"It has been an honor to carry Jim and Patty's legacy and to serve our beloved community." The Jim & Patty's Coffee shop at 4951 NE Fremont St. posted that line in July 2026 to announce it would close on Sunday, July 12. That was less than a year after it reopened under new ownership.
Many Portlanders read that as the end of the Jim & Patty's name. In Forest Heights, the story went differently. The café at 2021 NW Miller Rd. in the Village Center now has a Spielman Bagels sign. As of July 2026, it was also the shop KOIN named as still offering Black Tiger beans, Black Tiger Shakes and Pig Newtons, the items people most connect with Jim & Patty's. The coffee line Jim and Patty Roberts started half a century ago has outlasted the stores that carried their name, and it still pours at a neighborhood counter on NW Miller Road.
Fifty Years of Portland Coffee, Briefly
The Forest Heights café is part of a long local history:
- 1976. Jim and Patty Roberts open The Coffee Man, later renamed Coffee People. They sold their shares in 1998, after the company had grown across the U.S.
- November 2002. Their namesake café, Jim & Patty's Coffee, opens.
- Fall 2020. A Forest Heights café is in the works on NW Miller Road. A post in Cedar Mill News describes permits moving "slower than expected."
- November 2024. The Roberts-run shops close. Patty Roberts had set a $250,000 fundraising goal and raised about $40,000 before deciding to shut down.
- February and August 2025. Paul Ceserani turns the former Beaverton shop into a Spielman Bagels, which opens Feb. 24. He then reopens the Fremont shop on Aug. 14.
- April 2026. The Forest Heights café changes its name to Spielman Bagels.
- July 12, 2026. The Fremont shop closes again.
The list shows how the name got smaller. By November 2024, the chain had already lost its Happy Valley café, and the Cully shop on Fremont closed after Jim Roberts died. Through all of it, the Forest Heights shop stayed open.
Why the Miller Road Shop Stayed Open
The Forest Heights café stayed open because it was never part of the chain's money troubles. In September 2024, as Jim & Patty's was near closing, Willamette Week reported that the Forest Heights location was "owned by a separate entity" and would not be affected by the changes at the Roberts-run shops. KPTV also described it as owned by a separate company.
The reporting doesn't say who first owned the Miller Road shop or why it was set up separately. The 2020 Cedar Mill News item does show what the café was planned to be. It called the shop "our new cafe," said it expected a grill and hood so it could serve a full food menu, and noted that the manager, Bryan, had worked in the Coffee People business. So the ties to the Roberts' first company went back to the shop's early days.
Paul Ceserani is the owner who connects these threads. KOIN reported he was a minority owner of Jim & Patty's before he took it over, and he also owns Spielman's Bagels & Coffee. In May 2026, Cedar Mill News wrote that the original owners had retired and that Forest Heights was the only location that had kept the Jim & Patty's name.
What the April Name Change Did and Didn't Change
The Northwest Examiner reported the rebrand on April 23, 2026. Its photo caption summed it up: "The same owner, the same crew and the same bagels, but new name." The shop kept many items from the Jim & Patty's menu. It also kept running its delivery orders through the Jim & Patty's DoorDash listing.
The new name has its own Portland history. Rick Spielman and his son Raf started Spielman Coffee on Southeast Division Street in 2011, and its "Portland-style" boiled bagels soon became the main draw. Rick Spielman died in 2022, and Ceserani has owned the company since 2019. Today Spielman lists five cafés: 2200 NE Broadway, 2314 NW Lovejoy St., 7713 SW Capitol Hwy., 4130 SW 117th Ave. in Beaverton's Canyon Square, and 2021 NW Miller Rd. in Forest Heights. Division is no longer on the list.
The Forest Heights café is the only one of the five that joined Spielman as an established Jim & Patty's shop with the same crew. The Beaverton café also took over a former Jim & Patty's space, but only after that store had closed in November 2024.
What's Still Behind the Counter
The best proof that the shop still carries Jim & Patty's is what it sells. Here is what the sources confirm and when:
| Item | Forest Heights, 2021 NW Miller Rd. | Beaverton, 4130 SW 117th Ave. |
|---|---|---|
| Black Tiger beans | Offered as of July 2026, per KOIN. Listed on the current online menu at $19 and up | Not listed in the retail section of the current online menu |
| Black Tiger Shakes | Offered as of July 2026, per KOIN | Not mentioned in July 2026 reporting |
| Pig Newtons | Offered as of July 2026, per KOIN. Not an online-order item | Announced in July 2026 as coming soon |
The closing announcement said the business hoped to bring these items to more Spielman locations "in the future." A July 13 report from WhatNow said Jim & Patty's items would stay available at Spielman locations while the owner worked out transition plans. No later report has confirmed a wider rollout. For now, Forest Heights is the location with the fullest documented Jim & Patty's lineup.
If you're stopping by on a certain morning, check the shop's own page for hours first. Spielman's website lists different Forest Heights hours in different places.
The Village Center Directory Hasn't Caught Up
The Forest Heights Homeowners Association's page of Village Center merchants still lists "Jim & Patty's Coffee" at the café's phone number, 971-888-4248. That is the same number Spielman now gives for its Forest Heights shop. In that one small detail, the old name is still in the neighborhood's own directory.
The same page gives the Village Center's background. The commercial site was set aside in 1989, when the original Forest Heights plans were approved. Developers Dwight Schwab and Phil Gentemann of GSP LLC turned it into a real shopping center in 2005, with the goal of bringing in businesses that served daily life in the neighborhood. The café shares that stretch of NW Miller Road with neighbors whose addresses come from their own websites:
- Pizzicato, 2025 NW Miller Rd.
- XStream Learning Center, 2029–2033 NW Miller Rd.
- Kozan Ramen, 2037 NW Miller Rd.
- Forest Heights Cleaners, 2049 NW Miller Rd., which offers scheduled pickup
- Luxury Nails & Foot Massage, 2053 NW Miller Rd.
- Rivière Med Spa, 2127 NW Miller Rd., which also has a location at 2416 NE Fremont St.
The Village Center was built to provide neighborhood services. That same setup gave a separately owned café room to keep going when the chain it was named after closed. A bag of Black Tiger beans, sold at 2021 NW Miller Rd. under the Spielman Bagels name, is the most direct link Portland has left to the coffee Jim and Patty Roberts started brewing in 1976.
At Julie Williams, keeping up with changes like this one on NW Miller Road is part of knowing Forest Heights well. If you live here and are starting to think about your own next step, schedule a consultation.
