during my Sunday brunchtime visit: there are a dozen or so seats and it's beautifully sunny.

Ristretto Roasters is located at 555 NE Couch Street, at 6th Ave. They have two other branches further north of the city centre. Website. Twitter.

Cup & Bar
I came to this cafe, which is a collaboration of Trailhead coffee roasters and Ranger gourmet chocolate, on my Third Wave Coffee tour. We watched a roasting and sampled the cafe's signature drink: a dirty Charlie (a shot of espresso poured over cacao ice cream, served with foam and dark chocolate shavings), which was sinful but delicious. Before Cup & Bar opened, Trailhead used to roast coffee and deliver it by bike and you can see the delivery back out back near the cheerful yellow roaster.

If you aren't in the mood for a dirty Charlie, there are the usual espresso drinks (a macchiato is $3.50), mochas with Ranger chocolate ($4.25), pourovers ($3.50), cold brew ($3) and home-made syrups. The avo toast is supposed to be among the best in town, but there are a few other breakfast/brunch options too: we sampled the jam on sourdough toast, which was delicious.  The cafe itself is large and bright, with high ceilings and large wooden tables.

Cup & Bar is located at 118 NE Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, near Couch St. Website. Twitter.

For more detailed information on the Third Wave Coffee tour I did, head on over to my review.

A Caffeinated Tour of Portland with Third Wave Coffee Tours

One of the main reasons I wanted to visit Portland was to explore its extensive coffee scene. But with only three days in the city, there were only so many coffee spots even a chronic caffeine-addict like me could fit in. A good friend, who travelled to Portland with her husband last year, recommended I check out Third Wave Coffee Tours, founded by "second-generation Oregonian and third-wave coffee lover" Lora Woodruff. Lora and her team of guides run several different three-hour walking tours, which visit various combinations of Portland coffee shops.

As I was only in town for a few days, only one of the tours was available — A Streetcar Named Delicious, which runs on Sundays at 10 am — but as it is the only tour to take in cafes and roasters on both sides of the Willamette River, I was very happy. Before the tour, I asked Lora for a list of the shops we would be visiting to make sure I didn't double up on my first day in the city. She provided this and her map of Portland micro-roasters and cafes, many of which I had pre-identified but which was really useful.

Despite warnings about Portland's damp climate, it was mild, bright and sunny for my entire trip, including during my coffee tour. We met at the first coffee stop, Case Study Coffee, in the downtown area and settled into the reserved area at the back of the large cafe. There were seven of us on the tour — a mix of locals and travellers, coffee lovers and the coffee curious. Lora began with an introduction to the history of coffee and its production process. Then she gave us some more detailed information about the different 'waves' of coffee culture in the US, the first being home brewing, the second being the introduction of Italian, espresso-based drinks and the third being the move towards producing high-quality, artisanal coffee.

Lora also told us a bit more about the history of Portland's coffee scene: the city had the US's fourth Starbucks (the first three being in Seattle), but is now home to almost 900 coffee shops (about a quarter of these are Starbucks, sadly). Case Study itself was one of Portland's first micro-roasters to open up, in 2010, and its cafe is beautiful, bright space on SW 10th Avenue with seats around the large, round coffee bar.

We then enjoyed a brew-method demonstration from Ethan, a barista from Case Study, who showed us how to prepare the same coffee variety in three different ways — with a French press, a Chemex and a Kalita dripper — and encouraged us to consider how each brew method produced coffee with contrasting appearances and tastes, and explained the importance of controlling different varios (water-coffee ratio, temperature, etc). I had tried all of these methods before, of course, but I still learnt a lot and am always looking for tips on improving my brewing and fine-tuning my taste buds.

After leaving Case Study, we hopped on our first streetcar of the tour — Portland has two modern streetcar routes that run in opposite directions in a large loop around the city centre, on both sides of the river. We weren't going far: our next stop was Christopher David, a gorgeous interior-design store and florist with a cafe that serves coffee from Water Avenue roasters. Christopher David is based in a neighbourhood called the Pearl District, once filled with warehouses, but now a home to numerous cool restaurants, cafes, design stores and expensive apartments.

One of the great things about Third Wave tours is that you don't just go to five cafes and drink the same coffees at each, and at Christopher David, we got to try the cafe's signature drink, the Cafe di Nini. This consists of a shot of single-origin espresso and a shot of vanilla syrup layered over rice milk. You throw it back like a slammer to allow the contrasting flavours, textures and temperatures mingle and merge. I was dubious, but it was actually rather good. We browsed the shop for a few minutes and I managed to avoid the temptation of buying any of the beautiful interiors pieces (I needed to save room in my suitcase for coffee!).

