Plastic cups of cà phê sữa đá, iced coffee with condensed milk, and cà phê đen, black coffee, have dotted tables at banh mi shops and pho restaurants around Portland for decades. For much of that time, Vietnamese coffee was synonymous with strong brews made with slow-drip metal phin filters. Now, the city’s Vietnamese coffee scene is evolving: a renaissance kicked into high gear in 2021, when Kim Dam opened Portland Cà Phê.
At the time, Dam didn’t see any other Vietnamese cafes in Portland’s robust coffee scene. “[I thought,] ‘I can’t wait for the day that I start seeing more people represent our coffee culture,’” Dam says.
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