Portland Coffee Company Ristretto Roasters Is Going Out of Business

Ristretto Roasters, the 15-year-old Portland-based coffee chain, is shutting down operations this month, the company announced in a statement on its website.

Started in 2005 out of a cafe in the Beaumont neighborhood, the roaster grew to include four shops and a successful wholesale operation.

It's not clear if the closure can be attributed to COVID-19, and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prior to the pandemic, however, Ristretto had repeatedly found itself the subject of controversy for the opinions expressed by owner Din Johnson's wife, local author and journalist Nancy Rommelmann.

In January 2019, in a series of since-deleted vlogs, Rommelmann—a longtime contributor to WW—questioned the motives of women leading the #MeToo movement, calling into question the accounts of some prominent sexual assault survivors and downplaying the allegations against high-profile men such as Louis C.K.

The videos sparked calls for a boycott of Ristretto. (Rommelmann denied having any involvement in her husband's business, though state filings listed her as a manager at the company.) New Seasons and Market of Choice stopped selling the chain's coffee and, by August 2019, Ristretto had closed two of its four Portland locations.

In an op-ed for right-leaning publication Quillette published last February, Rommelmann wrote that she and her husband were being victimized by "the career-destroying potential of the internet mob."

On Twitter yesterday, Rommelmann promised that she would "have a little more to say" about the end of Ristretto soon.

Ristretto's last day in business is Dec. 15.