Next, we took the streetcar again, venturing east across the river to Cup & Bar, which as its name may suggest, specialises in artisanal coffee (from Trailhead roasters) and chocolate (from Ranger Chocolate). Trailhead used to exist only as a roaster — the delivery bike they use was hanging out near the roaster when we visited — but teamed up with Ranger to open up a cafe in an industrial area of the city that now has a number of hip cafes and shops. Trailhead also try to source their coffees from women-only coops, where possible.

We watched one of the Cup & Bar team overseeing a coffee roasting, watching the beans changing colour and listening out for the first and second 'cracks' as the coffee structure begins to change. I don't normally like to mix coffee and chocolate, but I couldn't turn down Cup & Bar's signature Dirty Charlie (named for Trailhead's owner): a chocolatey macchiato, with espresso poured over cacao nib ice cream and topped with foam and shaved Ranger chocolate. It was delicious and put all powdered-chocolate coffee toppings to shame. We also snacked on some sourdough toast with jam — Lora mentioned that Cup & Bar's avo toast was the best in town, but sadly, I didn't have time to try it.

Just a couple of blocks east of Cup & Bar was one of the branches of Ristretto Roasters, our fourth stop. This time, our goal was to master the art of cupping, the process of smelling, tasting and describing the different notes of a coffee. Cupping is actually rather challenging — I always find that I am way too suggestible to the provided descriptions of a coffee. Our barista was great, though, and he helped us to relax and enjoy the process. We 'cupped' three different Ristretto coffees, one from Colombia (my favourite, natch), one from Guatemala and one from Brazil. With hindsight, I really wish I had bought a bag of their beans!

Our final destination gave us the chance to sample Portland's extensive and growing food-truck scene. We took the streetcar back across the river to the downtown area and walked over to Ole Latte's coffee truck among the collection, or pod, of food carts on Alder Street (between 9th and 11th St). Of all of the shops we visited, Ole Latte might be the most 'Portland'. First, they have a pay-it-forward system, where you can pay for an extra coffee when you buy yours and write it up on the 'suspend coffees' board; if you want a free coffee, you can just cross it off the board and tell the staff. Second, we tried a mini-version of the current signature drink: the Portland Pine latte, made with syrup of the Douglas Fir, Portland's state plant.

Flavoured lattes aren't really my thing, but it was nice to try something different and it was great to chat to the friendly barista. They even sell beautiful ceramic mugs, which are made by one of the other baristas. By then, unfortunately, we had reached the end of our tour. Lora gave us all a few suggestions for lunch and brunch, including Nong's (an award-winning food cart just down from Ole Latte, which I went back to the following day) and Veritable Quandary (where I went for brunch).

I highly recommend Third Wave Coffee tours for anyone who loves coffee or would like to learn more about it, or to anyone who enjoys spending time in cafes in the company of a real local expert. Lora's passion for coffee and her pride in her city really came through in the tour, and she has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Portland and especially its coffee scene. She is also friendly, funny and great fun! Third Wave tours cost $40 and you can book them online — advance booking is recommended, particularly in the spring and summer.

For more Portland coffee tips, check out my guide.

DC Coffee Guide: 2016 Edition

I visited Washington DC this time last year for work but managed to take a couple of days' holiday in order to explore the city and its caffeine scene. Earlier this month, I went back to DC for a conference but I had a day off in the city at the start of my trip, which I spent coffee-shop-hopping, and I was able to find a couple of good cafes near the conference venue in Woodley Park.

I wrote a DC coffee guide and produced an accompanying map last year, but I've now updated the map to include some of the new coffee bars I discovered on this trip. Read on for more details!

Dupont Circle
The Coffee Bar. This petite but perfectly formed cafe is located just a couple of blocks from my first DC hotel, which was convenient because it was top of the list of coffee bars I wanted to check out while I was in town. The Coffee Bar combines great coffee from a range of national roasters with gorgeous stylings: the mint-green tiled coffee bar is a thing of beauty, but I also loved the typography of the hand-drawn menu boards and the neon sign on the wall.

There are only a handful of seats and it gets really busy during the morning rush, which is why they only serve pourovers (brewed with a Kalita Wave dripper) after 11 am, but the kind barista made an exception for me when I explained that I had come all the way from London. I tried a Guatemalan La Esperanza coffee from California-based roaster Verve, which was $4 and expertly brewed with rich, cherry notes. On another day, I got a macchiato ($3) to go, and it too was very well prepared with great latte art. The staff are very friendly, despite the huge queues, and it's also a fun place to people-watch. The Coffee Bar has rapidly propelled itself into my top three DC cafes, fending off some very tough competition.

The Coffee Bar is located at 1200 17 St, near M St (M–F only); the original location at 1201 S St near 21 St is also open at the weekend. Website. Twitter.

