Portland eShrine

Portland Events, Treasures, Parks, and Recreation

2009-08-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

PLACES

Powell’s Books
Fountains outside at Tom Macall Waterfront Park
Portland Pooch - Guide to the Portland Dog Scene

PARKS

Hoyt Arboretum
Portland Rose Gardens
Mt. Tabor Park
Mt. Hood
Peninsula Park
Laurelhurst Park

FESTIVALS

Portland Art Museum Pearl District Art Festival
Rose Festival
Fountains outside at Tom Macall Waterfront Park
Alphabet District (Don't miss Alberta Street "Last Thursday")

Portland Dining & Brewpubs

2009-08-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

Did you know there are more than 28 breweries in town? And most places let you bring your dog if you take an outside table.

Bridgeport Brewing Co.
Neighborhood: Pearl District
1313 NW Marshall St
Portland, OR 97209
Really great happy hour and best pretzels in town.

Amnesia Brewery
Neighborhoods: Mississippi, North Portland
832 N Beech St
Portland, OR 97227
Dog friendly. Not for a "nice dinner" but good for a casual group. Indoor / outdoor seating.

Jake’s Grill
Neighborhood: Downtown
611 SW 10th Ave
Portland, OR 97205-2725
Great happy hour. Pretty good food too. We got Pancetta wrapped rockfish, drinks, and dessert.

Bijou Cafe
Neighborhood: Downtown
132 SW 3rd Ave
Portland, OR 97204

Park Kitchen
Neighborhood: Pearl District
422 NW 8th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
Hands down my favorite restaurant. Lovely ambiance, fantastic seasonal menu, great sunset views on the park, huge windows, love to sit near the kitchen and watch. Fabulous bar. Xocolatl De David served with your bill

Hot Lips Pizza
Neighborhood: Pearl District
721 Nw 9th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
Best pie outside NYC and for a fair price. Yummy & unusual soda on-tap.

Mama Mia Trattoria
Neighborhoods: Southwest Portland, Downtown
439 SW 2nd Ave
Portland, OR 97204
Super awesome Italian.

Mother's Bistro
Neighborhood: Downtown
212 SW Stark St.
Portland, OR 97204
Yummy breakfast and they serve Stumptown coffee as well as exotic presspot-at-your-table grinds. Don't miss their Cornflake crusted French Toast.

Saucebox
Neighborhood: Downtown
214 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97205
Don’t bother. This place is so completely full of itself and it's overpriced drinks and foofy food that we actually left to eat someplace else after we had our aperitif.

Por Que No
Neighborhoods: Mississippi, North Portland
3524 N Mississippi Ave
Portland, OR 97227
What a find! Loved the sauce - totally blew me away with all the ingredients. Great place to go on a hot summer night. It's a little hole in the wall that serves $2.50 tacos made with love, creme fraiche, meat, and produce from local farms.

Everett Street Bistro
Neighborhood: Pearl District
1140 NW Everett St
Portland, OR 97209
Nice to sit in the big windows, enjoy a twilight meal, and do people watching.

District Bar
232 NW 12th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
Tiny, swanky, really crowded. Get a yummy District Martini and then go someplace else.

Tin Shed Garden Cafe
Neighborhood: Northeast Portland
1438 NE Alberta St
Portland, OR 97211
Always a long line for brunch and worth the wait. Great garden setting. Super dog friendly including a separate menu for your mutt!

Blue Moon
Neighborhoods: Alphabet District, Northwest
432 NW 21st Ave
Portland, OR 97209
Really fun place to go sit outside. Okay food.

Portland Coffee - Pastries - Bagels - Confections

2009-08-30T16:42:00.000-07:00

Stumptown Coffee
Really good coffee. Maybe even the best I've had in the states.

Moonstruck
Neighborhoods: Alphabet District, Northwest
526 NW 23rd Ave
Portland, OR 97210
Not the best, but popular. Personally I wouldn't waste my time with so much other fabulous handmade chocolate in this town.

Sahagun Chocolate
Neighborhoods: Alphabet District, Pearl District
10 NW 16th Avenue
Portland, OR 97209
Woman owned, and Yum!

Xocolatl De David
THIS is CHOCOLATE. oh. my. god. You can get it a bunch of places. Check out the website for listings. But one is Cacao Drink Chocolate 4 SW 13th Avenue between Burnside & Washington, 2 blocks West of Powell's Bookstore.

Bagel Land
Neighborhoods: Beaumont, Northeast Portland
4118 NE Fremont St
Portland, OR 97212
We really enjoyed the bagels here.

Voodoo Doughnuts
Neighborhoods: Old Town, Downtown
22 SW 3rd Ave
Portland, OR 97204
Not to be missed!

Pix Patisserie
Neighborhoods: Southeast Portland, Clinton
3402 S.E. Division Street
Portland, OR 97202
Seriously yummy confections.

