Portland restaurants cater to cyclists

PORTLAND – Bicyclists get hungry too. So, in bike-friendly Portland, restaurants are making a little extra effort to cater to them – with bike-thru windows.

It is a bit more fun than a traditional drive-thru. There are no crackly speakers or exhaust fumes to endure. And the businesses say it’s a way to extend support for the area’s bicycling community.

Black Sheep Bakery has had a bike-thru window in Southeast Portland for about a year, where cyclists can get a coffee, muffin and a patch kit for $6.

At Little Red Bike Cafe, which just opened in North Portland, bicyclists can use a bike-thru window for extended hours or get a discount for just taking the two-wheel trip there. There’s a bike pump, tubes and patch kits inside for those who need them.

“Why not recognize the unique and special part of Portland’s culture?” said Evan Dohrmann, 26, who opened Little Red Bike Cafe with his fiancée, Ali Jepson, 25.

The couple says they planned on creating a neighborhood stop, but they’ve had cyclists make special cross-town trips to visit.

“Yeah, there are a lot of bikers in Portland but we get excited about little things like this,” said Jonathan Maus, editor of the popular Web site bikeportland.org.

Other businesses have found ways to show their support for cyclists, Maus said – an extra shot of espresso or a special punch card at the gelato shop.

Portland is crazy about cycling. A U.S. Census Bureau analysis released in June of this year found that 3.5 percent of workers in the city commuted by bike in 2005, a larger share than in any other large American city and eight times the national average.

The city has cyclists of all stripes, not just commuters. They range from black-clad messengers to racers on expensive bikes.

A number of businesses are reliant on bikes, such as several pizza places that deliver by bike. Little Red Bike’s coffee provider delivers his beans by bike.

The bike-thru concept is the latest demonstration of Portland’s love of bikes.

A drive-thru typically offers ease and extended hours access to car drivers, but pedestrians and cyclists are not welcome in the drive-thru for liability reasons.

However, Northwest chain Burgerville says it has gotten enough requests from customers for a bike-thru that the idea is under consideration.

A bike-thru isn’t just a plus for cyclists.

Black Sheep owner Amanda Felt said the bike-thru was a great way to bring in as many people as possible into her small storefront.

“With as many bikes as there are in the city, there just had to be one,” she said.