Foggy Bottom
Swing's. I headed straight from The Coffee Bar to M.E. Swing's, located on G Street right near the White House, but despite their proximity, these two DC coffee joints are fairly different. Swing's has been roasting coffee since 1916 and celebrates its centenary this year. The G Street cafe is a little newer — it opened in 1994 — but is still a real DC institution. Long and lean, the cafe was bustling when I arrived mid-morning on a sunny Friday. With its smart red La Marzocco and mahogany-panelled coffee bar, Swing's is certainly very dapper. The menu is also rather extensive — so extensive, in fact, that I only noticed the separate brew bar after I had ordered my macchiato. The macchiato ($3) was very good though: rich, dark and smooth.

If I hadn't had other coffee bars to visit, I totally would have stayed for a pourover: there were five different single-origin coffees on offer, including a decaf option. The Ecuador Hakuna Makata sounded particularly good. Swing's is open Monday to Friday, with pourovers on offer from 10–4. If you're out in Alexandria, there is a cafe there too.

Swing's is located at 1702 G St, near 17 St. Website. Twitter.

H Street Corridor
Maketto. This new H Street venue isn't just a coffee shop: it's also a restaurant, bar and fashion store. But these separate elements — spread over two storeys of a bright, airy building — are united by both style and substance. When I arrived at Maketto, I headed straight to the restaurant, but afterwards it was coffee time. The cafe takes up much of the upper floor of Maketto and it's a gorgeous space: monochrome, industrial-chic interiors accented with light-wood furniture. Even the coffee-kit-for-sale is immaculately styled.

The drinks menu is varied, with the usual espresso-based drinks, alongside cold brew, pourover and siphon options. There was also something called The Beckham, which is apparently an Earl Grey hot chocolate — interesting, but not my thing. I ordered a pourover, selecting an Indonesian variety ($4) from local DC roaster Vigilante Coffee. I also took a chocolate chip cookie ($2.25) from a selection of tempting sweet treats. The coffee was very well prepared: fruity and flavoursome. The presentation was also delightful: the coffee was served in a Japanese pottery mug, resting on small wooden tray with a mini-biscuit and a shot of fizzy water. Maketto's cafe is a great place to work and to hang out and relax. It's very light upstairs, especially on a sunny day, and if you are feeling hungry, you can order south-east Asian food from the restaurant downstairs.

Maketto is located at 1351 H St NE, between 13 & 14 St. Website. Twitter.

Adams Morgan
Tryst. Before I arrived in DC, I had pre-identified Tryst as the best coffee option within walking distance of my Woodley Park conference and I wasn't disappointed. Tryst is located on a bustling, quirky stretch of 19th Street in the lovely Adams Morgan neighbourhood. I stopped by a couple of times while I was in town. At 8 am on a weekday morning, the cafe was already bustling. I didn't have time to stop for breakfast so I grabbed a maple-pecan muffin and ordered a Colombian Los Rosales coffee from Counter Culture, brewed with the Aeropress ($4). The coffee was a little hot but soon cooled off in the wintry weather, allowing the rich cherry-chocolate notes to shine through.

I went back another day for waffles and a cortado ($3.25); the coffee was well-prepared, although with the richness of the waffles, I wish I had gone for a macchiato instead. Tryst is a popular weekend breakfast and brunch spot and by 9 am, it was hard to find a free table, even though the cafe is pretty big (they also turn off the wifi at the weekend). Tryst combines cosy decor with bright pops of colour from the local art displayed on the walls. They serve food all day and beer, wine and cocktails in the evenings. There is often live music in the evenings too. In other words, Tryst is the kind of neighbourhood cafe-bar that you wish was located in your neighbourhood.

Tryst is located on 2459 18 St, just south of Columbia Road. Website. Twitter.

Woodley Park
Open City. I didn't have time to go Tryst every day while I was at my conference, so it was lucky that one of its sister venues, Open City, is located just a few steps from the hotel. Open City is open all day for coffee, food and drink. Its weekend brunches are very popular so be prepared to wait in line. I ate dinner there one night (the food was good and reasonably priced) but stopped by for coffee most days. The macchiatos ($3) and cortados ($3.25) were consistently good — the coffee is from Tryst, and so are the cakes and pastries that lie temptingly in the window.

Open City is located at 2331 Calvert St, between 24 St and Connecticut Ave. Website. Twitter.


For reviews of Peregrine Espresso, Slipstream, Compass Coffee, Chinatown Coffee Co and Filter, check out my 2015 DC coffee guide. Still on my to-do list for next time are: The Wydown (14 Street), La Colombe (Shaw) and Baked & Wired (Georgetown), among others.

Brian of Brian's Coffee Spot also has some more detailed reviews of some of these coffee spots, and will, I'm sure, be adding some more after his US trip this month.