Founder Duane Sorenson and Stumptown Coffee Roasters have been labeled as part of the third wave of coffee movement.[6][7] Sorenson and his employees visited coffee farms in person and reportedly paid high prices for beans, occasionally three or four times the fair trade price.[8] He once set the record for highest price ever paid for coffee beans.[9][10][11]
Sorenson also offered atypical perks to his employees such as paying for a compilation album to be produced of their various bands,[12] and hiring a full-time on-staff massage therapist.[13] Stumptown received the Roaster of the Year 2006, an award from a technical trade magazine called Roast Magazine[13]
In January 2014, the company began selling coffee, pre-mixed with milk, in grocery stores.[14] In 2015, Stumptown Coffee Roasters was bought by Peet's Coffee for an undisclosed amount.[4]
Locations
Stumptown operates five cafes in Portland. They are located on SE 45th & Division St., SE 34th & Belmont, downtown at SW 3rd & Ash St., inside the Ace Hotel at 1022 SW Stark Street, and at the Portland International Airport. The company also owns a roasting facility and a retail annex inside their headquarters at 100 SE Salmon St. The original location on SE Division was previously a hair salon called "The Hair Bender," whose name Stumptown adopted for one of their signature espresso blends.[citation needed]
In November 2007, Stumptown opened two cafes in Seattle.[15] In September 2009, the company also launched a cafe in New York's Ace Hotel.[16] A temporary "pop-up" location appeared in Amsterdam's De Pijp neighborhood in May 2010.[17] Opened by Sorenson, he claimed it was never intended to be permanent and closed its doors that same year.
In 2013, Stumptown opened a second New York City café and a café/roaster in Los Angeles.[18] Additional cafes have also opened in Chicago and New Orleans. Stumptown opened their third New York cafe in a historic Brooklyn firehouse in the summer of 2018.[19] A location at the Portland International Airport opened in 2024.[20][21]
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and loss in business, Stumptown permanently closed three cafe locations in Seattle, Chicago in the Ace Hotel and downtown Los Angeles. [22]
Reception
Stumptown won in the Best Coffee (Locally Roasted) category of Willamette Week's annual 'Best of Portland' readers' poll in 2006.[23] It was a runner-up in the Best Coffee Shop category in 2017 and won in the Best Coffee Roaster category in 2018.[24][25] Stumptown was a runner-up and ranked second in the Best Coffee category in 2020 and 2022, respectively.[26][27]
^Clarke, Kelly (December 8, 2004). "Unwrapped". Willamette Week. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
^Griswold, David (September–October 2004). "Worth Its Weight". Roast Magazine. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
