Fwi Makes Coffee and Banana Bread in North Portland

While driving home from the laundromat recently, I saw a sign by the Dawnbringer Breakfast cart on N Fremont and Vancouver for something called “Fwi.” A couple days later, a reader messaged me about them. I checked their Instagram: Coffee with molasses? Banana breads of varying kinds? I was intrigued. So, I called up Div Walker, the owner of Fwi—sometimes referred to as the Fwi Bus or Fwi Cafe—to learn more.

Connection to Portland

Early in our conversation, Div revealed that he’s had a connection for a while to Portland through his wife, Kia. “My wife was born and raised here,” he said. “She grew up in Northeast and went to Jefferson High School. She was a Rose Festival Princess and was involved in all the stuff in the area.”

He continued, “So, you know, I fell in love with Portland before I actually got to see it. I would come on the holidays—on Christmas and everything.” Over the summer they spent time with family, and as the visit went on, they felt like Portland was where they needed to be. “We felt really embraced, and it was like a jolt of energy,” he said. “Halfway through the summer we made a decision to make the move.”

He added, “We got here in October and opened up top of March.”

Atlanta

Div has run Fwi since 2020, originally in downtown Atlanta (where they moved from) for four and a half years. “We were in a convention center,” he explained. “So we did high-end catering, a full espresso bar, and the whole menu we have inside the bus now, but we did it there. And I would do consistent pop-ups around the city when it came to the weekends. “

“So I just brought that exact concept from Atlanta, to Portland.”

Fwi: What’s in a Name?

At first glance, “Fwi” was an intriguing and mysterious name to me. Of course, I had to find out what it was about.

“The word ‘fwi’ means ‘fruit’ in Haitian Creole,” he explained. “I’ve got some pretty deep Louisiana ties and Creole family, though I’m not Haitian by the sense, specifically.”

“Initially, I fell in love with coffee because of … honestly, the European aesthetic; the tiny Parisian cafe and everything. But I also wanted something that was culturally familiar to me. And with Haiti being the closest Black independent nation to America, it just kind of started to fall in place. Like, ‘What’s the Blackest French thing I can find?’

“And through research and doing my due diligence out of respect, I fell on that term. And with coffee being a fruit, it was perfect to me—it was screaming! Then I went into designing what it would look like, and those three letters stood out [f-w-i]. And with the coffee cherry being red, and red being my favorite color, I was just like, ‘I don’t want to overthink it anymore!’

“And so the company name as a whole is Cafe Fwi, so that loosely translates to ‘coffee fruit.'”

Straight To the Point

“It’s interesting because if you’ve ever seen [Haitian Creole], it comes off as a dialect of French a lot. The same way when you’re listening to Patois/Patwa in the Caribbean—it is still English, but it’s a condensed version of it. It’s like French, but getting straight to the point.”

He continued, “Fruit in French is “fruit,” [/fʁɥi/] but “fwi” is just a contraction of that whole thing. It’s a beautiful language and a beautiful history. So I have so many ties to that New Orleans/Louisiana energy that connects to that Haitian culture, so it didn’t feel like I was appropriating or trying too hard.”

He added, “As much as I was being myself, the same patterns were in both sides. So I was like, ‘Alright, cool, this is where we’re at. This is what we’re doing.'”

Div’s Background

Div, short for Divance, is originally from the San Diego area. “I was born in San Diego,” he explained. “I lived in San Diego until high school, when I moved to the high desert. My dad, a lieutenant, worked for the Bureau of Prisons and they had a prison out there.”

He moved to Atlanta in 2009 to go to college. 

Div’s Previous Food and Drink Experience

Prior to Fwi, he worked for an Atlanta-based company called Land of a Thousand Hills (they have franchises in Florida, the Boston area, Tennessee, and Texas). “They had about six coffee shops,” said Div. “I worked in two or three of them, and then I was the coffee roaster for the company. I learned everything from the supply chain, start to finish, and that’s when I really leaned into the the roasting part.”

He added, “And that’s where I really fell in love with it. But outside of that, coffee and customer service are the majority of my background.”

And while he loved this work for the company, the pandemic had other plans for him. He was let go after COVID hit, and so he roasted at home and sold the coffee online. He did that for over a year, and gained quite a bit of success.

“I couldn’t keep up with the volume, based off my home setup,” he explained. “So I started working with a company called Firelight Coffee in Atlanta. So I would still source, get it shipped, sample roast everything, bring the profiles to them, and they would help me keep up the capacity and roast it for me.”

