Twin Paradox Coffee House in Sellwood caters to community

By Elizabeth Ussher Groff

The Bee, Jun 6, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Elizabeth Ussher Groff / THE BEE

Because it has a garden compost pile, Twin Paradox was chosen as one of the first in Portland to use the “ecotainer”, a 100% biodegradable coffee cup made of renewable materials, and a corn-based liner. Nicole Byars and her mother Sandra Kremers are happy to spare the landfills, and “do their ecological part”.

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How often do a mother and daughter get along well enough to own and operate a business together? At the Twin Paradox Coffee House at the southern end of the Sellwood neighborhood on S.E. 17th Avenue between Clatsop and Marion Streets, one mother-daughter partnership does seem to be working well.

Three and a half years ago Sandra Kremers and daughter Nicole Byars pooled their skills — Sandra’s international marketing, small business development, and landscaping experience, coupled with Nicole’s six years of working in corporate and small coffee businesses — to create a coffeehouse with unique qualities.

“We spent about a year on a business plan and ideas,” recounts Nicole, “and when we had the right concept, we started looking for a location. After nine months we found an empty, small grocery store space.” Eight months of waiting for site renovation, followed by three weeks of twenty-hour days spent remodeling, paid off in a spacious room with high ceilings and enough room for their diverse clientele.

“We serve families with little children, the elderly, and a variety of young people and adults,” says Sandra. “We have the mix we were hoping for. I love being in the Sellwood area that is just developing,” adds Nicole, “and seeing the interaction of neighbors meeting and talking.”

Outside, customers sip coffee at tables on a large cement patio in the garden Sandra created. This writer marvels at the long hours listed on the doors -- 6:30 am to 11 pm on weekdays, closing at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, and open 7 am until 11 pm on Sundays.

In conversation, the owners explain the late night hours. “We have singers and songwriters, mostly local people from the neighborhoods — but we also have people from out of town,” Sandra says, referring to the past month when the talent also came in from Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Detroit. Fridays, beginning at 8 pm, there is free jazz; Saturdays, a variety of live music; and Mondays, open mic. Every third Sunday they host a bluegrass jam from 2:30 until 5 pm.

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