Café Zamora

Hector is a Guatemalan native, and Cafe Zamora pours coffee sourced from his home village. His wife Jackie works the shop with him, which is the kind of family operation that is now rare enough in Portland to count as a feature in itself. Sales fund people back in the village. Samantha Brown filmed an episode here, which is the highest-profile credit a small SE Powell shop is likely to land. The indoor area is set up like someone's living room: a couch, a coffee table, two chairs, a small fountain in the corner, a shelf of children's books for the parents who turn up with kids. The grassy back patio doubles the footprint and turns the shop into a real hang on a sunny afternoon. The single-origin Guatemalan whole beans are the reason to come if you brew at home. The mushroom coffee has its own following among the customers who want a different kind of morning. The cinnamon honey butter pastry is the case item regulars name first. The vanilla latte and the chai work as standard orders. A cortado is off-menu but available on request, which is the kind of detail you only know if you have been there a few times and watched another regular order one. Coffee buyers who care about direct-trade sourcing are the core customer here. Dog owners with kids in tow are the second, because the living room and the lawn give both groups room to settle in without negotiating space. Laptop users get a quiet, low-key workspace that feels less like a coffee shop and more like a friend's house. The shop wears its values plainly, in the beans, in the family running it, and in where the money goes when you swipe your card. SE Powell has plenty of coffee. It does not have many places where the owner can tell you the village his beans came from by name.