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Lanternfield Coffee

About us

Small batches,roasted with care,since 2014.

Lanternfield Coffee began with a secondhand roaster in a garage and one stubborn idea: great coffee should taste like the place it was grown. Twelve years on, we still roast every bag by hand, in small batches, a few blocks from where it all started.

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The coffee counter at our Alder Street café, with the espresso machine and a stack of copper cups
Coffee beans lined up from green and unroasted to deep brown, showing each stage of a roast

2014

The year our first batch came out of Marco's garage.

Our story

It started with a garage and a secondhand roaster.

In 2014, Priya Raman and Marco Delgado bought a secondhand roaster, set it up in Marco's garage and spent every weekend learning to use it. The first batches were mostly smoke. The tenth was good. By the fiftieth, neighbors were knocking on the door to ask what smelled so good.

We started selling bags at the Saturday farmers market, then to a handful of cafés across town. Today we roast for our own two cafés and more than sixty shops and restaurants, but the approach hasn't changed: small batches, honest prices, and long friendships with the farms we buy from.

We roast every batch as if the farmer were standing right next to us, tasting it.
Priya Raman, Co-founder

By the numbers

years of roasting
12
partner farms
18
cafés and shops we roast for
60+
bags roasted every week
1,200

What we stand for

Three promises in every bag.

Direct from the farm

We buy straight from eighteen farms we know by name, and we pay well above fair trade prices, because the best coffee comes from growers who can afford to take their time.

Roasted to order

Nothing sits on a shelf for weeks. We roast four days a week in batches of twelve kilos or less, and every bag ships within two days of roasting.

Lighter on the planet

Our bags are compostable, our delivery bikes run on legs, and the chaff from every roast goes to a community garden down the street.

Milestones

Twelve years, one roast at a time.

  1. 2014

    The garage roaster

    Our first secondhand roaster fires up in Marco's garage. Most of the early batches are smoke.

  2. 2016

    A Saturday market stall

    We start selling bags at the farmers market and sell out by ten on most mornings.

  3. 2019

    Our first café

    We open a café on Alder Street, with the roaster in full view behind the counter.

  4. 2023

    Direct trade, every bean

    Every coffee we sell now comes straight from a farm we have visited ourselves.

The team

The people behind the beans.

  • Priya Raman smiling and holding a mug of coffee

    Priya Raman

    Co-founder and head roaster

    Tastes every batch before it ships, and still keeps the very first bag she ever roasted.

  • Marco Delgado smiling in a gray collarless shirt

    Marco Delgado

    Co-founder and coffee buyer

    Spends a few months each year with our partner farms in Colombia, Ethiopia and Guatemala.

  • A barista grinding coffee behind the counter, reflected in a tall mirror

    The café crew

    Eight baristas, two cafés

    The friendly faces behind the counter, and the reason your usual is ready before you reach the till.

Visit the roastery

Come say hello.

Our Alder Street café sits right next to the roaster, so you can watch tomorrow's coffee being made while you drink today's. Pull up a chair, ask us anything, and we'll pour you a taste of whatever just came out of the drum.

Where to find us

Alder StreetSoutheast Portland, Oregon

Opening hours

Monday to Friday
7 am to 5 pm
Saturday and Sunday
8 am to 4 pm
A scoop of freshly roasted coffee beans spilling from a golden bag