Spotlight: LatTéa
LatTéa is a locally owned, family-run tea and coffee shop in Portland’s Jade District. The cafe serves handcrafted milk teas, fruit teas, specialty coffee, and creative drinks inspired by Asian flavors and the treats the owners grew up enjoying. The husband-and-wife team behind LatTéa, Mark and Hannah, love experimenting with flavors like ube, matcha, guava, and passion fruit, all while putting their own spin on familiar favorites.
“Hannah has always dreamed of owning her own café,” Mark shared, “So opening our shop has been about much more than starting a business. We wanted to create a welcoming place where people can enjoy a great drink, spend time with friends and family, and feel connected to the community.”
How do you feel Portland shapes or influences your business or work?
Mark: Portland has shaped our business because it has shaped who I am. I was born and raised here, and some of my earliest memories are of walking up and down SE Division Street and seeing iconic Asian businesses like Legion, Canton Grill, and Hung Far Low. Those places were simply part of what Portland felt like to me growing up.
My family also has roots in small business here. My uncle owned a Filipino grocery store just two blocks from where our shop is today and was one of the earliest Filipino grocery store owners in Portland. Years later, Hannah and I have the opportunity to build something of our own in the same neighborhood.
Now I get to walk these same streets with my son, stop at local shops with him, and watch him experience the neighborhood in his own way. It really brings things full circle. Portland isn’t just where our business is located—it’s part of our family’s story, and that influences the kind of neighborhood business we want to be.
What is your favorite part about owning a small business?
Mark: My favorite part is seeing something that started as Hannah’s dream become a real place that people have made part of their everyday lives.
One of the things that means the most to us is the relationship we’ve built with local students. We try to make our café a safe and welcoming place for them to hang out after school, especially for students whose parents may still be at work and can’t pick them up right away. For some families, our shop has even become a familiar meeting or pickup spot. Getting to know the students, seeing them come in after school, and being able to “look out” for them in our own small way is genuinely one of the highlights of our day.
We also love seeing familiar faces walk through the door, getting to know our customers, watching families come in together, and hearing that someone has a favorite drink they keep coming back for. Those relationships are what make owning a neighborhood business feel so personal.
It’s also incredibly rewarding knowing that our son gets to grow up around what we’re building together. Owning a small business definitely comes with its challenges, but being able to build something as a family while creating a place that our community—and especially its younger generation—feels comfortable calling their own makes all of the hard work worthwhile.
What else would you like to share?
Mark: As a minority-owned, family-run business, we’re grateful to have the opportunity to build something of our own in a community with so much history and diversity.
Sometimes I think about my uncle running his Filipino grocery store here years ago, Hannah dreaming about someday owning a café, and myself walking Division Street as a kid. Now we’re raising our son here while building our own small business just blocks from where my uncle once had his shop.
We’re still growing and learning, and we know we’re only one small part of a much bigger community. But we hope that over time, our shop can become one of those neighborhood places that people remember fondly—the same way I remember the businesses I grew up around.
For us, this is Hannah’s dream, our family’s next chapter, and our opportunity to contribute something of our own to the city we call home.
