Get To Know Stone Soup and Their Café in Montavilla

Have you been to the Stone Soup café in Montavilla? I remember reading about it on Montavilla News last year, but hadn’t made it in. That all changed when I recently connected with Julia Granet, the Marketing and Communications Coordinator there, who let me know about their upcoming event, Jam Jam, over at the Midtown Beer Garden.

We got to chatting about the organization itself, the cafê—which I later visited and got a tour of the building—-and the good things they are doing to help folks who need assistance managing their lives in this crazy world we live in. Here are some of the things we talked about.

Meet Julia Granet

As I mentioned, Julia is the Marketing and Communications Coordinator at Stone Soup, and is my contact there. During our conversation I learned that we also share an appreciation for Santa Claus Lane in California. She’s been with Stone Soup for about five years, having started as a prep cook there in 2021. More on that later.

She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2019 with an art and technology degree. “It’s basically a design umbrella degree,” she explained. Originally after completing her degree program, her plan was to go to Berlin, but a couple of weeks before graduation, she called her mom and made a request.

She said, “I’m not quite ready to move to Berlin. Can I come home for a few months, get settled, and regroup?” They agreed she’d stay there a maximum of six months to figure things out, then she had to go.

COVID Strikes Again

“And then six months in, the pandemic hit,” she said. “So I stayed a little bit longer—a year and a half. I cannot think of a better place to have been during lockdown then.”

At that point she felt ready to move back up to Portland from Santa Barbara in California. She had been working in administrative roles during the pandemic, but she was really ready to get back into her field. Essentially, she wanted find a way to help people.

Stone Soup

“I wanted to learn about the local economy and the struggles of Portland, to make connections and understand it—really get my feet wet,” she explained. “And Stone Soup was hiring a prep cook and I thought, ‘Sure! Sounds like a really cool program and what they’re doing for people who need help.'” She took that job and worked her way up. 

After about two years ago, she thought, “All right, I’ve done it. I’ve been on the cooking side. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve made a lot of soup and helped people in the kitchen, but I think I am ready to get back to what I studied.” So she pitched a marketing and communications role because Stone Soup didn’t have any anyone really dedicated to doing that. Julia is responsible for building up the position.

“I’ve been in it now for two years, and I’m really enjoying the community-building part of it and being on this side of things,” she said. “I’m still helping a lot of people, but it’s not as hands-on with the participants. But it is very much about getting the community to know about our program and to spread the word of the mission throughout the city.”

Stone Soup Primer

Stone Soup originally started downtown (Old Town) in late 2018/early 2019. When they first started, it was a lunch counter that sat about 30 to 35 people—so, a much bigger operation than the current café. When COVID hit with lockdowns in March 2020, and they had to shut down the operation. This changed their programming, and now they’re in two spaces, both on the east side of town.

Stone Soup was named after the classic folktale.

The Founders of Stone Soup

Stone Soup was founded by Craig and Ronit Gerard, and they’re still involved in the organization. They are world travelers and did a lot of work overseas together, some of it in kitchens. After some experience abroad, they realized they really wanted to help people at home. They heard about Seattle’s FareStart early on and chose to mimic the idea in Portland.

Catalyst Kitchen

They are also part of the Catalyst Kitchen network, a nationwide organization that helps people in kitchens. Not every one of them has a culinary training program; Stone Soup has the only culinary program in Oregon right now. “It’s one of the few opportunities to get workforce training in a kitchen,” said Julia.

Two others in the Catalyst Kitchen network in Portland are Feed the Mass and Germaine’s Culinary; The Welcome Table is in Canby. Sadly, the COVID pandemic forced some to close.

A Workforce Culinary Training Program

Approximately 3,000 individuals participate annually through a combination of workforce training and community meal services. 

“Stone Soup is a workforce culinary training program for people with barriers to employment,” explained Julia. “And it could be any type of barrier—it could be someone who lost their job during COVID and is looking for a stepping stone to get back into the workforce. It can be someone who is out of the justice system and is looking to get back into the culinary field. We also help them with their resume and cover letter, work with them on interview prep and applying to jobs. So there’s a lot of soft skills, as well.”

She continued, “We help them get bus passes, new kitchen shoes, pants—different resources to help them so they’re able to show up and work hard for 12 weeks. It’s a really transformational program, and really cool to see see people on day one kind of be like, ‘I don’t know if I’m capable of this.’ And then by week 12, they’re making delicious food for the staff; part of the program is making the pastries and cookies, and all those types of things for the café, as well.”

She added, “A really cool touchpoint is they can see people eating their food and really enjoying what they’ve made.”

Low Barrier and How it Works

Stone Soup offers very low barrier programs. Julia explained: “Essentially, you have to be 18 and older; you cannot be on the sex offender registry list; and you have to be eligible to work in the U.S. Then there’s an application process and a small interview with their program team.” They also prioritize low-income adults.