He continued, “And because I’m so new here, they still are heading my coffee. I still have coffee in the warehouse there, and so we’re getting through that. I just order it, they ship it out here to me.” Currently he’s working on a local way to roast.

Why Banana Bread at Fwi?

I wanted better understand their emphasis on banana bread, and why it serves such a central role for food at the Fwi bus. He shared the origin story, which involves his wife’s determination and dedication to excellence.

“Funny enough, when me and my wife were dating, she always made a joke. She said, ‘I’m pretty sure I can do anything, but I’m not a good baker.’ And I thought it was funny because I felt like she could do anything. In fact, I considered that baking would be no problem for her.

At one point she said, “I just have to learn how to bake something.” She tried a bunch of things, and made a banana bread. 

“It was just a simple banana bread, just a traditional piece of banana bread,” said Div. “She kept trying that recipe until she felt like it was perfect—-or mainly until my daughter and me loved it. And then when my son was born, and he loved it, she kept making this banana bread. Family would come over, friends would come over, they would taste it, and they just kept complimenting her about it. 

“And then then it got to the point where people were coming for special occasions to say, “Hey, Kia, could you make some of that banana bread for us? Can I come get a loaf from you?’ And next thing you know, she was making loaves for people.

“At this point, it wasn’t even an extension of Fwi yet. I was getting my pastries from the local bakery in Atlanta or Sam’s Club or elsewhere. And then one day I said, ‘I’m going to take a loaf and I’m going to try to sell it. 

“It sold it within the first 30 minutes of opening.”

But because it was a test run, they didn’t have it the next day. “People were walking about a mile in the city to get some banana bread and stop by the downtown location,” said Div. “And when they got there, they was like, ‘What, no banana bread‽'” They realized they needed to keep going in this banana bread direction, as it was clear the had stumbled upon something that got people excited. Kia’s banana bread had, as they say, “main character energy.”

Div quipped, “Fwi—it’s really more of a ‘banana bread bar.'”

And as time progressed, though, they wanted to expand their vision of the humble banana bread.

Experiments

So, they’ve been doing some experimenting with their OG banana bread. That includes incorporating chocolate chips, candied pecans—and bacon. “We just tested out a banana bread that has bacon bits and a maple glaze, like a maple bar,” Div said.

For their caramel granola banana bread, they are using a local company called Momma Dee’s Granola.

Div remarked that some may say that banana bread—and having a selection of banana bread flavors—is a little niche. “But, you know, the same way a donut spot has multiple options of donuts, there’s got to be a world where we can have multiple options of banana bread,” said Div. “It’s just something that’s authentic to us.”

He continued, “We don’t necessarily make croissants at home. We don’t really eat a lot of muffins. We don’t eat a lot of scones and even really cookies too much, but there’s always banana bread or fresh bread on the counter.”

Favorite Banana Bread?

I asked Div if he had a favorite banana bread. And while he said, “They’re all good,” he did point to the caramel granola flavor as being a favorite.

“The one that is outside of the traditional OG slice of banana bread—the caramel granola—sells out as soon as we get it. I mean, you get six slices of loaf and then it’s gone.”

Coffee Drinks at Fwi

I also asked him about the coffee side of the business, which consists of espresso drinks and tea-based drinks. He told me about their most popular drink, the Good Morning Latte. “This is a drink that I brought from Atlanta, and I’ve been doing for four years—it never fails to please,” said Div.

Molasses Is the Key

It starts with espresso and then adds sorghum molasses, sea salt, and cinnamon, and then milk. He says it pairs well with pastries or other food, and is good hot or iced. “I’m even going to do a frappe of it when it warms up a little bit more,” remarked Div.

He definitely gets people curious about this drink, as you don’t see molasses very often in our modern coffee culture. Sometimes he encounters people who are kind of wary about it, thinking molasses isn’t very sweet (they may be thinking of blackstrap molasses, which can be bitter and salty). When he encounters someone dubious about it he says, “You just got to trust me.”

Div gained an appreciation for molasses from his grandmother. “My grandma used to make molasses bread and molasses cookies all the time,” he said. “I’ve seen her put molasses with cream and sugar in her tea.”

When he was making these drinks and putting together these flavor profiles, he looked at what he’d had before, what he knows very well, and then it was just trial and error after that. I asked what the response has been to this molasses-sweetened drink from folks who were perhaps wary.

