University Park Coffee sells cheaper drinks than Starbucks and offers a quiet place for study sessions
By Maureen Inouye
Last week, we urged you to step out of your comfort zone and try new places with our special "Best of Portland" section. Well, here's the best new alternative to Starbucks: University Park Coffee on North Lombard Street.
University Park Coffee opened in April. This small café is slightly cheaper than Starbucks and has a better drink selection. Take Starbucks' prices and subtract about 25 to 50 cents. Along with the usual espresso drinks, University Park also offers Italian sodas, juices, smoothies and Rockstar energy drinks.
"They make the best sweetened green iced tea ever," junior Mary Supinski said.
Free Wi-Fi and a connecting door to Darcy's Restaurant make University Park Coffee a great find for both hanging out and eating. Darcy's offers basic café fare - sandwiches, soups, salads - that you can take to go and eat in University Park.
While the food selection at University Park Coffee itself isn't very diverse, there is an assortment of pastries, cookies, fruit and breakfast sandwiches.
"We had a lot of students when we opened, and now we have them because of the specials," senior Sheena Harkness said. Harkness is an employee at the coffee shop.
University Park offers a two-for-one deal on coffee, good through Oct. 31, for students with UP ID. Eventually, the coffee shop also hopes to have live music.
The high, whimsical-looking chairs and round tables are perfect for small-group study sessions. But larger groups will have to split up.
"They only have one big table. It's kind of lame when you get there to work with a group of people and it's taken," junior Jennifer Brookes said.
Maybe University Park Coffee is better for the evenings when you want to sit down, by yourself, and pound out a paper or study for a test. Unlike many coffee places, it's quiet enough to work without distractions.
Once you've found your table, order your drink, let the employees bring it to you at your table, and enjoy the quiet neighborhood atmosphere. But you can't enjoy it for too long - the shop is open only until 7 p.m.
University Park Coffee wants to appeal to students and plans to stay open for 24 hours during reading week and finals week for the inevitable late-night studying we all find necessary at some point in our college careers.
