If you walked by the See See Motor Coffee Co. location in Newberg in the past few years, you’d see a collection of classic cars in the parking lot, motorcycles and dirt bikes on display inside, and a crowd of locals and tourists alike enjoying coffee, beer, and maybe even a hot dog during their hot dog happy hour.
However, since January, the coffee shop at 101 E. 1st Street has been dark, with the furniture inside strewn about and most of its decorations removed.
See See removed the outpost from its website location listings, their Google profile shows they are temporarily closed, and the social media account for the Newberg location has been deactivated.
And as of Friday, March 3rd, 2023, See See Coffee in Newberg is closed for good.
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“Closing Newberg was a tough one,” said See See Motor Coffee Co. founder Thor Drake. “One of the first cities I visited when I moved to Oregon was Newberg. I worked at summer camps and every weekend we would come down the mountain to skate at the awesome skatepark and ride BMX.”
Drake and a few other See See employees were at the shop on March 3 taking their signature signage and motorcycle parts down from the walls. While the murals remain on the outer walls, the inside has been gutted of its moto-heavy aesthetic.
See See Newberg opened in June of 2020, which Drake acknowledged was “a difficult time” to open a business as the pandemic gripped the world a few months earlier.
“See See had some ideas of expanding locations pre-pandemic,” Drake said. “When the opportunity to do a See See in Newberg popped up, I was pretty supportive along with my three other business partners.”
Despite the difficulties, the Newberg community embraced the Portland-based company as a local mainstay.
“We decided to continue with our plan to open, being unreasonably optimistic,” he said. “Our hope with opening [in] Newberg was that we would find a little moto or art community — offer a little coffee meet-up spot to the younger and older generations.”
But according to Drake, the shop experienced difficulties from the beginning.
“It was tough from the get-go, not only due to the pandemic but we had some troubles getting the correct permits to operate,” Drake said.
When See See opened in 2020, they received notice from the City of Newberg and state agencies that part of their sidewalk facing Main St. was not ADA Compliant.
“There was some angst involved, and we tried to work through that,” said Newberg City Engineer Kaaren Hofmann. “We allowed them to move in and expected [the sidewalk replacement] work to be done.”
The work was never completed to make the sidewalk on Main ADA Compliant. However, Hofmann said the city did not require them to cease operations.
Drake said it came down to a few things. The first being the ADA compliance and running into repeated permitting roadblocks; while the city did not require them to close, the process was never resolved and loomed over the business’s operations. The second was finding consistent help, especially finding a lead employee at the Newberg location. The final blow, he said, was that the location was not serving the See See brand enough to justify further investment.
“If we couldn’t solve the first two issues we had less motivation to fund a better future for that location,” Drake said. “For us to get right with permits, hire new managers, and add the marketing budget sufficient to the See See brand — it was just more than our small team could handle.”
“There is always a silver lining, or at least that’s how I see it,” he continues. “We had some great events there, we had some great experiences putting that space together; we met some great Newberg locals. After a complete overhaul of the old gas station adding more bathrooms, electrical, and plumbing that location is perfect for some small business to take over.”
There is no update on another business moving in at this time. According to Yamhill County tax documents, See See Newberg LLC owns the building.
See See Motor Coffee will continue to operate two shops in Portland, one in Beaverton as well as Spoken Moto in Bend, Ore. This is the third See See location to close in the past few years behind locations in Reno, Nevada, and the St. John’s Neighborhood in Portland.
“Thanks for having us for a few years, Newberg,” Drake said. “We remain with the mindset that, ‘you’ve got to try things in life, and if they don’t work, that’s ok.'”
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