Portland’s Vietnamese Cafe Renaissance Is Peaking

Plastic cups of cà phê sữa đá, iced espresso with condensed milk, and cà phê đen, black espresso, have dotted tables at banh mi outlets and pho eating places round Portland for many years. For a lot of that point, Vietnamese espresso was synonymous with robust brews made with slow-drip metallic phin filters. Now, the town’s Vietnamese espresso scene is evolving: a renaissance kicked into excessive gear in 2021, when Kim Dam opened Portland Cà Phê.

On the time, Dam didn’t see some other Vietnamese cafes in Portland’s strong espresso scene. “[I thought,] ‘I can’t look forward to the day that I begin seeing extra individuals symbolize our espresso tradition,’” Dam says. “We’ve got such an enormous espresso tradition again in our motherland that it was thoughts blowing to me that we didn’t showcase that right here within the States or in Portland.”

Evidently day has arrived. Three years later, Vietnamese cafes are showing all around the metropolis — Phin Caphe & Boba serves Beaverton and East Portland, Cafe Ume and Gạch Viet Teahouse have arrived on the scene inside the final 12 months, and the Beans to Phin pop-up seems at markets round city. Dam herself has two new initiatives within the works: Mémoire Cà Phê, a brunch spot in partnership with Matta’s Richard Van Le and Heyday’s Lisa Nguyen, and Higher Days Cafe, which she plans to open with Portland Cà Phê day one worker Melody Rin.

Christine Dong

In distinction to america, the place consuming espresso for a lot of Individuals is a solitary follow — usually brewing a fast cup at house or the workplace, or ordering at a drive-thru — espresso tradition in Vietnam is communal and an integral side of the nation’s broader id. Espresso was launched in Vietnam by French colonialists within the nineteenth century. Right now, Vietnam is the second prime producer of espresso on the earth and largest producer of robusta beans. Whereas espresso has develop into fastened into many Individuals’ morning routines, in Vietnam, individuals drink all of it day lengthy: congregating at old-school and extra trendy cafes that line the busy streets and slender lanes of Ho Chi Minh Metropolis and Hanoi.

“In Vietnam, individuals stand up actually early to work, however then they take breaks in the course of the day,” Dam says. “Companies shut down, everybody goes house, they take a nap, they usually reopen at night time. Ingesting espresso helps [people] stand up early and keep up late.”

Phin Caphe & Boba

Ann Duong was working a company job and her sister Chloe Duong was at school when the COVID lockdown compelled cafes and eating places to briefly shut down. The sisters, caught at house, began making Vietnamese espresso drinks and snacks for themselves and household. Quickly, associates started to cease by and ask if the sisters had made something they might take house. “Someday, we had been identical to, ‘Why don’t we simply make it massive and open a enterprise?’” Ann says. “To introduce extra individuals to Vietnamese espresso and tea.”

The natural growth of the Duongs’ enterprise Phin Caphe speaks to Portland’s rising demand for Vietnamese drinks and snacks. It’s additionally emblematic of Vietnam’s espresso tradition, which serves as a social pastime and medium for group connection. Rising up in Nha Trang, Ann Duong had at all times been conscious of espresso’s recognition all through Vietnam, however she fell in love with Ho Chi Minh Metropolis’s cafe tradition whereas attending college there.

“[Vietnamese] espresso is made with a phin drip, not a machine, so it’s actually daring and robust,” Ann says. “You’re sitting on plastic chairs on the sidewalk having fun with espresso and chatting with family and friends.” It was important for the Duongs to have outside seating areas at their cafes for patrons to hang around whereas having fun with drinks like pistachio cream-topped espresso and taro milk tea.

Phin Caphe hosts occasional occasions which might be designed to introduce Portlanders to the nuances of Vietnamese espresso and delicacies. The cafe’s Ăn Vặt snack night time serves Vietnamese avenue meals, like bắp xào (stir-fried corn) and tàu hủ đá (tofu pudding), that isn’t obtainable on its common menu, which provides dishes like bánh tráng cuốn (rice paper rolls) and bánh tráng trộn (rice paper salad). Espresso tasting workshops provide an opportunity to strive totally different beans from Lam Dong, the province the place the cafe’s beans are sourced.

Gạch Viet Teahouse

Gạch Viet Teahouse bridges Vietnamese design with food and drinks — the cafe is a challenge of Concord Design, the native structure agency behind the interiors of Ba Mee Noodle Home and Mirakutei’s Clackamas location. As Gạch’s supervisor Duy Mai explains, the staff selected to open the cafe on the Portland State College campus as a result of it “mimics the colourful lifetime of Vietnam, the place you at all times see lots of people strolling round and sitting outdoors within the solar.” Inside, ornate tilework highlights Vietnamese craftsmanship by handmade tiles from Ly Minh Thanh. “It’s an area for us to showcase Vietnamese tradition and the fantastic thing about the delicacies,” Mai says.

Gạch serves gentle fare like sticky rice and spring rolls, dishes generally discovered at Portland’s Vietnamese eating places, however the cafe additionally makes the harder-to-find sữa chua, a tangy Vietnamese-style yogurt. “Yogurt has at all times been round in Vietnamese communities within the U.S.,” Mai says. “But it surely’s often an auntie who makes it and sells it [to people she knows].” It’s eaten as dessert or a snack — Gạch’s is served with recent fruit or black glutinous rice.

Analy Lee

Just like Portland, Seattle’s Vietnamese cafe scene has seen a increase in recent times. Duong has seen Vietnamese espresso trending in cities on the West Coast and in states like Texas, components of the United States which have a big Vietnamese inhabitants. “I feel individuals wish to uncover new flavors,” Ann Duong says. “We get inventive with flavors as a result of I feel it brings a broader viewers to us.”

Dam has seen the uptick, too, particularly whereas attending the Specialty Espresso Expo. Previously, the business occasion didn’t have many Vietnamese distributors; however on the 2023 expo, which was held in Portland, she was in a position to join with Vietnamese farmers, roasters, and baristas. “I feel of us in Vietnam are noticing us,” Dam says. “You discuss to them they usually say: ‘It’s actually cool that you simply guys are championing this and placing Vietnam on the map within the specialty espresso world.’” In distinction to utilizing the normal phin filter to make Vietnamese-style espresso, Dam serves specialty espresso at Portland Cà Phê, roasting beans sourced from Vietnam’s Central Highlands area.

Dam says the espresso world grapples with the idea of authenticity in the identical manner diners strategy meals; some prospects come to Portland Cà Phê and categorical annoyance at elements they understand to be inauthentic. However for her, espresso is subjective. “Wherever you go, you’re going to get one thing a bit totally different — and whether or not meaning it’s genuine to you or not doesn’t actually matter, as a result of it’s genuine to the one who created that product,” Dam says. “All of us are doing one thing area of interest: highlighting Vietnamese espresso, whether or not that’s a brewing methodology, flavors, or the bean itself.”