day9.coffee day9

Portland · United States

Spella Caffè

Spella Caffè is one of 6 Portland roasters tracked on day9, in Oregon.

Since 2006 · Andrea Spella

Instagram

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

head roaster
Andrea Spella
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
roastery location
Southeast Portland
espresso equipment
Refurbished 3-group Rancilio Classe 6 Leva (hand-pulled lever) with Mazzer Robur E and Super Jolly grinders

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

Keep exploring

Previous (A-Z)
Speicherstadt Kaffeerösterei
Next (A-Z)
Spice Isle Coffee Company