Sebastiano's: cannoli and muffaletta in Sellwood

First, so nobody parks on the wrong block, this page is about Sebastiano's, the Sicilian café. Twisted Croissant also has a Sellwood shop, and it's a different bakery with different pastry. Sebastiano's began as a tiny Montavilla storefront at Stark and 80th that locals treated like a secret, and Elise and Dan Gold moved it to SE 13th in Sellwood-Moreland in 2024, where there's room to sit and the hours are longer.

Out front there's a courtyard with a sign, picnic tables and a small patio tucked behind a Sellwood strip. Inside, the back wall to the left is covered in bright citrus-fruit wallpaper, and there are indoor seats, a market corner with oils and house goods, and windows looking out to the patio. In Montavilla you took your food and left, and here you can linger over an espresso and eat your cannoli before the shell goes soft, which is one of the real pleasures of the new space. It's a bakery, a deli and a small market all at once.

What to order

Cannoli. The shells are fried and then filled to order so they stay crisp, and the one to get is candied orange and chocolate, with house-candied orange peel on one end, chocolate on the other and ricotta piped through the middle. Order one even if you came in for a sandwich, and don't let a filled cannoli sit in a bag while you walk the Springwater.

Then get the muffaletta, the sandwich that made the Montavilla shop known. It's built on bread they bake and stacked with olive salad, and if you only have room for one savory thing, this is it. They bake focaccia and other sandwich breads too, so ask what they have. Sicilian cookies are a house specialty, including the gluten-free pasticcini di mandorle, an almond pastry that's the one to get when someone at the table can't have wheat. The espresso brownies and olive oil cake are worth a look too, and cassata al forno, a baked ricotta cake, shows up in season, so ask about it.

If you want croissants in Sellwood, go to Twisted. Sebastiano's is where you go for cannoli, bread and cookies.

Before you go

It's on SE 13th in Sellwood, a couple of blocks south of Tacoma, and it's a daytime café. Part of the reason for the move was to keep longer hours than the original lunch window, but it still doesn't stay open late, so check the hours before you bring people across the river, and don't assume it's open Sunday. If you're taking food to go, ask for the cannoli to be filled last and get them home quickly. For a tray of cookies or a particular cake, order ahead through the shop instead of hoping the case has what your party needs. The Golds outgrew 690 square feet, and while the new kitchen can bake more, it's still a small kitchen that can't fill a big order for someone who decides at noon on a Saturday.

Come for the cannoli and the muffaletta, and plan on coming back for lunch on the patio.