From Esquire:

…As in those weeks after Kurt’s death, my phone has not stopped ringing lately. “Did you hear? Can you believe the news?” And although I’m legally bound not to disclose particulars of the breakup, with so many other sources speaking about it, I can now publicly comment. You see, some days ago, a rock band broke up — this one in the form of another promising coffee roaster selling itself to Wall Street. Duane Sorenson, the founder of Stumptown, the Che Guevara of the rock-star barista movement, sold his life’s work to the highest bidder.

Eater PDX claims it has sources that say the rumors aren’t true, but Ben Waterhouse over at Willamette Week has pointed out that Stumptown’s recent filing was under the authority of a foreign business corporation.

C’mon, Portlanders. One of you knows something. You can’t keep a secret. Spill it.

28 replies on “Say It Ain’t So!”

  1. What’s the big deal? No one spoke up when Duane left his wife and children to move to Brooklyn to pursue his coffee dreams. If he’s willing to fuck them over, why should he care any more about a supposed “coffee community”?

  3. Ah yes – have darker skinned people than you cut down their local vegetation to grow a bush then have them take the cherry off the bush, remove the bean, dry it and spend lots of carbon to send it to you on a different continent where you can hire people making minimum wage to roast the beans and then process it with boiling water and sell to people who can’t even afford to pay off their school loans so they can consume it while muttering about how locovore they are and how they totally support their ‘local’ coffee community. IT’S TOTALLY PUNK ROCK!

  10. it’s fucking coffee get a hobby… oh and drink tea its healthier and you dont have to listen to hipsters digress about it all day.

  13. Stumptown’s been heading in this direction for a while, and we really shouldn’t be shocked. Even if they do sell out, though, we’ve still got plenty of other options. This town has over twenty five other coffee roasters. There will still be several tiny places to get good coffee.

  14. I’ll declare them to have “sold out” when I can actually detect a difference at my local Stumptown cafe. I don’t much care whose names are on what licenses if the coffee is good, the atmosphere is fine, and the staff treats me well — all currently true. I really don’t begrudge people in other cities getting to enjoy what I do.

  17. @ JStreckart, +1. Water Ave’s the best right now, in my opinion, go support them if you care about selling out type stuff. Ristretto’s good, too.

  24. because it’s trying to win at being one of those things old oregonians can get all nostalgic about. no hippie cookies, no “anything but blue jeans” dress code, all meh.

  27. @23, yeah I miss me some Coffee People, too. For awhile I worked at the Starbucks that had taken over a CP (fishbowl on Weidler), people would still try to order Coffee People drinks and items through the drivethrough. 🙂

  28. The only reason I know there is still a coffee people at the airport is because they are ALWAYS HIRING on craigslist.

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