When Alfred Peet opened his shop in Berkeley in April, 1966 he started a coffee revolution. Nobody had ever seen top-quality coffee like this roasted in this unique style in America…..Mr. Peet was born in Alkmaar, Holland on March 10, 1920 and died in Ashland, Oregon on August 29, 2007. His father had a small coffee roastery in Alkmaar prior to World War II, and Alfred helped his father by cleaning machinery and doing other odd jobs as a boy. When Germany invaded the Netherlands he was pressed into working for the Third Reich in Frankfurt and witnessed first hand the intensive Allied bombings there in early 1944.

For the rest of the story……

First off let me say that when I came to Portland I fell in love with the coffee shops, and quickly learned that Stumptown is the place to be seen. And I frequent Stumptown on Belmont and Fresh Pot on Hawthorne and enjoy any independent coffee shop, especially the ones open past 9 PM.

Part of the reason I feel somewhat justified of talking about a Bay Area Company is that one of the current owner's of Peet's Coffee and Tea, Jim Reynolds, is a native Oregonian and a pretty decent chap.

I worked for Peet's in San Francisco between 1990-1995 (shameless name dropping alert: one of my customers was the former lead singer of Black Flag). Back in 1990, Starbucks was still a Seattle novelty, small bands like Nrivana and Pearl Jam were running around stapling flyers on telephone poles, and independent coffee shops ruled the land.

I don't know the history of Peet's or when Jim and Jerry bought the joint, but I do know both Jim and Jerry are good people. In like '92 they gave me a month off so I could ride my bicycle through Idaho and down the Oregon Coast. When I got back from my ride, Jim stopped into the store to talk about growing up in Oregon.

One funny story that I remember from the talk around the water cooler days:

Back in the day a big name coffee company, who shall remain nameless, roasted peanuts as well as coffee. Well, when roasting peanuts one must deal with varmints like rats. And the way to deal with a rat is a cat. Unfortunately, one byproduct of cats is cat poo.

As legend has it, one day a customer came in suggesting that some coffee beans she had bought were burnt/spoiled. Upon inspection of the coffee beans a dark roasted cat turd was found to be the culprit. ☺

Ride On Alfred Peet — Ride on!

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“Newsflash: Some people like to drink coffee/do homework/read/catch up on email/eat a pastry after 9 pm. Yet you—dear Portland coffee shop—close at 8. Or 7. Why is this?”

Nice rant on the lack of late-night coffee (really non-bar is the truth) things to do in the PDX. Amy Ruiz covers the Fresh Pot, Albina Press, Common Grounds, and more. She does not seem to know (or like) Fireside on SE Powell which is 24-hours.

“Due to open this summer, the roastery will be in the basement with a Stumptown cafe above it. Another Stumptown cafe is opening a half-mile west at Pine Street and Boylston Avenue.”