A vacant storefront on SE Belmont Street is about to become a place where you can sip matcha in the morning, throw back a glass of wine at night, and shape a lump of clay into a bowl any time in between. Otomi Ceramics Café plans to open this fall at 3777 SE Belmont St. in Portland's Sunnyside neighborhood, run by co-owners Saira Hernandez-Ishikawa and Steven Le, a Portland couple building a hybrid café, bar and full-time ceramics studio under one roof.
The concept traces back to an at-home pottery workshop Hernandez-Ishikawa hosted in February 2026, where she taught ceramics while Le handled the drinks, according to The Portland Tribune. Those sessions reportedly helped participants make new friends, and about a month later the couple decided to open a permanent space. Hernandez-Ishikawa, who taught herself ceramics by watching videos online after starting to work with clay roughly three years earlier while living in Seattle, later enrolled with Le in an eight-week wheel-throwing class to sharpen their skills.
From Kombucha Taps to Clay and Cocktails
The space they landed on has its own history. The storefront previously housed Soma Kombucha Taproom, an unmanned, credit-card-operated self-serve taproom that had run there since 2017 before closing at the end of March 2026 due to declining foot traffic and economic challenges, per Bridgetown Bites. Le found the commercial space for rent through Facebook Marketplace, and the pair signed the lease this spring, according to the Tribune's report. News outlet WhatNow Portland first reported the hybrid coffee-and-wine bar concept in late June, noting the owners had initially eyed a summer opening before adjusting to fall pending permitting.
The building itself, known as The Belmont, is a mixed-use property built with regional eco-friendly materials, housing 16 residential apartments alongside two ground-floor commercial spaces roughly four blocks from Laurelhurst Park. Real estate listings for the commercial bay cite a 100 Bike Score and a 95 WalkScore in the Sunnyside neighborhood, numbers that help explain why the location suits a walk-in community concept built around foot traffic.
Coffee, Wine and Hands-On Pottery Under One Roof
Otomi's menu will include coffee, matcha, wine, beer and cider alongside a limited selection of snackable bites, the Tribune reports. Guests will be able to choose a premade piece to paint or make hand-built pottery from scratch, and shelves throughout the café will display finished pieces made on-site. A large cedar table and bench are set to serve as the space's centerpiece, and the café also plans at-home pottery workshop kits that include berry baskets, jewelry charms and trinkets.
Le, who previously worked at Starbucks, plans to put his old barista skills to use behind the counter, while also working as a nurse. Hernandez-Ishikawa told the Tribune that many Portland ceramics workshops are inaccessible because they cost too much or require too much time, a gap the pair hopes Otomi will help close by offering ongoing studio hours rather than one-off classes. Le said the couple's cultures carry strong pottery and ceramic traditions and long histories of hand-building, a lineage they want the café to reflect.
A Name Rooted in Heritage
The café's name references the indigenous Otomi people of central Mexico, known for vibrant, hand-embroidered textile art featuring floral and animal motifs, according to Apartamento. Hernandez-Ishikawa is Mexican and Japanese, while Le is Vietnamese and Black, and the café is designed to center the owners' cultural heritage through its artwork and offerings. The business plans to use community gathering as an ethos shaping its artistic style and design, aiming to give guests a place to slow down together.
Ahead of the official fall opening, Otomi hosted a community Zumba fundraiser at the Sunnyside space on July 25, according to The List PDX. The owners also plan music and craft nights alongside regular studio hours once the café is fully up and running.
Part of a Bigger Belmont Shakeup
Otomi arrives amid a broader wave of change along the Belmont corridor. Four blocks west, the original Stumptown Coffee Roasters storefront closed earlier in 2026 and was set to reopen in July as Puff Coffee, founded by Stumptown creator Duane Sorenson, as Hoodline reported in its earlier piece on the Stumptown founder's Belmont return. Belmont also already has ceramic infrastructure in place: Radius Community Art Studio opened a dedicated pottery facility at 2324 SE Belmont St. in October 2021, moving its clay studio there while keeping its original location for painting, according to Portland Monthly.
Pairing pottery-making with food and drink is part of a wider regional pattern in Oregon. CeramiCafe Art Lounge operates four suburban locations in Beaverton, Clackamas, Corvallis and Lake Oswego, allowing customers to bring their own food and drink alongside studio time. Bridgetown Bites added Otomi to its regional tracker of anticipated Portland restaurant and café openings back in May, an early sign of local food-and-beverage media interest in the concept. Updates on Otomi's fall opening are being posted to @otomipdx on Instagram.
