Latte Stone Cafe, a woman and Chamoru-owned specialty café, is set to open in August at 2340 NW Westover Road in Portland, taking over the former El Mezcalito space near Fish & Rice, owner Davina Armstrong-Cruz confirmed to What Now Portland. The café will bring house-roasted specialty coffee, vegan pastries, and Chamoru food to Northwest Portland, along with something the neighborhood may not have expected: a true community hub.
“We roast our own specialty coffee and bring Chamoru flavors and pastries to Portland,” Armstrong-Cruz said. “We chose this specific space because it felt like it had a lot of potential to become a true community space for people.”
The vision for Latte Stone is to offer the space as an event venue for book clubs, knitting groups, and language learning clubs, the kind of low-key, recurring gatherings that turn a coffee shop into a neighborhood classic. This is a concept rooted in cultural pride as much as hospitality.
“We also want to share our culture and our history, because not everyone knows about Guam and is a US territory,” Armstrong-Cruz told What Now Portland.
The café takes its name from the iconic latte stones, ancient limestone pillars that served as the foundation of Chamoru homes in Guam and the Mariana Islands for thousands of years. They are one of the most recognizable symbols of Chamoru identity and resilience, and a fitting metaphor for what Armstrong-Cruz is building on NW Westover Road.