Ken's Artisan Bakery (they have Ken's Artisan PIZZA now!)
Neighborhoods: Alphabet District, Northwest
338 NW 21st Ave
off Flanders
Portland, OR 97209
I want to curl up and die in here. Right after I curl up and die in Powell's Books. I never miss a chance to eat here. Even just to walk in and smell the bread is worth the stop.

Via Delizia
Neighborhood: Pearl District
1105 NW Marshall Street
Portland, OR 97209
WOW. Really great dessert. WOW.

3 Lions Bakery
Neighborhoods: Southwest Portland, Downtown
506 SW 6th Ave
Portland, OR 97255
Close to hotels, good to eat in a hurry. Not fabulous, but they have Stumptown coffee.
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Labels: dining out, Portland

Dog Friendly Lodging in Portland

2009-08-30T16:40:00.000-07:00

Dog Friendly is important to us, so are these places.

Hotal Monaco
Neighborhoods: Southwest Portland, Downtown
506 SW Washington St
Portland, OR 97255

Hotel Lucia
Neighborhoods: Southwest Portland, Downtown
400 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97205

Hotel Fifty
Neighborhoods: Southwest Portland, Downtown
50 SW Morrison St
Portland, OR 97204

Mark Spencer
Neighborhoods: Southwest Portland, Downtown
409 SW 11th Ave
Portland, OR 97205

Westin
Neighborhoods: Southwest Portland, Downtown
750 SW Alder St
Portland, OR 97205

Rembrandt

2007-07-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

I met a friend for tea & scones at a cute little place nearby called Tea Zone.

Then the big plan for toady was the Portland Art Museum; they were hosting a rare world tour of 17th century art & artifacts from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The Dutch museum is doing a major overhaul (started when we were there in 2003 and completes in 2010). Portland is the only US city the collection is visiting and I was lucky to be in town while it was there!

Portland in One Day

2007-07-04T16:21:00.000-07:00

We "did Portland" in a day to show it off to our family:

9:00am: Coffee & Pastries at Stumptown
10:30am: Hike Mount Tabor
11:30am: Drive around to look at neighborhoods
1:00pm: Walk around Alphabet district, have lunch at Papa Haydn
3:00pm: Drive through Forest Park
NAP
6:30pm: Blues Festival
8:30pm: Happy Hour with the dogs outside
10:00pm: Fireworks on the water
11:00pm Pass Out

July Trip with family

2007-07-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

Here we go again! This time our family is driving and flying out to meet us and see the town along with catching some music at the Blues Festival. We drove up and checked into the Hotel Monaco last night around midnight. This is an awesome pet-friendly Kimpton hotel that opened 2 months ago. The staff is helpful, the hotel is centrally located and the rooms are spacious, quiet, and provide free wireless internet.

It’s a little overcast but nice today. There is a scarlet Macaw staying at the hotel and the owner was nice enough to pose her for a photo op. After we slept in, we headed to Bijou Cafe for a bite and then out to Laurelhurst Park to let the dogs romp around. After we hung out in the trees for a bit we had a great dinner at Mama Mia’s and walked around for a bit.

Rose Festival

2007-06-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

It is the Centennial of the Rose Festival this year. We caught the kick off but most of the events happen after we leave. Today we headed up to the Washington Park Test Gardens and smelled roses until our noses popped off. We sat and read, ran around and shot photos, and listened to the waterfountains. It was a *perfect* day to spend in a garden.

We went back to the hotel and started packing. We were so wiped out we couldn’t even think about dinner. I ordered from Mamma Mia’s and picked it up (only 2 blocks away). We were right on the waterfront and at 9:45 when the fireworks started, we just couldn’t stay inside! It was a fantastic end to a great trip.

2007-05-31T16:06:00.000-07:00

Today we took Bean out and explored the town on Max, Trolley, and foot. We started out at Ken’s Bakery (again), then headed to a park. Winding our way back to our hotel we discovered Sahagun Chocolate, a tiny woman-owned chocolate shop in a very unlikely location downtown. Then we headed over to see the inside of a couple hotels; the Mark Spencer and the Westin. Then we played with some doggies at a shoe store downtown (the owner had two pugs which came to work every day). After I grabbed some shorts at the Gap in the mall, we got kicked out - no dogs allowed! Oops!

Next we chilled out a little bit before we met friends on Alberta Street for “Last Thursday”. After doing a quick gawk up a few blocks, we met at Tin Shed Garden Cafe where they even had a dog menu! We were treated to a live rock band of 12-year-olds for a benefit concert (which can be good or bad depending on your frame of mind). After dinner we decided we had an appropriate number of us to head to the Amnesia brewery for a quick pint. The guy running the sausage grill came over and gave Bean a leftover-overdone sausage. Not only are dogs allowed in restaurants, they’re SERVED. Like I say - Bean loves this town.

