The Portico Cafe

I stopped by the Portico Cafe today and Barbara took my order. She recommended the Turkey Club and I was a bit skeptical but it was the best thing on the menu! She was so kind and professional, the atmosphere is always so nice. If you want a nice coffee and sandwich shop to get some work done with good food and great customer service, stop by the Portico! Dr. Damion Bolton

This great eatery and meeting spot champions an important mission to bridge people with addiction, incarceration and homelessness to job training, employment and affordable housing opportunities. We held a community information business meeting in a large room that also serves as the place for Sunday services. Breakfast was great with REAL scrambled eggs, super crisp bacon, container yogurt and really fresh chopped fruit, with freshly brewed coffee and water. Basic, great, and basically great food for our event. They also offer a restaurant with line serving, indoor seating in several distinct areas from high top tables, accessible tables, and comfy sofa settings. They also offer out door seating with accessible tables with umbrellas and free of morning sun. The signage of the delicious menu is posted, yellow background with dark letters, readable and free of glare with a chalkboard sign of todays special, chef salad and more. They list an array of community events, events to support the mission, and fun things to do. I enjoyed seeing the games at the games to play while dining here for breakfast, brunch, or lunch. Accessible entry/exit with manual doors, accessible venue, Accessible men's, women's and family restrooms with grab bars, 5ft x 5ft space. Family restroom has diaper changer. They also have kids high chairs. Accessible van parking in street parking pay by app. Some free parking is available a few blocks away with good sidewalks.

Great salads, tasty drinks, the staff is so friendly and wonderful. Prices are very reasonable especially for what you get! Grear place together with friends or get some work done on the laptop.

It's alright. After combing through every coffee house in the city on Google Maps, I noticed this one was one of the highest rated in all of Tampa, so I knew I needed to visit. After spending a few hours here though, it's pretty clear that no one thinks this is an amazing cafe or anything; this place is highly rated mainly because it's a *massively* popular community center. In the span of just a few hours, I saw a Bible study, a job interview for a blue collar job, a group of homeless people, a woman (I'm guessing a parolee) who was being trained to help with custodial work, and what looked like an AA meeting in the private meeting room. It has a beautiful exterior and interior (I think it's a restored church building), with some cozy space for drinking coffee and eating brunch. However, this place is only open weekdays during work hours, and because the cafe explicitly caters to the homeless and jobless (see their mission statement in my photos), there are a lot of shady characters walking around. I walked past a shirtless dude outside the building, and inside, I could clearly hear a woman muttering violent stuff to herself and chuckling (very mentally ill). This is a safe sanctuary for people in a rough patch, but you might feel very unsafe if you're not accustomed to that crowd.

I was walking past this place when I began to smell the aroma of food and coffee, it was a cool morning and I was itching to find a spot to sit and eat after a rough time in traffic. I was greated with warm “hellos” and soft introductions. This location was brand new and the staff talked me through how being a subsidary of the church. This non-profit coffee shop contibutes greatly to the homeless in Tampa. I was shocked, I felt special to know that this truly organic cafe with caring staff worked so hard selflessly. This location has multiple meetings spaces you can rent for less to nothing, gift items for friends or family, and of course amazing coffee and food. Check out my photos I uploaded as they are undervalued if described. This place is gorgeous, clean, and well taken care of. The staff(pictured)will have you feeling like family and you will almost always leave with a smile. I highly recommend from the bottom of my heart to any coffee drinker, businessman, doctor, or passerby in this area.