Yesterday, I took a recommendation from my friend FoodDude and dropped by the newly-opened Ristretto Roasters in search of what I was told was the ‘world’s best chocolate chip cookie’ (oh yeah – I was also planning to have some coffee while I was there.)

My mission was not just to show simple appreciation for the cookie, but to see if I’d been unceremoniously dethroned from my own unofficial position as ‘world’s best chocolate chip cookie maker.’ Alas for me (but not for the rest of you), Nancy Rommelman’s cookies are indeed worthy of the title.

Nancy is also a local PDX blogger (she and her husband, who own Ristretto, relocated here from California earlier this year), and I got a chance to meet her yesterday, where I confessed my ulterior spy motive for the visit. Ristretto – on the NE corner of Fremont & 42nd – offers up excellent coffee – roasted on the premises, no less (read FoodDude’s review above for the particulars) and offers other baked goods in addition to those killer cookies.

And if you visit and happen to see killer brownies available sometime soon? Thank me – I’m passing my own semi-famous recipe off to Nancy for further experimentation, since she’s clearly got talents far surpassing my own. Consider it my gift to NE Portland at large…