Jubilee Hall PDX Cafe Is Open in East Portland

Photo credit: Mill Park Stories

Thanks to the good folks at Mill Park Stories, I learned about Jubilee Hall, “a non-profit neighborhood cafe in East Portland providing real world skills and English training to new arrivals.” The cafe is the nonprofit wing of Diaspora Coffee & Chai Co. Jubilee Hall PDX’s soft opening was Tuesday, February 1 on the ground floor of Central City Concern’s Blackburn Center.

Some Background on Jubilee Hall PDX

When I first started reading about the origins of Jubilee Hall, I learned about one of its founders, Khupsamlian (Sam) Khaute, who first came to the U.S. (he is originally from northeast India) in 2013 and found refuge, employment, and stability working in a coffee shop owned by another immigrant (that person was from Iran). It opened doors for him, and set him on a path to success.

In hindsight, he says getting this job was the best thing that could have happened to him, even though working in a coffee shop wasn’t anywhere near his first choice for employment—and it was scary starting out knowing so little about the work, the language, and being a new city. It forced him to learn new work skills, he improved his English language skills, and working there played a role in his cultural integration into life in Portland.

Eventually he established his own coffee roaster, chai company, and cafe—Diaspora, located in the heart of Portland. Sam is ready to give back, to help those who were like him in those early days in the U.S. He has been working in a team of people that came together a number of years ago, “each in their own individual journeys, [who] had a vision of starting a coffee shop where refugees and immigrants could be trained and eventually employed in Portland. Each of those individual journeys providentially (but certainly not accidentally) converged.” You can read more extensively about how Jubilee Hall came to be on their website.

From a Central City Concern article, Sam says: “Our goal is not to train people to be baristas; it’s to help them build language, job and cultural skills.” He and his team have been working closely with Central City Concern on this project.

As an aside: In some ways this reminds me of the 1951 Coffee Company in Berkeley, CA.

What to Expect

You’ll be able to get espresso drinks from house-roasted coffee, house-made chai, kombucha, bagels and an assortment of baked goods. Their current hours (soft opening hours) at 8am to 3pm Monday through Friday and 9am to 3pm on Saturdays and Sundays. They’ve got plenty of seating and the space is modern and bright.

All the best to the Jubilee Hall PDX team—I can’t wait to stop by for a coffee!

Jubilee Hall PDX [open February 2023]
12175 E Burnside Street, Portland
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