A Taste of the Past at Troutdale’s New Cafe

Take a step back in time at the new Troutdale Soda Bar Café, a 1950s-style soda shop thick with nostalgia. Patrons can literally taste days gone by at the old-time soda bar with New York egg creams, ice cream, bulk candies, sandwiches and more. Co-owners and brothers David and Randy Lee open the cafe daily at 289 E. Historic Columbia River Highway. 

The Soda Bar is also home to Ripcity Popcorn, a family-run operation owned by the Lees,  which was originally intended to help community groups with fundraising opportunities. The salty scents of popcorn in numerous flavors crafted by hand using natural ingredients easily draw passersby into the cafe. 

The Troutdale Soda Bar Café is located in a building that had been vacant since 2022 when the former Troutdale General Store was closed. Terry and Jodi Smoke owned and operated the downtown store for 22 years by drawing on a broad customer base ranging from area residents to tourists traveling through the Gorge. The longtime Troutdale entrepreneurs helped provide many of the current furnishings of the cafe from their collection of nostalgia procured over a lifetime of traveling the country for items that a person wouldn't find elsewhere. 

The Troutdale Soda Bar Café revitalizes the town’s long tradition of general stores. Troutdale’s history with general stores goes back even further. As recorded in It Could Have Been Carpdale, a Centennial History of Troutdale, Oregon, by Sharon Nesbit, Troutdale’s first mayor and storekeeper, Aaron Fox, ran a general merchandise store in 1891 that would come to be known as the Troutdale General Store. It changed hands a few times before being purchased by Roy Meger in 1945 upon returning from service in World War II. He closed the store in August 1995 at the age of 80.

By 1996, the building was repurposed under new ownership as the Troutdale Vision Clinic at 226 E. Historic Columbia River Highway. A flurry of downtown redevelopment resulted in several new buildings, one of which became the new Troutdale General Store, opened by the Smokes as a 7,000-square-foot store complete with ‘a cupola, filled with antiques and serving up everything from smoked salmon chowder to salt-water taffy.’

Visit Troutdale

The commitment to community and a dedication to continued history is exemplified by the new Troutdale Soda Bar Café. Stop in today for an egg cream to learn more about Troutdale and the regional shops, breweries, waterfalls, hiking and more. Troutdale is the perfect destination to begin your exploration of the Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood National Forest. Visit@troutdaleoregon.gov is your essential resource for everything possible in the Gorge beginning in Troutdale - contact us today!