The Society Cafe

Coffee, a fireplace and a hotel lobby share one room here. The cafe at The Society Hotel sits in the middle of the ground floor rather than off to one side, so the counter doubles as the building’s front room. Breakfast and sandwiches run through the day, and the bar list carries the evening.

A lobby counter in Old Town Chinatown

This is the coffee shop, bar and lounge of The Society Hotel in Portland’s Old Town Chinatown, not a standalone restaurant. The setting does much of the work: the hotel occupies a restored 1881 building that began as lodging for sailors, and the original materials are still visible in the room. The hotel opened in 2015, and the cafe has served guests, neighbours and passers-by since. A fireplace runs more or less constantly, the seating is soft and generous rather than dining-room formal, and a rooftop deck upstairs adds a second view of the city. The result is a lobby that behaves like a public room rather than a hotel’s waiting area.

Coffee early, wine and beer later

The drink list is deliberately broad for a hotel cafe: coffee, tea and cold drinks alongside wine, beer and cocktails, which lets one room carry the whole day. Chai and the latte are the two drinks guests come back for. Food follows the same logic, with pastries and all-day breakfast in the morning, sandwiches at midday, and sides, snacks and sweets filling the gaps. It is counter service with seating, so a traveller can start the day here, a local can meet someone, and a hotel guest can move from coffee to a glass of wine without leaving the building.

Order the sourdough breakfast sandwich

Start with the breakfast sandwich on sourdough, the most specific thing the kitchen makes and the truest expression of the house style. It holds up as an early breakfast or a late one, which matters in a room that keeps breakfast on all day. Pair it with the latte if espresso is the usual order, or the chai if it is not. Sandwiches anchor the middle of the day and the pastry case is the simplest addition. The rest of the appeal is the room: comfortable seats, a working fireplace, and an 1881 building that has never quite stopped being a place where people wait, meet and pass through.