Heart Coffee Roasters
I had the privilege of visiting both the east and west side locations of Heart Coffee Roasters in Portland mid last year. Their coffee is served in multiple shops throughout Los Angeles and beyond so I'm familiar with and have purchased their coffee for at home brewing. I love using their coffee's in my Aeropress while on the road - and Chemex while at home.
Part 1. Westside
I started my day off at their Westside location in the downtown area of Portland. A sick looking shop with beautiful natural light coming in those huge windows. The photographer in me wanted to shoot natural light portaits in there all day long.
Some of the Westside Crew doing their thing.
The amazing selection of food trucks just a few blocks away led to a nice lunch break for not only the baristas but also myself.
Part 2. Eastside
After lunch, I made my way over to their original Eastside location, that up until recently also served as their main roasting operations. They now have a roasting facility that looks impressive from the few photo's I've seen of it online.
Heart was founded by Wille and Rebekah Yli-Luoma in 2009. Wille was a professional snowboarder who started roasting at home - was rocking out some amazing coffee and BOOM Heart was born. Ok, I skipped a few steps in the timeline but you get the point. They're doing their thing and doing it well.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet either of them in person. Rebekah was out on maternity leave and Wille was roasting while I was shooting. But lets' just say that that dude was so focused - never even looked my way - that I didn't get the vibe that he wanted to be disturbed. It was only after he left that I found out he was the co founder from one of the baristas.
They even have a sign above their Probat that says, "Please do not disturb the roaster operator". And I didn't. Ha.
Wille doing his thing, rocking out some sick coffee - even the bearded dude to the right is eyeing that coffee saying, "Gimme that coffee"
Check out that blue/purple flame from the roaster. So sick.
Shooting the cafe behind me through reflections/items on the bookshelf
I loved the lighting in both of their locations
The Westside crew rockin' out in that beautiful light.
Lastly, I want to apologize to both Wille and Rebkah for the delay in getting this post out. I am grateful to you both for allowing me to feature Heart on this site, so I appreciate your patience.