2007-05-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

After a day of interviews we headed out for a late lunch and then over to Joni Kabana’s photography studio. I had been introduced through a mutual friend and wanted to meet her in person. She’s got a great studio space and she’s a real inspiration.

This evening we headed out to the Laurelhurst neighborhood to check out their excellent dedicated dog park that I discovered from the website www.portlandpooch.com. What fabulous resources! We met a really nice couple with a beautiful Corgi, and Bean had the absolute time of his life running around with the nice doggies in the huge expanse of long shaded grass. He rolled around and practically did cartwheels! I’ve never seen him go nuts like this - he really likes Portland parks...

Since we successfully wiped him out, we tucked him in for the night and headed out for dinner on the north side of town. We were told about a brewery called Amnesia on Mississippi. It looked cool but not much of a menu (unless you want sausage & beer) and it was fun for a crowd but not for two. Then we found a place just down the street that looked cool--a little taqueria called ¿Por Que No?. It’s a little hole in the wall that serves $2.50 tacos made with love, crème fraîche, and meat & produce from local farms.

Happy Anniversary to us :)

2007-05-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we took Bean to Green Dog for a little shopping. Then we headed out to see some roses and throw Bean’s new squeaky ball at Peninsula Park. It was a nice lazy day...

Tonight we headed out for dinner in the Pearl at a place called Everett Street Bistro. It was nice to sit in the big windows, enjoy a twilight meal and do some people watching. It seemed everyone who walked by had a dog! It gets dark really late this time of year here; sunset doesn’t set until 10p! It really makes you want to stay up late.

After dinner we walked across to the other side of the Pearl for an Amuse Bouche, chocolate fountain, espresso & port at Via Delizia. We had fun running around and seeing all the cool lofts going up in the area - there is so much construction in this part of town that it really must suck to live or operate a business there right now.

Portland is known for it’s happy hours, so much so that often a bar will have two; one from 3-6p and another beginning at 10p. So we obliged ourselves a house martini at District Bar before heading back to our hotel (on foot) on the opposite side of town.

Road trip to Portland from LA

2007-05-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

We completed our trip from Culver City, CA to Portland, OR in 15.5 hours (averaged 63 mph according to our GPS).

Last night in our hotel was pretty rough. Although we loved the Hotel Lucia from our last trip, we booked a room at a cheaper hotel this time. We stayed at the Four Points by Sheraton overlooking the Tom McCall Waterfront Park. This was a huge mistake. Our stay was awful and we heard they have since changed ownership!

This morning we headed directly to Ken’s Artisan Bakery for our fix of Stumptown coffee and pastries. Our friend met us there and took us for a driving tour through Hoyt Arboretum. Weather couldn’t have been better! In the afternoon we grabbed a slice of Pizza at Hot Lips and then went for a quick hike in Mt. Tabor.

Since Portland is known for it’s breweries (28 - more than any other city in the world) we thought we’d make this week a bit of a pub crawl. So this evening our buddy took us out to one of his favorite brew pubs, BridgePort Brewing Company, located in the Pearl district. Excellent!

Heading out of town by car

2006-09-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

We packed up and headed to Ken’s Artisan Bakery first thing! We had to get coffee, a croissant, and some of that incredible, fantastic bread we enjoyed as our starter at Park Kitchen. Oh BOY I would love to live in a neighborhood with a bakery like this. Yum yum yum. Okay, next we headed to New Seasons (sniff) to get sandwiches for the road. I nearly dove head first into the giant crates of berries in the produce section. The COLORS! And the roses out front in their shop? Oh man, beauty at it’s finest.

We’ve really enjoyed our visit to this city. It reminds us of all the reasons we like Europe. Small neighborhoods, each with their own park, surrounding the city center. The air is clean, there are tons of trees, and local businesses dominate over chains. There is a staggering amount of excellent food to be found in the way of neighborhood pastry shops, bakeries, and restaurants. There is an eclectic mix of people with everyone expressing their individuality; punk rockers (old and young), tattoo places, and galleries featuring unique and talented artists in nearly every medium. Oh, and Powell’s books. I could just curl up and live in there.

We made it to the freeway and sadly left town. For now. There is so much left to discover here. What a great vacation. We can’t wait to get back up when it’s rainy and wet just to see what kind of adventure that will be!

