Spella Caffè

Overview

Andrea Spella — raised above his grandmother's European bakery in Chicago, with family roots in Southern Italy — opened Spella Caffè as a coffee cart on Portland's SW 9th and Alder in October 2006, working a refurbished Italian Rancilio lever espresso machine. He had previously apprenticed for years with Kevin Knox and Paul Songer of Allegro Coffee in Colorado, and has built Spella since on a single principle: keeping the time-tested Italian espresso tradition alive while paying close attention to modern technique.

Known for

• One of the only hand-pulled lever espresso bars in the Pacific Northwest (refurbished Rancilio Classe 6 Leva)
• Trademarked "Tostatura Media Dolce®" / "Medium Sweet Roast®" Italian-style profile
• 5.5-kilo US Roaster Corp "Rossalina" production roaster in Southeast Portland
• Originator of the city's signature shakerato and a perennial Willamette Week / Food & Wine pick
• Mentor to a generation of Portland roasters — both Cascadia Coffee Roasters and Sterling Coffee founders apprenticed under him

Why it matters

Spella is the senior Italian-style espresso bar in a city otherwise defined by the lighter Stumptown / Heart / Coava lineage of third-wave roasting. Andrea Spella's role as apprentice-master to the Cascadia and Sterling founders — and his survival through closing the original 2010 cafe in 2022 and opening a new flagship a year later — gives him an outsized influence on Portland's coffee tree relative to his single-shop scale.

Production

destoning

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head roaster

Andrea Spella

color sorting

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roaster machine

5.5-kilo US Roaster Corp ("Rossalina")

filter equipment

Wilbur Curtis D500GT brewers; Bunn G2 grinder with modified burrs; Toddy-style cold brew

cupping frequency

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roastery location

Southeast Portland

espresso equipment

Refurbished 3-group Rancilio Classe 6 Leva (hand-pulled lever) with Mazzer Robur E and Super Jolly grinders

annual volume tonnes

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Café

608 SW Alder Street, Portland (downtown flagship, opened October 2023 in former Moonstruck Chocolate space); Harrison Square office building near Portland State University; Spella Caffè at Woodblock Chocolate, 1715 NE 17th Avenue (Irvington, opened 2024)

Recognitions

• The Oregonian — Best Espresso in Portland (2008)
• Willamette Week — Five "essential old-school Portland cafes" (2016)
• Food & Wine — Portland coffee scene feature (2019)

Sources

• https://www.spellacaffe.com/our-story-2
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spella_Caff%C3%A8
• https://dailycoffeenews.com/2023/11/02/spella-caffe-makes-triumphant-return-to-downtown-portland/
• https://dailycoffeenews.com/2022/06/07/portland-roasters-cascadia-sterling-and-spella-combine-for-shared-roastery/
• https://dailycoffeenews.com/2024/10/30/spella-caffe-spreads-la-dolce-vita-with-cafe-on-portlands-east-side/
• https://www.pdxmonthly.com/eat-and-drink/2023/10/spella-caffe-coffee-shop-reopening-downtown-portland
• https://portlandfoodanddrink.com/coffee-guide-spella-caffe/