Bossa, a Brazilian Cafe and Bar, Will Open in NW Portland

Bossa, which started as a specialty coffee roaster and continues to be so, will open a brick and mortar—part cafe, part cocktail bar. They’ll be located in Northwest Portland on the corner on NW 21st Avenue and NW Everett Street—not too far from Say When, which opened earlier this year.

I had a chance to chat with Emanuelle and Tilion Lieberman, Bossa’s owners. Here is what I learned from them.

Bossa’s Owners

As I mentioned above, the people behind Bossa are husband and wife team of Emanuelle and Tilion Lieberman. They are upbeat dreamers, creatives, connectors, and want to make a space that embraces the Brazilian community in Portland, and they welcome you to experience this beautiful culture.

“Our mission is simple,” they wrote. “To bring the warmth, rhythm, and flavors of Brasil to Portland, and to create a space where everyone feels welcome. We’re building more than a Brazilian café and bar—we’re building a community space rooted in Brazilian culture and Portland creativity.”

They met in London by chance, and have been together for the past seven years. Emanuelle was born and raised in Brazil and later moved to London as a teenager. Tilion has lived in Portland since he was about 9 years old, but spent time in London during his gap year, when he and Emanuelle met.

Emanuelle has worked in pubs, nightclubs, and bars; she also has a degree in criminology psychology. Her other career is managing social media for local businesses, helping them put themselves out there.

Tilion has been involved with photography and filmmaking since the age of 12 when he was given his first camera. He considered going to film school but took the aforementioned gap year, eventually working with some companies in Australia and really enjoying that. His personal interest in cooking and baking also helps him visualize what to serve at the cafe.

They’ll both be putting their myriad skills—words, images, and video—into the marketing side of the business.

Bossa: What’s In a Name?

Originally I had assumed “Bossa” was connected to “Bossa Nova,” one of the great Brazilian musical styles. But it’s this that is the source of the naming choice: “We just love the word, ‘bossa,’” explained Emanuelle.

She continued, “In Portuguese it means someone with a certain charm, style, or natural way of doing things. So we thought , ‘OK, this is actually perfect for what we want to do because we were doing something new in the city and with a different charm.”

As someone who loves fonts, this was an exciting tidbit for me: Their font for Bossa originated with a Brazilian designer, and was originally created before Bossa Nova recordings became so popular. And they plan to have a variety of musical styles played in their space, so attaching themselves to Bossa Nova in particular would be counterproductive.

Bossa: Coffee Roasting

They said that before they could open Bossa the cafe, they wanted to roast their own coffee. Brazil is a big producer of coffee—the largest exporter of coffee in the world, valued in the billions. Large—e.g., Starbucks—and small—e.g., Bossa—roasters use coffee beans from Brazil.

Bossa partners with the farm Fazendas Dutra. It is located in the Matas de Minas region of Brazil’s state of Minas Gerais, in the eastern part of Brazil. There they use regenerative and organic agricultural practices, which means the coffee from Bossa is USDA Organic, as well as Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance certified.

Their coffee consists of red and yellow Catuai coffee varieties. This variety was created in 1949 and introduced to Brazil in 1972. The World Coffee Research website writes that it is, “a cross between highly productive Mundo Novo and compact Caturra, made by the Instituto Agronomico (IAC) of Sao Paulo State in Campinas, Brazil.” You can read more about it here.

They do two roasts: Aurora, which is a medium roast with flavors of chocolate, passion fruit, and walnut butter; and Carinho (pronounced “ca-ree-nyo”), which is a medium-dark roast with flavors of chocolate, almond butter, and sugar cane. You can buy 12 oz bags of it for $24, and of course, you’ll be able to have a cup of their coffee at the cafe, as well as get a coffee subscription.

Why Coffee, Anyway?

I asked them why they chose coffee over other possibilities—for instance, a community center or a restaurant.

“I’ve always been really into specialty coffee, obviously, growing up here,” said Tilion. “There’s just so much good coffee to choose from. And I started really nerding out and getting into espresso, spending all my money buying different coffee equipment. This was probably when I was 18.”

He continued, “One thing I noticed when we went to Brazil, is that the foundation of [coffee culture] is about greeting people. You go to the bank and they offer you coffee. When you go to someone’s house, they offer coffee. Coffee is just like getting a beer in the UK.

“It’s a community, and it brings people together. A lot of conversations that people have are over coffee—it’s a way of welcoming someone into your life or into your home or your business.

