Spotlight: PDX Coffee Club
PDX Coffee Club barista, Gabe Messeri (left), and owner/founder, Joe Shum Seruto (right)
PDX Coffee Club has one location in Hillsdale and is planning to return to downtown for a second location in July.
Tell us about your business.
PDX Coffee Club is a 100% Portland-sourced multi-roast coffee café. I moved to Portland from LA in 2020 to manage Stumptown. The tourists who came were asking “what the hell happened to Portland?” I moved here because I love Portland and I wanted to change that narrative about Portland. If I opened a coffee cart exclusively with coffee from Portland, people could visit and leave feeling excited about that. It started as a way to share how awesome Portland and the Portland coffee scene is.
How do you feel Portland shapes or influences your business or work?
Portland is our company. One thing that makes Portland unique is specialty coffee. There is such a broad range of sourcing and roasting of coffee. We have at least 75 local roasters. By comparison, LA had maybe 10-15 good roasters. All of Portland’s roasters have their own unique vision and twist to roasting and sourcing coffees. We try to form a collection of the uniquely exciting coffee each time someone comes in. We bring on new roasters frequently. There is always something new to showcase.
If you could go back to the beginning, what would you have done differently?
I would trust myself a bit more. I trust if I am excited about it, someone else will be too. Don’t be afraid to ask. I often felt like I was too small, and no one would want to talk with me. But a lot of times if you share what you are doing and why, it can resonate. You never know who can be part of the journey. As the business got busier, Vicente, my husband, started joining to learn the business and support while he was studying for his architecture license.
What is your favorite part about owning a small business?
I love hospitality. The people I get to serve, the people I get to work with and the product that I get to provide. It makes me so happy to see that people enjoy the time that they had and time that they shared. You can get a little better every day and see marginal improvements to what you are doing.
What role does your community play in your business?
Community has been huge. There is both the community of coffee professionals that support our business and the community that we serve. Coffee professionals work together to provide coffees that are better and have a message behind them. It is good to work together with the community. The community that we serve, beyond keeping us alive, is so rewarding—to see them respond positively and come with their families. It Is great to see them resonate with what we want to share. We are so grateful that they continue to come.
What draws you to open a second location downtown?
When I visited Portland before, I always visited downtown. In fact, I only visited downtown. I only learned about east or north Portland when I moved here. I fell in love with the city as a tourist and wanted to return. I want people to come here and fall for the city like I did. I came as a coffee tourist, wanting to try all of these coffees. I want people to come here, try a coffee that becomes their new favorite coffee experience and know there are so many equally amazing coffees they still have to try. I am excited to be close to downtown and near the Saturday market so people realize that Portland is still awesome and the news is wrong.
What has been your biggest success to date?
There are multiple ways to define success. What gives me most joy is that people resonate with what we are doing. If you were to measure it financially, the business has grown month or month since we started. We now have a team and can buy equipment, but mostly it is nice that people are in love with Portland coffee as we are.
What has been your biggest challenge?
There were challenges with the building downtown as well as navigating lease challenges, figuring out what is the right move that doesn’t kill your business. It is hard, but I have never lost faith in what we are doing. These obstacles were ones that I never had to face in hospitality when I wasn’t the owner. I am grateful because they are opportunities to learn the difference between owning and managing a business. You have to trust yourself enough that you won’t tank the business. When we moved from downtown to Hillsdale, we were very nervous about leaving all the relationships we built. On our first day, we did less than $200. I was sure that I had killed the business. But then, it slowly grew again. Trust yourself and don’t let your mind spiral.
What's your best advice for someone who wants to start or run their own small business?
Trust your gut. Follow what excites you. Don’t compromise on your values. When making a decision, I ask if it moves my core values forward. If not, it isn’t the right path to take.