“At first, anybody I talk into trying it, I get a thumbs up,” said Div. “Then they come back and give me the handshake, like, ‘This is great! This is what I needed. I get that it’s really smooth. I get that I was worried about the molasses—but it’s not too sweet. It doesn’t make your face pucker.'”

He really likes that molasses pairs well with the espresso. “I have a Brazilian and a Sumatran blend and I call ‘The Rent Blend’ because it’s been paying our rent for years!” Div exclaimed. “And I think it pairs well with all types of milk, It’s just a really good comfort drink that for some reason it isn’t too heavy. “

Two More Specialty Drinks

Another drink that is a personal favorite of his is called “Jumping the Broom.” About the name, he said, “I wanted a drink that tasted like a piece of wedding cake.”

It has cocoa butter that he emulsifies with a homemade orgeat. “That is one where I have to tell people, ‘If you like a white chocolate mocha, but you want an elevated version of that, I recommend you go this direction.” He also says it’s not too sweet, but it’s bright and creamy—and also good hot or iced.

Finally, there’s the “Yes, Ma’am. “This vanilla bean and white peppercorn latte gives you all the warmth on the palate,” Div explained. “It’s not going to be spicy, but it is going to be warm, and you’ll smell it—some of the pepper will get in your nose, but mixed in with the milk and, of course, the vanilla … it’s like, everybody loves a vanilla latte! But this is a way to take it a little bit further.”

Other Coffee Drinks

You can get a simple latte, cafe au lait, brewed coffee, cappuccino, and espresso on the coffee side. On the tea side, a matcha latte, golden milk, a “Southern Fog” (black tea with sugar and milk), and spiced tea are options. Dairy and oat milk are your milk options.

Fwi Merch

They also have Fwi merch on their website, and that comes from Div’s background in art direction and product. In the past he did a lot of promotional printing for clothing. 

“I was a hip-hop artist,” Div said. “Well, I am a hip-hop artist—a lot of the money comes from the merch. We just did a cardigan release and we had a knitted vest that we did throughout the holidays. And those did pretty well.”

He’s also involved with a hospitality collective with a company called Coffee was Black back in Atlanta. “They serve our coffee on bar and everything, and so we did a collab shirt, based off of some spices we put together,” said Div.

He continued, “I consider myself in the group of people that are American descendants of slaves. He’s Jamaican and Caribbean. So basically, when we say ‘all good,’ we say, ‘fasho.’ So I had some fasho spices that were a mix of white pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, and clove, and he had the Jamaican spices where he took turmeric, pink Himalayan salt, and some allspice.

“We did a collab with that—we dropped the actual drink topping spices and we did apparel to go with that.”

You can also buy a beanie (“When I got here to Portland, I realized everybody has a beanie.”) Their Rent blend is for sale in 12 ounce cans, as well as two pounds and five pounds.

The Pod and the Fwi Bus

I drive by this little pod almost weekly, and the first people who talked to me about it were Mary and Edward of Brave Neighbor up the street, who waxed poetic about the breakfast sandwiches at Dawnbringer. The Pepe Chile taqueria in also in that pod.

Div had great things to say about the owner of the pod, Jimmy Wilson. “He was really good, he was really receptive to me,” said Div. “As soon as I got here, he took me at face value and met me where I was willing to meet him at.”

He continued. “And then I found a mural of him on the MESO building on Shaver, and I learned that he’s been around this community for a long time, working. And I felt like that corner [at N Fremont and Vancouver] needed a little energy, and I want to be a part of it … I just want people to talk about it when they say, ‘What food pod we should go to?'”

He commissioned Saleam, a local muralist to do some work on the bus. “You’ll see his work up and down Mississippi Ave and Alberta. He’s done [pieces] big and small, and I was really blessed he was willing to work with us. I just want people to come in and see what we have to offer and allow us to put our best foot forward—because I promise that we will when you show up.” 

Some Final Thoughts on Fwi and the Work Div Does

Div has been in beverage and hospitality for over a decade and being behind the coffee bar is what makes him really comfortable and happy. “This is like my ministry,” he said. “And it’s a fellowship with neighborhoods. I think that coffee spots are anchors in communities, the same way a bar or a church or a playground would be. I just want to help with my little section in that area on that corner.”

Div, Kia, and their family are bringing some interesting things to eat and drink to our fair city and I look forward to stopping by soon to try them. Every good wish to them on great success in Portland!

Fwi Bus [opened March 7, 2026]
3441 N Vancouver Avenue, Portland
Fwi website | Instagram