Adventures in Portland: Take 6

Cupcake Review #4: Cupcake Jones on NW 10th and Everett

Ambiance: 1 scoop of icing. Cupcake Jones was seriously lacking in the ambiance department. If they had more space, we're sure they would create a wonderful cupcake eating environment. However, as it stands, it is, as Annie states, "the fast food of cupcakes". You walk in and it is a tiny area that no more than 5 people could stand. There was a bench that you could sit on, but that might be sort of awkward since you're pretty much right in the action. Annie and I decided to eat our cupcakes outside, only to realize there was no outdoor seating either. Major bummer. We ended up sitting on a crooked window sill/ledge thingy outside of the neighboring Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream (hmm ice cream....). People inside the Ben and Jerry's may, or may not, have been laughing at us (that could have been due to our excessive picture taking....). Given that we are in Portland, we feel that there needs to be some place to stand to enjoy a cupcake without the fear of being rained on at any moment.

Customer Service: 4 scoops of icing. The woman who helped us was nice enough, but not really the above and beyond, hyped up on sugar, friendly that we have come to expect from a cupcake store.

Flavor Variety: 5 scoops of icing. Cupcake Jones has a good mixture of "daring" and "safe" cupcake flavors. Therefore anyone can find at least one cupcake that they would want to devour. Annie and I had trouble making up our minds, and had to split our cupcakes so as to try the different flavors (we got chocolate chip with cookie dough in the middle and apple crisp with yummy apple pieces in the center). AND we plan on returning tomorrow because we couldn't pass up on the pear spice and lemon varieties.

Quality of Cupcake: 5 scoops of icing. Annie believes that the apple crisp cupcake has been the best thus far. And, I have to admit, she may be right. The added bonus of filling in the middle is a fun surprise. And anyone who can figure out how to put cookie dough in a cupcake is a genius by our standards.

Cupcake Size: 4 scoops of icing. While Cupcake Jones gets bonus scoops of icing for having jumbo cupcakes, they do not score a perfect 5 because there is no in between size. You have to either have a jumbo (which is awesome, but a little excessive--even for us....sometimes...) or a mini. A regular or mid-size would be nice. If they had all 3 it would be perfect cupcake heaven.

Overall Impression: almost 4 scoops of icing. Really the only downside to Cupcake Jones is that there is no place to sit. We can't even complain about them being downtown where parking is a pain in the butt, because the cupcake Gods shone upon us and we got a spot RIGHT IN FRONT! So, dear Cupcake Jones, get a little picnic table and maybe a fun umbrella, plop it up outside the store and you will have earned the 5 scoops of icing.