“And so for us, we wanted to do some sort of community space around Brazilian food and Brazilian coffee, but we wanted it to be more than just a coffee shop. And that’s like why we’re going to be a cafe during the day and a cocktail bar at night so that we can kind of tie both those things together. We want to have a nice space for people not to just learn more about Brazilian culture, but other Latin cultures, too.”

The Path To Open Bossa

They did a number of pop-ups at places like landd (a design studio and outdoor concept storefront), and Sunblossom Farm, a flower farm that Tilion’s mother has run for about 15 years in the Cully neighborhood. They also participated in the Brazilian Block Party at Allgood Brewing. This was a good way to get their product out there, connect, and cultivate interest in their work.

Sunblossom Farm

Part beautiful space, part familiar connection, their times at Sunblossom Farm had a big impact on their process. It is no surprise that it’s expensive to get started with a coffee business, and they wanted to see if it would fly and garner interest.

“We wanted to test it out and see like how the community responds to it,” explained Tilion. “And so we thought, ‘Let’s just open a little stand at the farm during the summer on the weekends.’” They started planning for that in December 2024.

“And then in 2025, we really started to work on this and we were like, ‘OK, we’re going to actually do this!’ And we committed to this for spring.”

But then it got complicated. They started the buildout, full of excitement, and then the issue of permits came upon them like a wet blanket. Zoning issues had to be taken into account, among other things. “We realized we were we were not going to be able to open because of the zoning,” said Tilion. So, they went ahead and did some pop-ups, mostly for neighbors, friends, and family.

They had a great time with these events, and it confirmed that opening an actual space was something they still wanted to do. And finding the kind of space they have secured means they can dive into a nightlife aspect, which they are really excited about.

Bossa: The Location

This is a building with a number of tenant spaces, and they are going to be right on the corner of NW 21st Avenue and NW Everett. Many of you reading this may recognize this as a once-locale of the local Mexican restaurant chain Cha! Cha! Cha! The most recent tenant was the Choice of India restaurant, which apparently closed in 2022. I don’t think this space has been used since then.

“It’s pretty big space,” said Emanuelle. They think it’s around 3,000 square feet, including the patio. CR Bennett Construction is helping them with the renovation and sound pretty happy to be part of this project.

Choosing the Space

This was actually one of the first spaces they looked at during their search, which started in spring 2025. At first they thought that it was too big, too expensive. They looked at smaller places in a bunch of different parts of town.

“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 said. “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.”

She continued, “We also want a space that has a full kitchen and enough room to do all the Brazilian food that we want to do. And being on the kind of street that is going to allow us to do the nightlife stuff that we want to do, and not be disruptive to a small neighborhood.”

She added, “So that’s why we ended up leading back towards this space.”

Bossa: The Interior

I asked them about their plans for the interior—will it be modern and sleek? A lived in “old Portland” look? A nod to the Amazon?

They are aiming for a contemporary look that is still a bit relaxed—not stark, antiseptic, or industrial, but with warm wood (walnut), natural elements, rugs, and with a nod to Mid-century Brazilian architecture. They are also personal fans of Brazilian Brutalism, so perhaps aspects of that will make it into the final design.

Emanuelle highlighted the ceiling that has exposed timber in it, which is painted red—a color similar to their logo. So that will remain. “We’re going to keep the red ceiling and repaint the patio to highlight the red in our logo,” she explained.

Also look for lots of plants inside and out, and plenty of chairs—lovingly mismatched and in multiple colors (another example of this concept is the lounge outside Urban Farmer) for people to take a load off and enjoy the Bossa hospitality.

Their lounge area—also with comfortable seating—will be able to transition easily to their nighttime nightlife activity. Overall, they want to share the warmth and welcoming atmosphere they encountered so many times while in Brazil.

It’s important to note that this will not be a Brazilian-themed cafe. But the warmth, vibrancy, and colorful nature of Brazil will be present.

Eating and Drinking at Bossa

The morning will have coffee drinks—using Bossa beans, of course. Look for the traditional, familiar espresso drinks.

Morning To Afternoon Eats

To eat, they are creating what they hope will be a menu with a substantial food side. They will have tapioca crepes, which are a popular street food in Brazil. They are made with tapioca flour and filled with all sorts of things—cheese, chocolate, bananas, etc. Also pão de queijo, known as “Brazilian cheese bread,” which is also made with tapicoa flour. Look for a variety of Brazlian desserts, as well as açai.