“And then you join a cohort, and usually the cohort sizes are around eight to 12 people,” she explained. “Usually 10 is kind of that sweet spot. We have programs starting every four weeks.”

Tiers and Tracks at Stone Soup

There’s three tiers: tier one, tier two, and tier three. Each tier is four weeks long and the program as a whole is 12 weeks long.

Tier one is in the morning. As participants go through the program, they get a food handler’s card; they can get their OLCC card too that first week. They learn the different knife cuts, how to walk and talk in a kitchen, and the fundamentals of cooking. That could involve omelettes, sauces, etc.

In tier two, they move over to the café space space kitchen, which is a little bit more hands-on, where they can help with the café, food as well. At the end of tier two, they get to do a “black box challenge,” where they are given a basket full of goods that are unique to each other and they have to create a dish out of it.

Tier three is split between the two locations—production and the café kitchen. For example, if there’s 10 people, five go to one and five go to the other. There they learn about and help with production meals; if they’re in the café, they get hands-on experience working in that kind of environment.

“Once you hit that tier three stage, you’re either helping with our production meals—because we make about 2,000 meals a week for the community, different day centers, schools, that sort of thing,” she explained. “You could do that track and help make those hundreds of meals a day; or go to our café space, where you help make all the pastries and see how the café is doing.” Also with the café, they are starting up a barista program.

“So it’s really cool to see people decide on which track they want to do, especially with the café . It’s interesting because some people want to work in a coffee shop or want to work in a front-facing environment.

“And then the other track is more insular. Some people want to go into production or be in back of house, that type of thing. It’s kind of a well-oiled machine at this point.”

CTE Connection

I wondered if they ever worked with any of the CTE (Career and Technical Education) programs in the high schools, some of which offer a culinary track. CTE is an amazing program here in Oregon and offers young people so many opportunities to learn skills that will benefit them in the long run.

Good news: They do work with Cleveland High School. “We are hoping to do more of that,” said Julia. “Because I feel like in some ways, culinary has ebbed and flowed in popularity—or at least the funding for it has. So we’re hoping to build that back up. One of our ways is working with the high school.”

Cleveland High is right across the street from their production kitchen, so that was a easy school for them to start with.

Stone Soup Graduates

I wondered where the graduates of this program go, or even if they continue in a culinary environment. “It’s all over the map,” said Julia. “Some people do. Some people don’t.”

A couple of months ago they hired an employment specialist. “This is huge for us!” exclaimed Julia. They are a small team, so having this additional person focused on this aspect is really helpful.

It used to be that after participants graduated from the program and left the nest, Stone Soup was not able to assist them much. They could help them as much as they could while they were in the program—helping them apply to jobs, help them keep appointments, etc. But after leaving, they just didn’t have the capacity to offer post-graduation professional development.

“We always felt like there was a missing piece there,” explained Julia. “Now, we’re finally in a place where we were able to hire an employment specialist whose full job is to make relationships with businesses and organizations, especially those kitchens that are more trauma aware. This could include helping them finding a place in a school cafeteria or an elder facility cafeteria—spaces that are a little bit more understanding of the backgrounds of our participants.”

As I said, this is a recent position, and they look forward to analyzing the data regarding hiring success (and more) after the specialist has been there for a while.

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The Stone Soup Café and the Montavilla Neighborhood

I asked how the neighborhood has received the café . “Pretty good!,” exclaimed Julia. “I think people were worried at first because we’re actually at the base of a permanent supportive housing building. Catholic Charities started it, and Impact Northwest has since taken over their section.”

There are actually two buildings in the one development called Glisan Landing. The two buildings are Aldea, with 96 units of affordable housing, managed by IRCO; and Beacon, with 41 units of permanent supportive housing building for low-income households, managed by Impact NW. There’s a community room, a food pantry run by Catholic Charities, playgrounds outside, a pre-school, and a really nice kind of courtyard.

Julia continued, “It took about three and a half years to build the building. So I think a lot of people were like, ‘What is this? And why is it taking so long?'” People were also unsure if they wanted that in their neighborhood.

“I think over time, they’ve seen that it’s been a pretty well-received space,” said Julia. “And because there is permanent supportive housing, they have wraparound services. So everything is pretty insular for the people living there, which is amazing.”

She continued, “And they wanted some type of social enterprise or small training café in there. And so we were approached very early on before the project had started to be a café space in there.”

The Stone Soup Café Vibe

It’s very simple and, dare I say, minimalist. There are 10 seats—four at the bar along the window, one two-top, and one four-top. It’s very bright because a ton of natural light streams in through the floor-to-ceiling windows. There is some outdoor seating, as well.

And because it’s a new building, it has a modern feel to it—but it’s not antiseptic and soulless. The colors are white, blue, and orange.

The café has been there for about a year.

The Window Display

If you drive by or walk by the 74th Avenue side, you’ll see a big vinyl window display explaining what Stone Soup and the café are. That is relatively new. “For about six months, we had painted windows that said ‘Stone Soup Café , Pastry sandwiches, soups,'” explained Julia. But that wan’t enough—they needed more to explain who they are, The solution was the window display.

