Review - J Cafe

I apologize for the delay in posting reviews recently. The last few days have been exceedingly busy for me, though I did manage to squeeze in another visit to a local coffee shop, the J Cafe.

Last week, Portland played host to the Open Source Convention (OSCON). For those who don't know what 'Open Source' is, the Cliffs Notes version is that it's software that is built with (usually) freely available code so that other developers can modify, alter, and improve it. Check the Wikipedia entry to learn more if you'd like, I need to get back to talking about coffee.

The reason I mention OSCON is because it was why I was in the neighborhood of J Cafe. During lunch on Thursday, I searched Google Maps for "coffee" with my BlackBerry and found a couple nearby shops. J Cafe wasn't the closest, but it was the the only one on my screen that wasn't a national chain, so off I went.

The J Cafe is nestled along the MAX a couple blocks east of the Convention Center and as I could tell is definitely a volume based business. The inward and outward design of the J Cafe reminded me more of the sidewalk cafes in Germany than a tradional coffee house and that observation held true.

Unfortunately for me, the J Cafe isn't so much a coffee house as it is ... well, a cafe. The difference being that a coffee house is a place to get coffee and a cafe is a place to get a light lunch, drinks, and if you're in the mood, some coffee. So again I found myself reviewing a place that served coffee instead of a coffee house. Still, I wanted to get a drink and eat some lunch so I got in line and waited my turn to order.

The place was very busy so I didn't have time to get a good feel for the personalities of the wait staff, though it seemed they were very polite despite the lunch rush. Though I walked away from the counter with my double-shot espresso, I had to wait about 10 minutes for my sandwich. I took a seat at a barstool and started snapping pics and videos with my phone while I waited for my espresso to cool down a bit. After sending myself the media, I sat down and started sipping my brew and found that it wasn't too bad. It didn't measure up to the Juniper Java, but it was still pretty good for being an ancillary product. The espresso was a bit on the bitter side, though when it reached the middle of my tongue there was a distinctly sugary taste along with it. It didn't leave much of an aftertaste and didn't leave much of an impression beyond being caffiene.

The sandwich, though, was delicious! I had the 'English Pub Dip' which came with a side salad and some tasty potato chips. To wash it all down I ordered a cup of iced tea which was probably he best part of the meal and complemented the sandwich nicely. Since the sandwich and drink are more to the heart of the J Cafe, I'd say that it falls into the category of "if-I'm-in-the-area-and-slightly-hungry", but not worth going out of the way for on its own.