Another Day

2006-09-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful day in this perfect city. Mother’s Bistro for breakfast fed us press-pot coffee, eggs over easy, and yummy yummy bacon. We enjoyed french toast covered in crushed cornflakes. Four tiny almond cookies sweetened the tab.
We spent the day in Southeast Portland again, “our” neighborhood. We took a hike around Mt Tabor and finally caught a glimpse of Mt Hood through the trees - ahh. The air is so clean. We found the tiny dog park on the south side and let Bean run around with some of the big boys for a bit.
At tea time we stopped to see what all the fuss was about at Pix Patisserie. Okay, I could live in their truffle cabinet. Just lock me in there. I had a the Tart Citron and two truffles; one blue cheese and one caramel almond truffle. Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy......heaven. Best Truffles in Portland in my book.
Tonight we took a tip from the concierge and went to eat at Saucebox...eeew. It was completely full of itself and LA shi-shi types! We powered through our hors d’oeuvres and ran as fast as we could to Powells books. Whew! I could just LIVE in there! We took what we could carry up to the register and then met a new friend for drinks at Jake’s and called it a night.

A Day

2006-09-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

Today we headed out to do some shopping in the Alphabet District and grab some lunch. We found a street crepe vendor and a deli, so we each got what we liked best. :)
This afternoon we had our agent take us inside a few of the houses we liked. Our favorite neighborhoods are in Southeast Portland; Ladd’s Addition, Hawthorne, and Mt. Tabor. These areas are near a huge park and are full Craftsman houses with lots of mature trees. I also love all the locally owned businesses (which is a thing we just love about this city). Even their version of 7-11 is called “Plaid Pantry”. There is an excellent grocery store here called New Seasons that blows the doors off Trader Joe’s and Whole Paycheck.
We had dinner with Scott & Jenna, and we got to see their great house. After dinner it was late enough for us to check out the famous Voodoo Doughnuts. We even got to see a kooky marching band weave it’s way through the street and into the shop...

Discovering Portland

2006-09-06T17:18:00.000-07:00

Today we drove around a neighborhood called Ladd’s Addition. Bean likes Portland so much he actually stuck his head out the window for the first time! We stopped at Hot Lips Pizza - they had amazing blackberry soda ON TAP and some of the best slices I’ve ever had! Next, we headed up towards North Portland to see this cool old Victorian house we had seen during our real estate tour Monday. It's situated along the water and we got a great view of the bridges as well.
Happy hour is quite an event in this city, so we headed to Portland City Grill to see what all the fuss was about - okay, good cheap drinks, $2 appetizers, and a view. I see!
Afterwards we headed over to Mama Mia Trattoria for dinner and some of that cannoli everyone was raving about. Boy, this is a foodie’s town if there ever was one. Nearly every place we’ve eaten has had great service, a good selection on the menu, excellent presentation, and reasonable price.

Work Scene

2006-09-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

This morning we headed to Fremont Street for Bagel Land Bagelsand then hung out at Starbuck’s for a better part of the morning to make use of their T-Mobile hot spots. We did a huge amount of laptop job research at a table outside with Bean happily snoozing in a sunbeam on the sidewalk & getting plenty of attention from the locals.
After a while, Bean started to get fidgety. I was just wishing I had brought a bone when a delivery guy walked by with a giant palette of dog food. I followed him around the corner where we discovered Green Dog pet supply! Bean picked out antlers, a bed, and some treats. Meanwhile, we found this really great stuffed hedgehog!
Tonight we dined at Park Kitchen, a tiny restaurant nestled in the North Park Blocks that run through downtown. They have a fantastic seasonal menu with a centrally located kitchen so you can watch them as you sip your wine. We watched the sunset and ended our meal with fantastic homemade truffles by Xocolatel De David. Now *THAT* was good chocolate.

Neighborhood Introductions

2006-09-04T16:23:00.000-07:00

This morning we met another family with a Frenchie staying in our hotel! Cubby, their 4 month old brindle, could be Bean’s clone. It was hilarious watching the two of them wrestle in the lobby. They sounded like a couple of pigs!
So today is our day to get a feel for Portland. I had hooked up with a real estate agent, Lisa, before the trip. She picked us up at 9:30 for breakfast at Milo’s City Cafe and then we drove around neighborhoods. We stopped in the middle of the day at the Portland Rose Gardens overlooking the city. We also checked out Mt. Tabor park...can you say TREEEEEEEEEES?!
We were back at the hotel in the afternoon in time to hang out at the Pearl Art Festival down the street. I liked oil paintings by Gisele Boulianne, jewelry/sculpture by Peggy Cochran and Zaffiro, and Brian Mock had excellent metal sculptures. In the evening we went to dinner with some friends at a local brew pub. We rounded out the evening at Moonstruck chocolates (not impressed in the least - I'm a severe chocoholic and these were nothing interesting) in the Alphabet District.

Here I go!

2006-09-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

We hit the road after waffles in Auburn, CA and made it to Portland, OR by 6:30pm - plenty of time to check into Hotel Lucia and relax a bit before dinner. Our room is on the 3rd floor and has everything we need. There is a great place to walk Bean 1/2 block away. Weather is nice and clear. We walk to Jake's Grill for pancetta wrapped rockfish, drinks, and dessert.