Rose City Coffee Co. in Southeast Portland moves to 24-hour service

Staffing shortages and rising labor costs have caused many 24/7 businesses to reduce their hours since the COVID-19 pandemic. But Rose City Coffee Co. is bucking the trend.

The Southeast Portland coffee shop is now open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We’ll talk with owner Christie Gryphon about what it takes to run a 24-hour business in today’s economy.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller, coming to you from the Gert Boyle Studio. During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses across the country reduced their hours. At gyms, pharmacies, restaurants and grocery stores, folks faced staffing shortages and rising labor costs, and all-night locations became less common. But Rose City Coffee Company is bucking that trend. The Southeast Portland Coffee Shop recently expanded to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Christie Gryphon is the owner of Rose City Coffee. She joins us now to talk about this decision. It’s great to have you on the show.

Christie Gryphon: Thank you.

Miller: I read that you used to manage a dental office. Now, you own a coffee shop. Can you explain that switch to us?

Gryphon: Oh yes! Well, I loved the people I worked with at Portland Family Dentistry, and dentistry is a very important field, but let’s be honest, no one wakes up and is excited to go in for a root canal. [Laughter] Most people don’t daydream about their next dental cleaning or things like that. So I found myself wanting to be part of people’s favorite part of their day and not the appointment that they had to mentally brace for.

Miller: Are any of the skills transferable?

Gryphon: Dentistry taught me structure and compassion. Once I transitioned to coffee, it helped me then share that to build joy.

Miller: So, for folks who have not been to Rose City, can you describe your coffee shop?

Gryphon: It is a bustling, large room full of the most intense energy that you might have ever felt when walking into a coffee shop.

Miller: The most intense energy. What do you mean by that?

Gryphon: It is alive.

Miller: It is caffeinated.

Gryphon: It’s not just caffeinated. The spirit, the magic that happens there, the people there, it is just a feeling of being alive when you enter.

Miller: When did you first start thinking about offering 24-hour service?

Gryphon: Well, the 24-hour service definitely was not a risky leap for us. It was a very intentional extension of what we’d already been building over the years. And we’ve slowly expanded hours, listened to what people wanted, and there was just a lack of creative spaces for people in the evenings and nighttime. We were very aware of that.

Miller: What were your hours when you first started?

Gryphon: Well, when we first started, it was, I believe, about 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., or something to that effect. And then over the last nine to 10 years now, we have just slowly extended hours. So once we extended it till 4 [p.m.], then once 6 [p.m.] and then 8 [p.m.]. And then two years later, we were at 11 p.m., and then now, we finally made the switch.

Miller: Did you have customers saying to you at 11 [p.m.], why can’t you stay open longer? Did you have customers before that, at 6 p.m. saying, what about 7 [p.m.]? I’m curious how much this was driven by customers who you had to kick out.

Gryphon: It was very much driven by that. When we are asking people to leave at a certain hour, that never feels wonderful to us, when someone’s in the middle of something very important that they’re working on ...

Miller: And that would happen? There were people who were there at closing time, at those various closing times.

Gryphon: Correct. Yes, and that’s at the point when that happened frequently, we considered extending hours.

Miller: It’s interesting because that does make me wonder why other shops were closing down on or restricting hours. If you saw the customers there who were asking for more service, what do you think you were recognizing that other store owners or coffee shop owners weren’t seeing?

Gryphon: That’s a great question. I’ve always wanted to create a space that is magnetic and drives people to just want to be there. And when we create a magnetic environment, it’s not just something people are just drawn to, but it’s that they want to stay there. Our mission is to create connection, connectivity and really give back to the community. So that’s something that people feel in our heart and I think that that drives them to want to spend more time there.

Miller: Did you have experience yourself, in the past when you’re growing up or as a young adult, at either all-night or late-night coffee shops?

Gryphon: Oh, that’s a great question. Yes, definitely. My inspiration comes from Coffee Time, which is on Northwest 21st Avenue, and they used to be an all-night coffee shop in the ‘90s. And in high school, I essentially feel, in a lot of ways, I grew up there. I have real wonderful feelings from that place, and just that nostalgia of Portland and the ‘90s. The quirky vibe of a very welcoming place was something that has very much inspired Rose City.

Miller: Something like 10 years ago, they were still open late. I don’t think they were all night 10 years ago, but they were open late. And they’re an example, I think, of a coffee shop that has cut down on their hours, who’s gone in sort of the national-trend direction at a time when you’re going in the other direction. What did it mean to you to lose those kinds of spaces?