“It gives the spiel of Stone Soup, what we serve, who we serve, and what we’re all about, which is very exciting for us,” said Julia.

Eating and Drinking at the Stone Soup Café

They use Green Bridge Coffee beans, a white label for Nossa Familia, which means they get their beans from the same facility. That said, Green Bridge has their own coffee shops, both in the Lloyd District (825 NE Multnomah Street and 650 NE Holladay Street #110).

“We have been working with Joel, who’s the owner there, since, I think 2019—maybe even 2020—when we were providing a lot of meals to the social distancing shelters when COVID hit,” explained Julia. “He was doing the coffee and we were like, ‘Wow, what an amazing partner! Let’s stay in contact.’ And so we did those meals for years together. 

“He donates at least 10% of his coffee sales to a nonprofit on a rotating basis. So we’ve also been a recipient of that. He does really great work for the community and still does some of those big contracts, like catering contracts for coffee.”

When they opened the Stone Soup café, they felt like using Green Bridge beans was kind of a no-brainer.

Food

They do a rotating soup, some sandwiches, breakfast items, as well as pastries (including scones), cookies, and a quickbread. Right now, they are doing recipe development for a veggie sandwich, trying to figure out what what the community wants. (“It will probably be a veggie wrap.”)

 Everything is made in-house, save for the english muffins, which they purchase.

“We wanted to start out small,” said Julia. “Because we’re teaching environment, we need to make sure that we could scale production at a rate that doesn’t feel overwhelming for our students. So this is a perfect amount of things right now that they can help with, learn about, and feel confident on their own to make these recipes.”

They continue to tweak things. For instance, early on they had two soups every day; now they have just one. They also had salads, and those are no longer a thing. They’re always trying to figure out what works best for them.

And that includes the hours. “When we first started, we also were open Tuesday to Friday and realized that wasn’t the best for us,” explained Julia. “There wasn’t really anyone else in the neighborhood open on Monday. So we switched to Monday to Thursday and that’s gotten a way better reaction.”

Community Meal

They also offer a community meal with three price points.

The Banana Bar

One thing that has been very stable on their menu is what they call a “banana bar.” It’s a big seller. It’s a long rectangular slice of banana bread/cake with a cream cheese icing. I had one and it’s really good. I love the ratio of cake to frosting, too.

“When we first opened, everyone was like, ‘I’m coming back for that!'” Word of mouth has been hugely helpful.

Events

One of the ways to do outreach, cultivate support, and have a good time is through hosting events.

Jam Jam for Stone Soup

This is a culinary experience for people—making jam while a jam band plays—and also serves as a fundraiser. It will take place at the Midtown Beer Garden—they’ve cultivated a really good partnership with the people behind the pod.

Jam Jam will be on Saturday, May 16 from 1pm to 3pm. Tickets are $40, which you can purchase on their Give Lively page. Here’s the official description:

“During this unique two-hour event, you’ll learn how to make your own jam from scratch, enjoy delicious snacks from local food partners, and relax with live music.” Your tickets gives you:

• A guided, hands-on jam-making class.
• A selection of snacks, featuring local bread, cheese, and charcuterie.
• One drink ticket.
• Live music from local musicians.
• A jar of jam you’ll make and take home.

One-Year Anniversary

This event is still in the planning stages, and they are looking at Tuesday, June 2 as the day, though that could change. But they’d like it to be sometime between June 1 and 4. More on that to come.

Soup Cookoff

Last year they threw a soup cookoff, which featured a dozen or so chefs, one of which was a graduate from their program. Other chefs included those from Astral, Coquine, Plant Based Papi, and OX.

Julia told me that their graduate started off feeling a little bit nervous. “She was like, ‘I can’t stand against these people,'” said Julia. “But by the end, she was feeling really confident in her soup and feeling so proud that she was able to prepare something alongside such amazing people.”  

They invited about 100 people to come in and try all the soups, who the all got to vote on their favorite soup. The winning soup cook got an engraved cutting board.

Because it was so popular, they plan to do it again this year. Last year they did it at their production facility, which had a somewhat low occupancy cap for an event like this, so this year it will be at Midtown Beer Garden. Look for that in the fall in conjunction with their Give!Guide campaign. They hope to have 15 or 16 chefs and the ability for up to 250 people to attend and try all the soups.

It will take place on Saturday, November 7, 2026. More details to come.

“We’re trying to have these microevents to increase visibility, increase culinary events and bring people back downtown as well, because those are the routes that we started with as well,” said Julia.

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Many thanks to Julia for spending time and telling me about Stone Soup and the café. I hope you will stop by, have some coffee, maybe an banana bar, consider attending one of their events, and support the important work they are doing.

Stone Soup Café [opened June 2025]
7400 NE Glisan Street, Portland
7am to 3pm, Monday to Thursday
Stone Soup website | Instagram | Facebook