Heart Roasters

Is it possible to be too serious about coffee?  The first time I visited this roastery and cafe located at 2211 East Burnside, I observed one of the staff doing a pour-over.  She had a look on her face not unlike a lab technician extracting a newly discovered cancer cure from a DNA helix.  She spent what seemed like an eternity oh-so-slowly pouring hot water over perfectly ground and measured coffee.  When the pour-over was finished, she deeply inhaled the resulting coffee's aroma.  Then she walked away and came back a minute later to once again inhale with zen-like focus.  Another minute passed, and she inhaled again.  I never saw her take a drink.  Maybe she never did.

All that seriousness apparently pays off, because Heart makes really good coffee.  And the space they offer for drinking it will appeal to those who favor a clean retro-modern aesthetic.  It's a bit hard to describe, but their custom colored (and gorgeous) espresso machine offers some clues:

The baristas take their time getting the best out of this machine, which features gauges and paddles for each group to precisely control pressure and water flow.

Not all of the machines make coffee at Heart.  They also have a 1970's stereo with real speakers playing interesting music at listening (rather than background) volume.  There's even a turntable, but it seems to be used mostly as a place to rest iPods.

  

If you order an espresso, you will have your choice of a couple single origin beans.  The Kenyan I had on a recent visit was deep and raisiny.  A double shot is $3, which seems at the north end of reasonable, and looks something like this:

It will be delicious, and the perfect thing to sweep the cobwebs from a foggy brain on a rainy afternoon.