much coffee has helped you grow your business?

Grow my beard.

And your beard?

Yeah, if it wasn't for coffee,

my beard would be as long as it is today.

I think mine is growing too.

I shaved this morning.

Wow! That's amazing.

So, by tonight, I'll look like this?

Yeah, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

My name is Gabi Chai.

I'm a fishmonger from New England and I recently

moved to Portland, Oregon which is a mecca of high

quality weirdos, artist and most importantly,

a bustling and thriving food scene.

I invite you to come with me on my journey through

my new state of Oregon.

To experience and

taste every flavor that this place has to offer.

I'm starting off my adventure with some of

Portland's most innovative chefs and

restaurateurs.

These are the taste-makers that have

put Portland on the map as one of the best places

to dine and drink in the country.

When it comes to coffee in Portland,

nothing beats Stumptown.

We're here at the original location on

Southeast Division Street

where the empire was started.

I'm here to meet with Duane Sorenson,

the creator of Stumptown coffee, to find out

how his has business blossomed and how his

success is a way that he honors Portland's roots.

I just got back

yesterday from Ethiopia Wow!

Wanna try some of that coffee?

Yes. Let's do it.

Take a whiff of that.

Nice?

Delicious, yes.

A huge inspiration when I started Stumptown

is to have a relationship with the coffee farmers

all over the world,

understand what their challenges are.

So I can pay them wages so

they can treat their coffee pickers in a way

that, it could be sustainable.

You gotta get down, you gotta meet, gotta hug,

gotta communicate.

We just celebrated our 15 year anniversary.

I started it November first of 1999.

Did you party like it was 1999?

I'm still partying like it's 1999.

Cheers to that.

Amazing.

Yeah thanks.

That's good! Why

did you name it Stumptown?

Coming up with a name for the company

was the hardest thing I've probably ever done.

But Stumptown is the the name

of Portland isn't it?

Stumptown's the name of Portland so it was easy.

That's why I named it Stumptown.

I'm actually getting hot from this coffee,

I gotta take off a layer.

Whoa. I'm sorry I feel

like this coffee is starting to really.

Is starting to work?

Yeah, did you know that you were doing a new

thing with coffee?

Or were you just doing your own thing?

I was just doing my own thing.

You know, people said I was crazy.

They were like Portland doesn't need more coffee.

They don't need another coffee roaster.

Naysayers.

But I did it.

You did it.

And I'm still doing it.

I'm so proud of you.

I'm proud.

You can say it, of yourself.

I'm proud.

I love you. Oh.

You should try cool drip.

Being a lover of Guinness beer and

being a lover of iced coffee and

cold-brewed coffee, I reached out to a lot of

brewer friends of mine and was like,

hey is it possible to put coffee on nitro?

They were like, yeah, let's give it a shot.

So fingers were crossed and look what happened.

It just.

That looks exactly like Guinness.

The flavor, the mouth-fill, is so clean,

so smooth.

Oh my God.

Mm-hm.

So good.

You know what I do sometimes?

Put ice cream in it.

Oh my gosh.

Yes, oh my gosh.

I love you.

I love the east side of Portland, well I love all

of Portland but you know, I started Stumptown

on the east side, southeast division, and

every street that you go over a major street it's

like it's a little village and community.

I wanted to give back to the neighborhood that

helped me build Stumptown,

so, I've opened up some restaurants that.

Right here on Division?

Right here on Division.

Right next door.

Oh, this place is your place?

Well, yeah, that's my place.

Wanna go see it?

Yes! Let's go see it!

Okay!

All right.

All right! Let's eat seafood!

Welcome to the Woodsman Tavern.

Thank you. Yea,

all your dreams are going to come true here.

See, I waited for you to sit down.

You are such a gentleman.

Nice? Yea, it was nice.

Woodsman, Stumptown, both lumber references.

I didn't even

think about that until you mentioned it.

Who is the woodsman?

I'm the woodsman.

I was setting you up for that one.

Yea, I hit it out of the park, didn't I?

