Nalu Kava Lounge Tea House

Nalu Kava Lounge Tea House isn't easy to find, and that's part of the point. Tucked behind North Portland's Red Fox bar, up a steep flight of stairs, this second-floor hideaway has been quietly operating for years, and owner Holland Mulder describes it plainly: "Only the daring and persistent find us."

Mulder opened Nalu in 2018 with kava at the center of the menu, driven by a simple but personal reason. She'd grown tired of bars being the only real social option, and after stumbling into a kava bar in Florida as a younger woman, she discovered that kava offered something different, a low-level, stress-relieving sense of ease without any intoxication. She brought that experience back to North Portland and built a space around it.

The menu runs deep with decadent drinking chocolates, traditional kava, and healing mushroom teas, and the space itself leans into comfort, with big cushions, couches, mood lighting, curtains, and plants filling every corner. There's also a greenhouse and a patio, and the lounge hosts events on a regular basis.

The website says it best: "Some say we remind them of old-school PDX." That's the feeling Nalu protects, a place where the pace slows down, the drinks are all non-alcoholic, and the crowd comes to actually talk to each other.