It’s a typical Portland story, and one that seems too good to
be true. A couple starts selling food at the farmers’ market,
attracting a clutch of groupies every week. They open their own
café in a decidedly untrendy part of town. Most everything is
made from scratch, including homemade ice cream, with other goods
provided by small, local purveyors. They cater to cyclists in
particular. Oh, and they blog the heck out of the whole affair.
Meanwhile, the local food community falls all over itself in rapturous
acclaim.
In the case of Ali Jepson and Evan Dohrmann, it’s all true, and the
acclaim is well deserved. The Portland natives opened the Little Red
Bike Café on the outskirts of St. Johns, and it’s already a
local landmark. A red bicycle sits atop the building, and an
after-hours “bike-through” window is open an hour or two after regular
closing time. Everything’s been painted a fresh shade of adorable, and
there are retro touches throughout.
The Little Red Café serves an abbreviated but focused menu,
featuring a small variety of sandwiches for breakfast and lunch. It’s
supplemented by an assortment of creative specials appearing on the
weekend menu.
For breakfast, try the Zoobomb sandwich, with egg, cheese, aioli,
and caramelized onions on ciabatta. If that sounds unconventional, it
works, although it’s remarkably messy: Biting through the sturdy, tasty
ciabatta often results in an explosion of egg and cheese at the edges
of the sandwich. It’s also not the hangover-smothering breakfast trough
that you may be used to—portions at the Little Red Bike
Café are never excessive. (This is a fine thing, because it
leaves room for vegan baked goods from Dovetail Bakery, or some of that
excellent homemade ice cream.)
Of the regular lunchtime offerings, go for the remarkable turkey and
avocado sandwich. The roast beef sandwich is less successful; the meat
is gloriously pink and soft, but the caramelized onions and gorgonzola
make the affair a hint too rich for a midday refresher. Keep an eye on
the specials board, though: I had the Three’s Company, a pesto grilled
cheese sandwich served with a garlic-tomato soup and salad, and it was
the ideal winter lunch for a day that saw hail and freezing rain.
Coffee is provided by Southeast Portland’s bike-based Courier Coffee
Roasters, and it’s black, thick, and hearty—the way coffee should
be. Meanwhile, awesomely addictive milkshakes come in a Mason jar with
a dollop of whipped cream. Flavors rotate weekly: On recent visits, the
peanut butter chocolate chip and the Vietnamese coffee were both
fantastic.
The café’s popularity results in perhaps its only drawback.
The small room is cramped to begin with, and it’s often crowded to
capacity. And the staff, while unflinchingly friendly, is often rushed
to get the work done.
The Little Red Bike Café is charmingly inviting, and while
very much of this moment, it’s not especially trendy. The food is
uniquely good, and ever-changing weekend specials make return visits
especially rewarding. There are plans to expand the hours to dinnertime
and serve house-made pot pies—for updates, visit their blog at
blog.littleredbikecafe.com.
Even if it all seems a little too cutesy, the Little Red Bike
Café manages to pull it off.