Farewell Electrica

Electrica, my favorite coffee shop in Portland, closed today. Their Saikyo latte was one of my favorite drinks ever, with miso caramel and black sesame. They had actually functional chairs and tables instead of weird minimalist sculptures of chairs and tables (yes I am dunking on you, Roseline on Davis). It is where I planned my first trip to Japan, after I met some friends for coffee there in April 2023 and got immediately convinced by this book:

Which I could never find for purchase anywhere, so I'd reference it on all of my visits before I departed for Tokyo seven months later.

Electrica was another casualty of private equity. It shared space with Schoolhouse Electric in a beautiful old factory tucked away in NW. Food52 acquired Schoolhouse Electric in 2021 and effectively ran it into the ground. The writing was on the wall when the building went up for sale in May 2025. There were layoffs in December, and it was sold before the new year.

For their last day today, Soen was doing a beautiful shaved ice popup. Rumors used to rent a studio downtown above Courier, where Soen is based. I didn't get any because it was cold as heck outside and I did not want a mountain of ice, but I did reminisce on that particular past life and feel just sort of like, old. Cool!

I do selfishly hope that Electrica's owner opens something else eventually, but also absolutely understand if this is a great excuse to leave the coffee industry, because it seems unbelievably hard to run a shop like this. For my final order, he made me the best matcha of my life, with fresh peach syrup. I hate change!!!