Pro Snowboarder Launches Burnside Cafe and Roastery

Finnish-born professional snowboarder Wille Yli-Luoma unveiled his long-awaited coffee roasting company and cafe this weekend on East Burnside and 22nd Avenue. On the same block as the southern-fried Screen Door restaurant and its very likely pissed-off coffee-shop peer Blend Coffee House, Heart Roasters is another Portland espresso cafe of the third-wave variety, providing neighbors along this transitioning swath of East Burnside ristretto-style espresso, vac pots, and another solid wi-fi connection. But unlike said Stumptown-bean serving brethren, Heart is not tethered to an outside roaster. The new cafe roasts its own coffee on-site.

For now, Yli-Luoma's immediate neighbors include a velvet painting museum, a mini mart and an ostomy supply store, but later this fall John Taboada of The-Oregonian restaurant-of-the-year-Navarre-fame will debut Luce, a forthcoming eatery/event space/gastronomical club. What coffee will he serve?