Ava Roasteria has something for everyone — with even more to come!
- Outside seating area provides a great social gathering place for patrons on weather permitting days.
Beaverton, OR— Where is Beaverton’s go-to meeting place? If you measure it by its private blend coffee and baked-fresh-this-morning pastries, then that place might well be the Ava Roasteria coffee house at the corner of SW Hall Blvd. and Second Street.
On the other hand, if you measure a meeting place as where folks get together at noon for deluxe deli sandwiches — well then it would be at 4770 SW Hall Blvd.
If the measure of a meeting place is a refuge that stays open 24 hours each and every day, well … You figured it out, didn’t you?
Add to that a 50-seat event space and a dark-paneled conference room in a building across the street and you would be forced to concede that there’s no place like this place anywhere near this place.
Humble beginnings
For years the building on the northwest corner of SW Hall Blvd. and Second Street was a central place to bring your car for a fill-up or to put it on the lift for an oil change. Unfortunately, time and corrosion ruined the gas station. Pipes began to leak. Toxic fluids seeped into the ground.
Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) — in effect — said “Clean up or get out.”
The price of cleaning up the pollution exceeded any potential profits. The owner had little choice under the circumstances. He got out.
The DEQ pitched in and performed enough emergency rehabilitation to make the site relatively clean.
Along came a small group of business people with a vision. Instead of pumping gas into cars, they asked, “Why not pour coffee into cups?”
The project required substantially more excavation to remove the contaminated sub-soil. Earth moving equipment arrived and hauled off polluted waste. Truckloads of clean soil arrived and crews began reworking the surface: paving for customer parking, terraces and shelter for outdoor Arabica sippers and croissant noshers, water bubbling up in a man-made spring follows in a bubbling stream on two sides of the site.
- Inside Ava Roasteria exudes warmth and showcases complimentary foods and beverages.
The interior took on its own new personality. Gone were the oil cans and filters. No more stacks of second-hand tires for vintage wagons. The hydraulic lifts receded into the ground — destined to become an enigma for 31st century archeologists to ponder.
In their place came coffee brewers, pastry counters and tables and chairs. From the ceiling, floating islands housing lighting fixtures. On the walls, curved six foot pillars jut out here and there. (You’ll never, never guess their function!)
The people in Beaverton responded: at any hour you’ll find couples getting acquainted over hot coffee and warm muffins. The inevitable wanna-be screenwriter sits by himself by the back wall, his lap-top computer at the ready to type the greatest line since “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
Building on Success
The Pacific Northwest is inundated with coffee shops and coffee cabanas for drivers trying to jar themselves awake for the morning commute.
Therefore, to stand out, a business must look at more than a just a good cup of coffee. Ava Roasteria defines its objective as “not just the coffee, but an experience.” In addition to the coffee, the physical surroundings, the employees, the pastries and sandwiches and a general ambiance generate a special feeling.
How do you know when your business has succeeded? Customers will tell you with every greenback ballot they cast at the cash register.
- Excavation of the gas station required removal of contaminated soil from the property to ensure the establishment is safe and eco-friendly.
Success implies the next step. Successful businesses have a tendency to expand.
With the success of Ava Roasteria, alert eyes focused on an impressive new commercial center currently under construction on SW Barrows Road in the southern part of Beaverton.
The $90 million Progress Ridge TownSquare, anchored by a luxurious 50,000 square foot Cinetopia, is set to open around Sept. 11, 2011. In early December, most of the massive concrete walls had been poured. Tons of steel I-beams lay in the parking lot awaiting placement in building interiors.
Picture this: after two hours in the comfortable seats at Cinetopia watching Hollywood’s latest spectacular, how nice would it be to take a few steps to the new Ava Roasteria and discuss the film at your leisure — and not worry about having the coffee house shoo you out at closing time. (No closing time at Ava Roasteria, remember?)
Other high visibility operations at Progress Ridge TownSquare will include a 41,000 square foot New Seasons grocery. About eight other shops will join Ava Roasteria and New Seasons.
Across the street, Big Al’s Family Bowling center opened in August. After a few lines at this Texas-size, space-age, high-energy, family friendly bowling alley and restaurant, a stop at Ava Roasteria will furnish a needed cup to settle the nerves.
To help move Ava Roasteria’s expansion forward, Albina Opportunities Corporation (AOC) moved into the picture. Terry Brandt, Executive Director of the nonprofit small business lender, says that AOC targets its loans to minority- and women-owned small businesses that have a good track record. Ava Roasteria is the very model of that description.
Congress, take note. Perhaps the key to an economic recovery lies in the creativity of bright, idealistic people — and a lender that is willing to provide the funds and support to help them succeed.