Yeah, you did good.

How many employees do you have now?

A million.

Really?

No, I'm, no.

Hey, thanks man.

Yeah, of course.

Holy macro!

Holy molly!

This has mussels, Oregon shrimp, dungy crabbies.

Oysters.

You have to literally stand up like a beast to

eat something like this.

Mm-hm, I feel like King Kong.

This is me though.

Try the mussels.

Okay.

They're smoked.

Oh that's good.

All right that was nice.

Here you go.

This is an awesome seafood thing.

I'm definitely coming back.

Do you hang out here a lot?

All the time.

Really? Uh-huh.

So people can come in here and

get your autograph?

Yeah, totally.

Really, this has been awesome Duane.

My pleasure.

Food trucks have existed throughout our country

for many years in the form of hotdog stands,

taco trucks, shawarmas, stuff like that.

But here in Portland, things are different.

Vendors continually push the boundaries when it

comes to creativity and ingenuity.

In their foods.

I'm from the East Coast.

I've never seen anything like it.

One.

Yes.

So, just chicken and rice?

Yes, it's common where I came from.

You do one dish, but you do it like, serious.

Chinese like, secret of like, generations.

The food is common, but this is my version.

Do you eat it often?

I eat it for five years already.

Thank you.

So I'm just gonna go for it.

Oh my god, this is so good.

That is comfort food, at it's best.

It's ginger, garlic.

The chicken is like, cooked to perfection.

It's super tender.

In Portland you can't have any pre-judgements

about the place that your food is coming from,

because this comes from a street cart.

It's like, better than what you could get in

a sit-down restaurant.

I mean it's just perfect.

You are my hero!

I would love it if you guys would make me

a custom crepe.

Oh yah, of course.

All right, well I just ate a ton of chicken so

something sweet Pecans?

You have a sweet side?

Yeah. Yeah. I'm on the sweet side.

We can do that. See when I moved here

it wasn't a thing.

It was just their food carts and there for

downtown.

It's gotten to a point now where

you do something really,

really good you just don't get any attention.

So people are stepping up their game?

Yeah, absolutely.

Using good purveyors, using good produce.

And then doing one thing really, really well.

Like naan.

Mm. Delicious. There you go.

So this is a special crepe

that he made for me.

Nutella, chocolate, strawberry.

A little bit of rum.

And of course, the most important ingredient

which is the crepe itself.

What stands out the most to me is the texture of

the crepe, it's chewy but crispy, and

it's not too light.

Mm.

Crepes, in general, remind me of home,

because my mom use to make us crepes for

breakfast when I was little.

Come here, give me a hug creeper.

It's amazing how the food cart scene here has

elevated street food to a new level of legitimacy.

In much the same way, Chef Gabriel Rucker,

the owner of Le Pigeon Restaurant shakes things

up by creating classic dishes with unexpected

ingredients, like awful or pigeon legs.

When the James Gear Foundation named

him the best young chef in the US,

food fanatics started flocking to Portland.

Tonight I get to join him for

a home cooked meal with his family and

friends in Southeast Portland.

We're here at the largest Asian market in the state

of Oregon.

Gabrielle is going to select from a wide

variety of ingredients to make tonight's menu.

This is where I start my mornings a lot of times

in the week.

So, I thought we would just kinda peruse, and

come up with something fun to make.

Okay.

Le Pigeon started out with lots of like, offal.

These aren't the expensive luxury cut.

It's, it's like the real people's food in here.

Can we get five squid?

The ones in the back.

Too pink.

I'm really picky.

You're, yeah, I was gonna say, you're.

Because I'm a fish monger.

No, no, down, yes, yes.

Yeah, that.

And the one next to it.

That's fine.

Thanks man.

Does that look good?

I shouldn't say this, but

like when I'm just kinda cooking at home,

I'm not like, a crazy picky person.

Thank you.

Who knows if we'll use all this stuff,

but we'll sure give it the old college try.

Okay, what is this?

I don't know, that's the fun, you know?

Yeah. I like your style.