Spielman Coffee Roasters
2128 SE Division St – Portland
$1.25
Spielman Coffee Roaster’s main gig, unsurprisingly, is coffee beans. But in the past year or so since they opened, they’ve also earned a reputation for baking some of the best bagels in town (Montreal style) – with lines regularly spilling out of their tiny Division Street shop. And even though I’m not a bagel chaser in general, it’s nice to know it is possible to get our hands on something more chewy, earthy, delicious and
worthy of straight up empty calorie bread-eating than Noah’s or Kettleman’s – when the occasion arises. If I ever need to pick up a dozen bagels (and I do), I would absolutely drive out of my way for Spielman’s (and I have).
But I don’t have to tell you that I am not here to talk about bagels, fools! What I want to talk about is the unexpectedly FANTASTIC oatmeal raisin cookie that I found there about a half an hour ago. As I was getting into my car 2 blocks away, I thought to myself: “self, I wonder if that Spielman’s joint makes any cookies that are worth a shit? You’re overdue for a carpe-cookie post, cookie lady. Go check it out!”
So I did. I walked over to Spielman’s to see what I could rustle up. It was 2:30 pm so the line was non-existent. I strolled right up to the counter and there behind the glass case were two perfectly homemade-y looking oatmeal raisin cookies. I asked the counter girl for the beefier, less baked-looking of the two (natch, and she sweetly obliged) and ripped off a chunk as soon as I hit the sidewalk.
Cookie eaters: this is a winner. Like, way above average. If you only like them crispy, it’s not for you. But if you are like me and enjoy a doughy (the inside could actually be considered unbaked, truthfully) and EXTREMELY flavorful, properly salted, cinnamoned and brown sugared oatmeal cookie, I am pretty confident you will be driving out of your way for this one. I know I will…even when I don’t need bagels.
Dark raisins, no nuts.
Quite good.