Roasting Meets Cocktails in Beaverton at the Roastery by Ava

Coffee roasting inside the new Roastery By Ava cocktail bar and roastery. All images courtesy of Ava Roasteria.

Beaverton, Oregon-based coffee company Ava Roasteria has hit first crack on the cocktail scene with a downtown bar fully devoted to coffee-focused libations called Roastery by Ava.

Lit entirely with trim lighting and candles, the low-key, intimate space offers full views of Ava’s integrated roastery, where a black-and-brass San Franciscan SF-25 browns the beans for each of Ava’s four other retail locations, including the original cafe across the street.

Since its grand opening on Friday, Feb. 9, Roastery By Ava has focused on a combination of creative new concoctions and a sturdy foundation of classic coffee cocktails such as espresso martinis, Spanish and Irish coffees and more. Each of these drinks feature coffees selected and roasted to complement the cocktail recipes.

“Each drink that you see on the menu is going to have a specific roast for them,” Ava Roasteria Head Roaster Amirali Khosravani Daily Coffee News. “For our espresso martinis, I wanted a sweeter coffee so we use a washed Huila, Colombia; our Spanish coffee we want more kick in it, we’re using Mandheling, Sumatra; our Irish coffee, we wanted to make it a little different and more floral, so we use Yirgacheffe.”

Roastery By Ava Bar Manager Nathan Buell told DCN that about 80% of the drinks on the menu include coffee, while 0thers riff off of additional traditional coffee shop offerings, such chai and matcha-based drinks.

“When I think about caffeine and libations, two things that a lot of people around the world consume on a daily basis, blending them together wasn’t a difficult plan,” Buell said. “Considering we are open later at night in a downtown community in a city, it definitely attracts a large group of people that enjoy drinking coffee late at night. Coffee and different types of spirits blend together harmoniously.”

The wood of the shop’s paneling, floors, furniture and bars reinforces the warmth of the space, which is further decorated with framed patent diagrams and blueprints depicting early coffee equipment, bartending tools and classic cocktails.

“It goes along with the theme of a photograph on our center wall of these two ladies roasting during World War One, the early days of coffee roasting on a really old, primitive coffee roaster,” Ava Roasteria Social Media Manager Giuliano Cavazos told DCN. “That’s been here since we first opened up as a roaster here, so Nathan’s added some pretty neat pieces that complement that.”

From the Roastery kitchen come appetizers such as an olive plate, rosemary bar nuts and house-made hummus. Hot open-faced sandwiches and other heartier fare are made with local ingredients, while desserts such as tiramisu and an espresso ganache cake are also produced in house. A boozy affogato frangelico is assembled table-side for customers.

On Saturday mornings, the shop offers manual pourovers of higher-end coffees, scoring 86 and above, that are also available in 10-ounce retail bags. For regular cafe service, customers are encouraged to head across the street to the original shop.

The new bar represents an exciting new chapter for Ava, which was founded 19 years ago by Amy Saberiyan and her husband Homayoon Haddad. The company is currently planning to open another Portland-area Ava Roasteria cafe, bakery and roastery in new a three-story multi-use building, with design and construction starting this spring.

Said Cavazos, “We’ve been using this space to pilot what we’ll be doing there on a bigger level.”

The Roastery by Ava is located at 4770 S.W. Hall Blvd. in Beaverton. Tell DCN’s editors about your new coffee shop or roastery here.