An automobile repair bay with its overhead door clearly reveals one of the former functions of the Portillo Coffee House, others being a taxi stand and periodic flea market.  When the original owner evaluated design options for its transformation, he looked to fondly remembered styles from Chile and other parts of Latin America where he had resided and vacationed.  When asked why he selected certain visual elements of Santa Fe style for the coffee house, he stated: "the architecture of the American Southwest is not a whole lot different from that of South and Central America."  He also identified a perceived similarity between the natural environments of the Okanagan Valley and the Southwest (climate, sky, colors, and aridity): "it mirrors the landscapes of its origin."  When asked for his opinion as to why Santa Fe style had been transferred to the Okanagan Valley, the owner observed: "people just plain like it!  They like the soft and warm earth tones, the gentle curves and rounded or stepped walls and the pine logs with knots."  The building contractors cautioned that to capture the essence of Santa Fe style it was best "to keep it simple...less is more...even flowers against light toned walls should be of the same variety...this simplicity is what people like about it."  Notable features of the Portillo Coffee House are the rounded pedimented gable with its oval opening, suggestive of a bell loft in a Spanish mission church, vigas, peeled pine logs of columns and framework for the sloping sunshade, and rounded walls enclosing outdoor seating.  However, the Spanish tile on the sunshade and the brilliant white exterior surfaces are more representative of California Mission Revival style than the regional architecture of New Mexico. 

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