A Brazilian cafe and cocktail bar called Bossa plans to open in mid-October at 305 NW 21st Ave., filling a storefront that has sat empty since Choice of India reportedly closed in 2022.
Husband-and-wife owners Emanuelle and Tilion Lieberman are building a dual-concept space: specialty coffee and Brazilian street food by day, cocktails and DJ nights on evenings Thursday through Sunday.
The roughly 3,000-square-foot corner spot at NW 21st and Everett, previously home to Cha! Cha! Cha!, is being renovated by CR Bennett Construction.
"We ended up realizing, after almost a whole year of going to all these different places, that this space actually was the best option," Emanuelle Lieberman told Bridgetown Bites.
"Because we need a space that's going to function well as a coffee shop and be on a street where there's a lot of good foot traffic."
Emanuelle Lieberman, who was born and raised in Brazil and later worked in London pubs and nightclubs, said the couple searched for nearly a year after zoning issues derailed an earlier location.
Tilion Lieberman, a Portland resident since childhood with a background in photography and filmmaking, handles much of the food development.
The menu
The daytime cafe will serve tapioca crepes, pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread), açaí, coxinha, pastels and pão francês sandwiches.
Bossa's coffee comes from Fazendas Dutra, a farm in the Matas de Minas region of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and carries USDA Organic, Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance certifications. Two roasts are available. Both sell by the cup and in 12-ounce bags at $24.
Evenings bring a cocktail menu anchored by caipirinhas, batidas and espresso martinis made with cachaça, a Brazilian sugarcane spirit. Bar food will include espetinho de carne (steak skewers) and grilled cheese skewers, with weekend feijoada service planned.
The couple also plans to source seasonal ingredients from The Side Yard Farm in the Cully neighborhood.
Nightlife and cultural programming
Emanuelle Lieberman said she heard repeatedly from friends who organize events about a lack of venue space in Portland. Bossa plans to host Brazilian DJs from the Portland area and collaborate with local and Latin artists for evening programming.
Planned hours are roughly 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily for the cafe. Nightlife runs Thursday through Sunday, closing at midnight on Thursdays and Sundays, with Friday and Saturday hours potentially extending to 2:30 a.m. pending the liquor license. Both the schedule and license were still being finalized as of Aug. 26.
The space
The interior will feature warm walnut wood, natural elements, rugs and mismatched colorful chairs. An existing exposed-timber ceiling painted red, a color that matches the Bossa logo, will stay.
The couple plans to repaint the patio to highlight the same red.
Bossa started as a specialty coffee roaster, with the Liebermans running pop-ups at Sunblossom Farm in the Cully neighborhood (a flower farm run by Tilion's mother for about 15 years), at design studio landd, and at the Brazilian Block Party at Allgood Brewing. They committed to opening a permanent space in spring 2025.
A specific mid-October opening date has not been announced. The owners had hoped to open in August, but the buildout took longer than expected.