Gryphon: It felt like a part of Portland that I loved [was] disappearing. And that’s part of why I wanted to do this. Part of going 24 hours is, in many ways, my expression of love for Portland, I would say, really. And it’s us saying we’re here, we’re listening to what people want, and people still deserve a space that sparks ideas and connection at late hours. And I love spending time, like I said, at Coffee Time. I miss that version of Portland. So I’m excited to be able to bring one small piece of that back. It took a lot of thought and intention and a lot of hard work, but it’s meaningful for me.

Miller: What was staffing like? Was it hard to get employees to sign onto, I don’t know, an 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. shift?

Gryphon: Surprisingly, not. We did hire a few additional staff members so we could be prepared for this transition. Of course, I didn’t want to make it required that any of our current staff members would then all of a sudden work this late night shift. So I hired specifically for this shift. But in fact, since then, one of our longest employees has been choosing to take over some of the night shifts. So it’s now actually becoming something of a desired shift rather than what you might think of as an undesirable shift.

Miller: When you initially made this switch, did you yourself hang out for the overnight shift just to see what was happening?

Gryphon: Well, I have three children, one of which is 3-years old, so I did not hang out all night. I was in constant contact, as I am every night, with the people working throughout the evenings. So I am constantly dialed into the business. I was not actually on bar for the entire evening, but I have been there quite late most nights, but not necessarily all night long.

Miller: Well, what have you then heard about the overnight vibe? Who is going and what is a coffee shop like in 2025 at 3 [a.m.]?

Gryphon: Well, I’m excited to say now that we have some data here since it’s been four weeks. There are a lot of people working on a lot of things. Right now, it’s finals for everybody, for a lot of people in college.

Miller: It’s a lot of students.

Gryphon: It’s a lot of students, so I actually looked last night at about 4 a.m. and there were about 13 people in there working on their computers and projects.

Miller: Are people ordering caffeinated drinks at 3 [a.m.]?

Gryphon: People are. Yeah they are, and we have many non-caffeinated options as well.

Miller: Did you have any safety considerations when you made this decision?

Gryphon: Safety is our number one priority, and it was our number one concern and probably the main thing that kept me from pushing this decision out a little further. So we took a lot of precautionary measures to make sure that we are ready for this and we have a lot of measures in place. We did additional training and whatnot to make sure it’s a safe space for everybody. Being that I have children, I wanted a place where parents would feel comfortable sending their high schoolers, for instance, to study for an exam or something like that, and we are all committed and on the same page to keeping that the same situation there.

Miller: Have you found that? I mean, high schoolers going there at say 10:00 p.m., the way it seems like you might have gone to Coffee Time?

Gryphon: Yes. Completely. It’s full circle for me, yeah.

Miller: What’s your hope for what this will become in the future?

Gryphon: I thought you might ask that question. With Rose City, it takes [on] its own life, I would say. And I, of course, have ideas and things and plans for the future, but I find that it’s really important to listen to the business, and this business has become far greater than me. And it really serves the community, the effect that we have on our community has been so great, and I’m so honored for that. But it is bigger than me. And the biggest lesson I’ve learned is sometimes my ideas are not always the right ones.

So, I can’t tell you exactly where this will go, but I’m keeping all opportunities there and I’m excited for it. We’ll just see how the next six months go and move on from there.

Miller: Yeah, the way you’re describing this, it’s almost like the way I’ve heard some novelists talk about characters: these things that they created, but they have lives of their own. But how do you get a sense for where your clientele, your customers are and what they want? If it’s not about your decisions, how do you decide what they want?

Gryphon: Well, we talk to them a lot, number one.

Miller: Just ask them?

Gryphon: Yes, that’s important. [Laughs] Kind of like I mentioned, over time, the business grew and it really found its own voice. And like you’re saying, how do we listen to that as it became bigger than me, the stories, the connections and the effects? There are so many things that trace back to the cafe. So I try not to control it. I try to steward the ship, basically. And, I try to nurture it consistently, improve it, find the gaps that are there, and sit back in a sense of awe and watch it take shape, to be honest.

Miller: Christie, thanks very much.

Gryphon: Thank you. Thank you so much, Dave.

Miller: Christie Gryphon is the owner of Rose City Coffee Company. About a month ago, they made a decision to keep following their trend of later and later hours. They are now a 24/7 coffee shop in Southeast Portland.

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