Rose City Coffee Company

This place is so legit. The coffee is amazing and the staff is great! Seriously the best coffee shop in Portland!

I typically never order syrups in my coffee. Rose City is the exception to that rule! There coffee is fantastic and, while Sellwood is blessed with many great coffee shops, Rose City hands down has the best Vanilla Latte I have found in the city!

Super impressed by this sweet little shop. It was clean, quiet, and had excellent customer service. I ordered an americano and it was excellent, as well. I will definitely come back here when I’m in the neighborhood!

Big fan of this humble spot in Sellwood to grab a coffee and whole beans. It’s a small operation and you can tell these microroasters take great care in their product. Each time I’ve been in, someone has been happy to talk to me about which roasts are available that day. This is small-​batch at its finest.
One thing that makes this tiny company stand out to me is their partnership with Café Femenino, showcasing several single origin coffees that support women-​owned and managed coffee farms. They are also a supporter of Portland Women’s Crisis Line, as am I, which is wonderful.
I’ve enjoyed in the past the Italian Roast and Winter Blend the most. But check in with them frequently, because it changes. Prices are great, atmosphere is casual and unpretentious. I plan to keep visiting this café every time I’m in Sellwood shopping. It’s a perfect pit stop.
Keep up the good work, RCCC. I gifted out many pounds of your sexy little beans over the holidays and everyone loved them.

I go to Starbucks all the time but I realized, I live in Portland and am surrounded by good cafes left and right.
Today I decided to try Rose City Coffee Company.
Came in mid afternoon on a Sunday. The place was empty, but after I sat down, a couple and a few other people came in.
It’s a cute little coffee shop. Plenty of tables, a couch, and cozy armchair.
There is a book shelf filled with games and books for you to use while you’re there.
The woman who worked there warmly greeted me upon entering.
The prices here are cheaper than at the chain coffee shops.
I decided to go for a London fog tea latte (wasn’t in the mood for coffee).
It was delicious. Not overly sweet and the perfect amount of foam.
The café had a good selection of music playing.
If you need a place to relax or get some work done come on in.
This is the kind of place you can sit for an hour or so and they won’t bother you.

It was a sad day for Rose City & I. I walked in at around 11 AM to see a new employee having difficulty with the credit card app on the iPad. A gentleman was purchasing 6 – 7 pounds of coffee, and was patiently waiting for it to be fixed. Another employee came up and tried to fix the machine but to no avail. Let me be clear, this was not my qualm. I get technical issues, it happens, but if you have two employees who will not even say anything to me for at least 10 minutes until after the man says something about it, that’s a problem.
When I was finally acknowledged, I asked for an extra hot latte miel, my favorite drink. I know that Rose City is transitioning with a couple new employees, but to have two new ones at once who do not know how to make a drink is frustrating. The employee then proceeded to pour straight coffee in my drink, and then steam hot milk over it. I’m sorry, what? I used to love coming here, and am sorely disappointed about the service, I don’t think I will return any time soon.
And she also couldn’t open the cash register so she grabbed change out of her own wallet, and instead of two quarters, gave me 20 pence in English pounds. I should have just declined the drink and walked out honestly.

Where else can you get a pour over, Chemex, siphon, or Aeropress coffee? You can truly have it the way you want it. Great service too.

Great little place. Comfy outdoor tables, tables and sofas for your choice of indoor seating. Good coffee and an assortment of pastries. Love how cozy and relaxing it is!

Rose City Coffee is my favorite place to get coffee. The staff are always friendly and can make a mean dirty chai. I highly recommend checking this place out.

This place is AWESOME. Great quality, good people, and a chill vibe. Good music, plenty of seating indoors and out. It doesn’t seem overly trendy. There is local art for sale.
I was supremely impressed with the barista who made me a drink that wasn’t on the menu. She was actually really excited to try making it instead of annoyed that I wanted something they didn’t advertise. She made it better than I’ve had it at most other places, and she even made herself one to try it out.
The syrups they use are made by a local guy who knows what he is doing, and the vanilla syrup the barista used made my drink all the more delicious!
My aunt and I also shared a ginger molasses cookie that was yummy.
This place is worth stopping for, and I will be back.

