Red and Black Cafe

So glad this piece of shit is closed. You won’t be missed.

The denial of service to anyone in this country is unconstitutional and anti-​American. I am not sorry to see your establishment closed as I would never have frequented your business knowing that you are stereotyping segregationists. Your biased views are perhaps more welcome in Iran-​best open a coffee shop over there.

Thks God it’s closed down. This place was a joke. I would never visit a dump like this place. Worst customer service n the food n drinks sucked

Never been to this place but… Never will either because the owner (a.k.a. Loser or Asshole) is a cop hater. F’ u bro!

Absolute disgrace. I hope they become a victim of some sort of crime and have to call the police. And when they do… I hope the police don’t come. How can you kick out a police officer because they make you feel unsafe. Maybe you should live in a third world country were police are truly oppressive and abuse their power. You are an ungrateful piece of work!

It’s sad Red and Black closed, because I was told it had its hey-​day several years ago and was given glowing reviews by friends who had eaten there on visits to Portland. The last time I went, it was clear they were having financial issues and problems with customers. The first time I went, my food was great, not amazing, but what you’d expect at a vegan diner. The final time (months before their closing) our food was microwaved and salty, the restaurant was dirty and smelled like unshowered body odor, the employees seemed ornery and distant, and the place was overrun with mentally disturbed junkies who harassed me while I ate. So sad!

Bad Service and Really Bad Food/​Drinks! Don’t waste your time here, they also have a lot of homeless in and around the shop

Great café that dose a wonderful job of making their space welcoming and beneficial to all kinds of great causes and people. Books to Prisoners, unions, and the houseless community in the area. They’re amazing.

The dragon noodles are pretty amazing. I love the community aspect. There is a urine smell that is undesirable.

It is my opinion that this place just sucks. Crappy service, crappy venue, I won’t spend anymore money here.

Langley feels unsafe around the police so I guess he’s on his own if his shop gets robbed. What a disgraceful business, persecuting those who help make it possible for him to even have a business. By the way, his coffee sucks.

John Langley is a disgrace and anti-​police. A police officer was waiting on line to purchase a cup of coffee when Langley approached him and asked him to leave his store because the officers presence made him feel «unsafe».
Hope for the day you have to swallow that ignorant pride of yours and call 9−1−1… In a perfect world, there would be traffic.

RIP Red and Black Café.
It has seen better days, when it was still on Division Street.
Unfortunately, the last two years have been a financial struggle for them, and they knew nothing about having a sound business plan. It only could survive because it had no employees (being a workers’ collective, legally they were all owners). It’s sad to see that they could not even pay themselves $ 15 an hour.
But much of the problem can be attributed to how this business handled the local homeless problem. Instead of being genuinely compassionate, the owners of Red and Black Café enabled them and ruin the business. The quality of food declined rapidly over the past 2 years, while homeless with mental illness and poor hygiene loitered both inside and outside this business 24/​7, stinking up the whole place and shooting up in the restroom (and the owners asked the 911 dispatchers to not send cops when a homeless OD’ed in the restroom one day). Legitimate customers were driven away, and in order to subsidize the non-​paying «customers» everything became so expensive.
Coffee was always sludgy and lukewarm, and they could not make espresso.
Finally they came to senses and decided to end this farce. The storefront is soon being leased to a professional who actually wants to open a real vegan restaurant. So Buckman will be having a better vegan option in coming months!

I’ve had better food at other vegan restaurants in Portland, but what turned me off about this place, is a very rude owner. I’ll never set foot in this place again.

Terrible food. Had a stale sandwich that was mushy and seemed like it was sitting there for days. Asked for a refund but was refused. Owner or manager came over and asked me to leave. I would definitely avoid. The coffee was even bad. How does a café have bad coffee?!? Lol.

Place sucks, don’t call for help when you need it. Send out one of your vegans with a salad…

Food and coffee was always only average, but the location was close to our Oregon office… Since they banned police officers, the tension can be felt and the staff is awkward.

Disclaimer: only went once while I was visiting a friend in the city, and this was a while back.
I visited this place and never really cared enough to write a review. I had entirely forgotten I went until I read news about them.
I try to be gracious and reserve harsh judgements-​most of the time. The people in this place are products of their microcosm, their world view extends to themselves basically and they really have no clue about true diversity. But that’s just a prima facié judgement. The stuff in there is meh. Nothing to write home about. The prices are ok, nothing really obscene. I’m not a vegan, but I rarely eat meat so I like seeing a place with decent choices other than what you regularly expect. This place wasn’t it.
Anyways, for people who are committed to causing as little harm to living creatures, these people really don’t strike you that way. You want pretentious? Got it. You want bizarre? Yep. You want questionable hygiene? There’s a stench to it, as Ron Burgundy would say «burns the nostrils».
They hate cops apparently (wonder who they’ll call now that every crook in town knows what place they should hit) – but that’s not my issue. I’m not 100% pro-cop…I just question the decision making skills of people that can paint an entire type of human with the same brush stroke. Those tend to be the less bright ones… the ones that have a dirty kitchen and poor standards.
Honestly: it felt like the place was there not because the people were passionate about having a café but because they figured «eh, guess I’ll do this for money since I can’t do anything else and have a place for folks to hang out at.»
I don’t recommend it… but then again I only went once. Once was enough, though.

I’ve been here quite a few times. It’s a swell place; the food is incredible, staff is friendly, they have kombucha on tap, and their cold brew is something serious.
Also, a great place to get some school or sketch work done.

I dont give 5stars often but I absolutely LOVE the Red and Place café!
The atmosphere is always welcoming, the employees are friendly and engaging, the music is easy going and nonintrusive. I’ll break down my love for the R&B in the following sections…
Atmosphere: There is both indoor and outdoor sitting, which is extremely pleasant during the beautiful summers we get in Portland. For the rest of the year, it is spacious inside with tables for the single eater and the larger groups. There are also two computers that are free to use. The music has been pleasant for the variety of diners that I’ve seen frequent here, in fact I was able to finish my calculus homework without the music intruding.
if you’re a solitary diner there is a whole collection of zines to read; if you have children or friends, they have board games to play. How cool is that?
Employees: The employees have always been very (genuinely) friendly and engaging. I love that they do not discriminate based on appearance either! My two favorite employees that I’ve interacted with are the one with the pink hair and the one with the abracadabra tattoo. I was undecided on what to try tonight and was recommended the Nihilist Cheesesteak by one of the employees; it was scrumptious.
Food: Where do I begin, I have been thoroughly impressed with everything I have ordered here! Their Happy hours are daily from 4−7pm, and on Wednesdays they have a food-​service appreciation days! Their selection of microbrews are some of the best and only $ 3pint during their Happy hour, and $ 1off on the industry nights.
As for food, try the Dragon Noodles! The mini dragon is $ 3 during Happy hours. The rice and bean bowl with added daiya and avocado is delicious, as is the Nihilist Cheesesteak sandwich. It isn’t even funny how yummy and satisfying that sandwich is
In summary, if you’re hungry and want a nice environment with real people to enjoy delicious vegan food come support your local vegan, anarchist collective café!