Portland business owner gives up cafe after months of pandemic grind

For virtually all working Oregonians, the pandemic has prompted a profound change. The Oregonian/OregonLive spoke to four who upended their careers, whether by necessity or by choice.

Erica Escalante threw herself into work when the pandemic hit, determined to save the cafe she had spent nine years building.

She started taking online orders for pickup or delivery, and she turned the interior of her Northeast Portland coffee shop, then called Arrow Coffeehouse, into a play area for her 7- and 2-year-old daughters, who she no longer felt comfortable sending to daycare. The uncertainty of the pandemic made her wary about hiring other employees, so her husband quit his job as an accountant to help watch the kids and keep the cafe afloat. Escalante began working seven days a week, beginning at 3 a.m. to bake, anticipating that the grind would only last a couple months.

But by February 2021, she had worked nearly 11 months without taking a day off. Her…

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