“We’re also going to have a lot of staples that you would find in places in Brazil, like coxinha and different pastels,” Tilion explained. “We’ll have dishes that, if you’re Brazilian, you’d recognize the right away; and if you’re not, you’d be like, ‘Oh I’ve never heard of this! Let me try it.’”

The talked about having some foccaccia and also some sandwiches throughout the day on small baguettes called French Bread (“pão francês). Tilion compared them to a banh mi style baguette, soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. “You could just squeeze the whole roll with your hand,” he remarked.

They also want to take familiar cafe food and find ways to tie it to Brazil via certain ingredients. “We did a cinnamon roll at one of our pop-ups that had Brazilian dulce de leche in it,” Emanuelle remarked. Sign me up.

They’ll also have some grab and go items available.

Easing From Afternoon to Evening

Starting in the afternoons they’ll have cocktails, beer, cider, and on the food front offer things that can be shared. “One of the things that people in Brazil love to do is to go to a bar and sit down and just talk for hours,” they explained. But also coming to enjoy some good music or dance, too.

They hope to have steak and some traditional Brazilian bar food, as well as shareable items. Think espetinho de carne, which are steak skewers, as well as a cheese skewers grilled like Halloumi (this cheese does not fully melt and keeps its shape).

“So, stuff that’s easy to eat in a bar setting,” said Tilion. ‘And then we’re going to have different things that will rotate, along with our staples. So even at night, they would be able to get things like pão de queijo or tea.”

They will also have some seasonal offerings. They consider this “Brazil meets Portland,” as they resonate with the importance many of their fellow Portlanders put on eating seasonally. They have some connections with The Side Yard Farm—which is around the corner from Sunblosson Farm in Cully.

“We want to tie in a lot of local ingredients with the Brazilian dishes that we’re doing,” explained Tilion. “We ask ourselves, ‘How can we still have it be something that a Brazilian person would want to eat and also adjust it in a way where it’s respectful to the culture?’”

Look for vegan and vegetarian options, too. And they would love to serve Feijoada on the weekends, which is a tradition in Brazil. “Something we definitely want to try and do is have specific nights where we have certain things only for a day or two each month.”

Drinking

Along with coffee, of course, evening will feature Brazilian cocktails like the caiprinha, the national cocktail of Brazil. And because they are coffee roasters, they’ve been working on an espresso martini. Batidas are also on their mind with flavors like passion fruit (maracujá).

They even are contemplating a signature beer for Bossa, but that is not fully realized yet. But they will have a full cocktail menu with classic Brazilian cocktails, many of which use the popular spirit Cachaça, made from sugarcane. “I actually predates rum and tequila,” said Tilion. And it is a protected food—it can only be Cachaça if it’s made in Brazil.

They also plan to take some familiar classic cocktails and give them a Brazilian twist by switching out the spirits or introducing a different mix of flavors that are common in Brazil.

And they will have some NA cocktails, and they are excited about that. “My parents don’t drink, so they’re super excited about it,” said Tilion. “My dad has like gotten way more into it because he loves the idea of it, but he just doesn’t drink any alcohol. I’m always trying to make him different interesting cocktails. So we also don’t want to have the non-alcoholic cocktails be fully different from the menu.”

Nightlife

In the evening, they will have a vibe inspired by Brazilian nightlife. They will collaborate with local and Latin artists, bringing “music, culture, and community” to their corner of Northwest Portland

They plan to bring a number of Brazilian DJs from the area, too. “One of the things that we wanted to do was to find a space that could also accommodate people,” explained Emanuelle. “Because I have a lot of friends who do events in the city and one of the things that I kept hearing from them was the lack of space.” This is great that they can provide that at Bossa.

They are looking at a mid-October opening, and a specific date is forthcoming. They would have liked to have opened in August, but the buildout has ended up taking more time than expected. This is not uncommon.

They want to be open daily from about 7am to 4pm, but they are still tweaking that. Nightlife will happen Thursday to Sunday, when they are thinking they’ll close at midnight on Thursday and Sunday, and possibly 2:30am on Friday and Saturday. Their liquor license will have a say in that, too. So, all this to say is that they are still figuring out a final schedule.

“We are really excited to be finally putting this cafe into reality,” said Emanuelle. “We’ve been dreaming and thinking about this for a long time. It’s been great to meet the community and those in the city that own coffee shops—so many in the city are using coffee from South America.”

She added, “So really, it’s cool to see this vision come to life and how many people are so excited about it, too!”

All the best to Emanuelle and Tilion and their team as they get Bossa up and running.

Bossa [projected opening October 2026]
305 NW 21st Avenue, Portland
Bossa website