A New Portland Pop-Up Vietnamese Cafe Is Slinging Fried Egg Banh Mis and Creamy Cà Phê

Portland’s Vietnamese cafe moment isn’t ending anytime soon. Friends Share Cà Phê, a new Sunday-only Vietnamese coffee shop pop-up, opened in the Friends Share community space in southeast Portland on November 2, 2024. The cafe comes from Daisy Cao, the founder and community programs director of Friends Share.

Friends Share Cà Phê

Friends Share Cà Phê was inspired in part by Cao’s childhood memories of drinking Folgers coffee with condensed milk and a baguette to dip every morning. Between 2015 and 2021, she worked in specialty coffee. As she immersed herself in the industry, Cao strived to learn everything she could about the process of bean to cup, including spending time in a roasting and production facility. After leaving the industry to work as an urban planner, Cao began to crave the simplicity of her childhood coffee, opting for pre-ground Cafe Du Monde beans and a phin filter over single-origin specialty coffee bags. “I think what I missed about Vietnamese coffee was how simple it is, how comforting it was to me, and how fun it was to share with other people because it appealed to everyone’s palate and was easy to understand,” Cao says in an email to Eater Portland.

Familiar comforts and connection are the heart of Cao’s work at Friends Share Cà Phê. She hopes that people will come and sit with friends instead of just picking up a quick cup before falling back into the busyness of everyday life. “Vietnamese coffee culture is more than just about getting your quick fix, it’s a social ritual,” Cao says.

Using beans sourced from Trung Nguyên, Friends Share Cà Phê offers coffee served black and with homemade soy milk-based vegan condensed milk. Both the black and the sweetened coffee are available hot or iced. In addition to coffee, the cafe serves hot and iced chocolate, as well as tea The food menu consists of fried egg (trứng ốp la), fried tofu (đậu hũ chiên), and fried chicken sausage (chả gà chiên) banh mis, served on baguettes from An Xuyên Bakery.

Cao is excited by the current wave of cafes opening in Portland offering Vietnamese coffee and food. With Vietnam being the second-largest coffee exporter in the world, she sees Friends Share Cà Phê as an “echo” of the country’s coffee culture and a way to offer a place to pause and connect to the local community. “We pride ourselves in being a third place,” Cao says. “A ‘neighborhood living room,’ and creating this space where people can immediately feel safe and at home is crucial for us.”

Friends Share Cà Phê is located at 14814 SE Powell Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97236, and is open Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Friends Share Cà Phê