Found this place using Unilocal (I don’t live in PDX) when we needed some coffee in Sellwood.
Had an iced mocha and it was one of the best I had all week in Portland. Super friendly woman made the drinks for us.
Getting to this place is easy since it’s a bit away from the busier part of Sellwood.
Everything was clean and there was plenty of seating. The place just needs some music and more customers!

Definitely recommend this shop, whether you’re buying beans (they roast all their own beans and always have 6 – 7 different roasts) or coming in for a cup of coffee. They’re open early and always have friendly folks behind the counter, worth a short trek into the Sellwood area if you’re in central Portland. I’ve given their coffee as gifts to family and it’s always a hit!

I live in San Francisco and learned about this coffee through a friend. I regularly order whole bean coffee from Rose City through the mail, and I have to say it’s as good or better than the «legendary» SF roasters.
I can’t speak to the atmosphere because I’ve never been to the actual location, but the whole bean coffee is top notch.

As a Portland area native and current San Franciscan, I’m certainly not lacking in choice, but it is more of a challenge to find such high quality, delicious and robust tasting coffee.
As a self identified coffee snob, Rose City Coffee Company is as good as it gets. The Baker Blend is my personal favorite and the Wakonda is a close second.

Bought some dark roast at the local grocery store. Not dark roast. My morning is missing… Need dark roast!

Maybe both the best and the worst thing about Portland is that there are so many coffee roasters around that a place as great as Rose City Coffee can get so little attention. I’ve been buying my beans from Rose City pretty regularly for a couple years, initially just because they were local to Sellwood (where the main competition is the not-​bad-​but-​underwhelming Blue Kangaroo), but the more I shop around the city’s more famous roasters and get beans no better than theirs, the more I realize how special these guys are. It’s a full-​service coffee shop, too, so dropping in for a drink or a sample is always pleasant, but the things that make them special are (1) the people and (2) the beans.
The people: always friendly to a fault, even by Portland’s high standards. I sometimes get the feeling they’d be happy if more people just dropped in to talk about coffee with them. Questions about their beans, their roasts, their favorite ways of preparing them are always answered happily and in detail.
The beans: they have a really distinct style of roasting, focused on medium and dark roasts in pretty traditional American/​European styles but executed much better than they usually are, with an eye to coaxing out deeper flavors. They’re really good at it, too. I don’t love every single coffee they make, but I really enjoy the level of variety they produce with their constantly rotating single-​origin beans — and there are stock house blends as well if you’re looking for more consistency, of course. If you’re looking for «third wave”-style light roasts, you might want to go somewhere else (e.g. Heart or Courier), since Rose City tends to roast on the dark side, with more emphasis on earthy, toasty flavors. (In fact, they’d be a perfect roaster for someone looking to move from Starbucks’ usual burnt beans to more serious coffee.)
And the freshness! It’s basically impossible to buy beans from Rose City’s shop that were roasted more than a few days ago. They foam like crazy with trapped CO2 when brewed, a sign of freshness, and the flavor is just insane, never an off note. I can’t recommend these guys highly enough — they really care about their coffee and it shows. Even in a city with insanely serious coffee on the level of Stumptown and Heart and Courier, these guys have a real distinct style and a commitment to their craft that makes them well worth supporting, and not just because they’re local and nice.

I was only in Portland for a few days and frequented Rose City Coffee Company for several of them. Best coffee I had in Portland! Delicious roasts, super knowledgeable, and the most down to earth friendly baristas. I love the no-​frills atmosphere, this place is all about just delicious coffee! Wish I lived here so I could make this my coffee house:)

I love the quiet atmosphere of this little coffee shop. Combined with the friendly service and tasty drinks, it is quickly becoming my top choice for a coffee break during my work day. Try the London Fog! You won’t be disappointed!

Delicious coffee, prepared at the perfect temperature. Polite, friendly and competent baristas. Reasonable prices. Cozy, welcoming atmosphere.

Attentive & accommodating baristas, air roasted beans, syrups made locally.
I ordered a seasonal pumpkin pie latte and it actually tastes like pumpkin pie rather than sugar & nutmeg.
They have a fairly quiet atmosphere – definitely relaxed. Wifi and outlets are also made available. Keep in mind, however, that it is a small shop with four or five café tables inside and a couple of outdoor patio tables.