Sinister Coffee and Creamery

Goth coffee in downtown Portland. Year-round black walls and horror posters, with the dial turned further up in October. Sinister Coffee and Creamery is woman-owned, roasts its beans on site, and runs an ice creamery and a gift gallery in the same room. The Friday the 13th events have a following. The October programming is a calendar item for the people who care about that kind of thing, and there are enough of those people in Portland to keep the place going.

Order the cookie butter latte if you want the menu's signature. The cortado with oat milk and hazelnut is the more grown-up move, and the matcha latte with pistachio gets called out by enough customers to suggest the pistachio is real and not a syrup. The Earl Grey tea affogato is what an ice creamery and a coffee shop sharing one counter should produce, and it works. The coffin cookies are chocolate chip with salted caramel and are exactly as on-brand as you'd guess.

There is a real wrinkle. Recent feedback splits over the use of AI-generated art on signage and on items for sale. Some customers downgraded their rating because of it, and that critique is legitimate in a city where local artists are part of the coffee-shop ecosystem. It's worth knowing before you walk in, especially if you came to buy a print.

The other issue is operational: at least one traveler made a long trip and arrived to find the shop closed during posted hours, with Google and the website showing stale schedules. Call ahead. Check social before you drive in. If you're a Portland local browsing witchy gift goods or you want a themed coffee stop that takes its theme seriously instead of treating it as a Halloween-month gimmick, Sinister is the obvious answer.