Featured Business
Tazza Café
by Virginia Bruce

When we want to go out for lunch or a beverage, treat our family, see friends or have a small meeting, most of us think first of heading to town. But there’s another great option tucked away at the corner of Saltzman and Thompson across from Findley Elementary.

Tazza Café is owned and run by Saeed Rad. He purchased the business a little over a year ago and it has become a neighborhood favorite for residents of the adjacent homes. Now it’s time for the rest of the community to discover this charming spot.

They offer breakfast burritos and sandwiches from 6 am weekdays—egg, cheese and choice of sausage or ham—and you can choose gluten-free if you like. For lunch, made to order deli sandwiches on a wide variety of breads are available daily. Salads and house-made soups can be added or ordered separately.

The kids menu offers a great balance of kid-friendly food that is also nutritious, including popcorn chicken, quesadillas and mini-pizzas. They also provide brown-bag lunches for the students at the nearby Goddard School. Parents can order monthly or even the same day, and the lunches are delivered to the school.

Last summer, they also began offering dinner on Friday evenings. Saeed grills up chicken, beef and vegetarian kebabs with his own special recipe marinade and seasoning rub, and there’s also a seafood special. Dinners are served with Basmati rice and grilled veggies. You have to try this, it’s so good!

Their coffee drinks are made from fresh beans from one of Portland’s best roasters, Stumptown. They also carry the coffee in bulk to take home. They make the usual variety of coffee drinks, mochas and steamers, and also serve tea. Cold drinks include iced coffee drinks, Italian sodas and cremosa (Italian sodas with a shot of cream), smoothies and milkshakes in a wide assortment of flavors.

In addition, they offer a variety of bottled beers—local and imported—and wine to round out your meal. They also have a nice selection of ice cream for cones and sundaes. Pastries, doughnuts and bagels are delivered fresh daily. Gluten-free pastries from a Lake Oswego bakery are available, and some of the bread and pastries are from Marsee Bakery.

Saeed and Dana serve a busy breakfast crowd

Saeed was born in Iran and has lived in Oregon for over 24 years. He met his wife Nancy in Salem. Together they formed Rad Design & Construction. Nancy is an architect and Saeed is a general contractor, and together they designed and built some of Cedar Mill’s most stately homes. Nancy now works for an architecture firm that specializes in K-12 school design. Saeed received his BA in Real Estate Finance from PSU in 2008.

Saeed has an entrepreneurial spirit, and when the housing business began to slow down, he decided it was time to turn his love of food and his desire to create community toward having his own café. He had brought his kids to Tazza for ice cream under its previous ownership, so when he saw that the business was for sale he contacted the real estate agent. Within a couple of months, he was the new owner in October 2010.

They cleaned the place up, painted and added new lighting and expanded and improved the menu. Since then, they’ve added the patio on the north side, outdoor seating and the grill, and obtained the liquor license to provide beer and wine.

Saeed blends his own spice mixtures and had been mixing up his own barbecue sauce for family and friends for a many years before he took over Tazza. RAD BBQ Sauce is available now at Tazza – bottled by Beaverton Foods – a great Christmas gift idea.

His kabobs and soups are flavorful and not too spicy—appealing to everyone. His Manhattan-style seafood soup is amazing! The Friday dinners, served from 5:30-8 pm, are getting more popular. They’re considering adding more evenings, and perhaps Sunday brunch in the spring.

They recently launched a new website—tazzacafeonline.com—with online ordering. Parents can pre-order school lunches, or you can order your sandwiches for faster service or pickup. They also take pre-orders for dinner service on Fridays (503-533-9099) carry out or dine in. In addition, you can reserve the meeting table in advance through the site.

The place is ideal for small meetings, with a large table by the west window that can be reserved in advance. Cozy chairs and a sofa surround a large wooden table with an inlaid chess board that often gets used by afternoon visitors. Parents enjoy gathering for coffee and chat after dropping their kids off at school, and really appreciate the kid-friendly atmosphere, with toys and a space for toddlers. Neighborhood teens often gather with friends after school for a snack and a refreshing drink. And they keep a water bowl filled outside and a jar of treats for those accompanied by furry friends.

The café faces inward in the small center at Thompson and Saltzman. To make sure the community knows about the shop, they have a large banner at the corner, and sandwich boards on the sidewalks. They also donate gift certificates for fund-raisers at the nearby schools to aid their neighbors and to introduce new folks to the business.

Saeed and Nancy say, “Overall, we are happy to say that business is growing, but we continue to rely upon the Cedar Mill and Bethany community to share the news with their neighbors: ‘Tazza is a great place for coffee, breakfast, lunch, and dinner or a glass of wine or beer.’ We hope to see you at Tazza soon!”

The street address is 4062 NW Saltzman Rd # 207. Entrances to the center are on Saltzman just north of Thompson, and on Thompson just east of Saltzman. Hours are 6 am-6 pm Monday-Thursday, 6 am-8:30 pm Friday, 8 am-4 pm Saturday, and 8 am-3 pm Sunday. Call them for special orders or more information at 503-533-9099.

NEWS HOME