An image circulating on social media shows a coffee shop in Portland, Oregon, that opens its doors to stray dogs every night after closing.
The image shows a real coffee shop that did shelter stray dogs overnight, but it was located in Mytilene, Greece, not Portland, Oregon. The cafe, called Hott Spott, appeared to have ceased operations by 2019.
In June 2025, an image of dogs sleeping in a cafe accompanied a story on social media about a coffee shop that allegedly sheltered stray dogs in Portland, Oregon.
For example, on June 26, a Facebook account posted (archived) the story, which began: “In Portland, Oregon, there’s a small coffee shop called Cozy Bean. During the day, it’s what you’d expect—people stopping in for a hot drink, soft background music, the usual warmth of a neighborhood café. But something unexpected happens after closing time.”
(Bringer of Rain/Facebook)
The story described how the owner turned the lights back on after closing and opened the doors to stray dogs, providing blankets, cushions and water bowls. According to the post, the practice had continued since 2018.
The post received over 57,000 reactions as of this writing. Similar claims were posted on Facebook (archived) and Threads (archived) earlier in June.
Although the photograph was authentic and showed an actual coffee shop, however, the story misrepresented the location and details of an authentic incident. The image showed a real coffee shop that sheltered stray dogs, but its location was Lesvos, Greece, not Portland, Oregon.
Searches of Google Maps and Yelp yielded no results for any “Cozy Bean” coffee shop in Portland.
Tracing the authentic story
The photograph featured in the posts was originally posted (archived) to Facebook on Dec. 2, 2015 by Eustratios Papanis, an assistant professor at the University of the Aegean in Greece. Papanis’s caption read: “This picture was taken at a coffee shop in the island of Lesvos, North Aegean Sea, Greece. The country has strict laws about animal protection, but culture and knowledge are the key factors for changing long standing indifference, negligence or maltreatment.”
The story was covered by multiple media outlets in December 2015, including HuffPost (archived), The Dodo (archived) and Indi100 (archived). The Quint, an Indian news website, also conducted an interview with the cafe owner, Nikkie Belissary with footage showing the interior of the cafe that matched with the photo in recent claims.
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