Adventures in Portlandia

My hus­band and I spent a delight­ful week­end in Port­land, dodg­ing show­ers and chas­ing sun­breaks. Through con­ver­sa­tions with friends, restau­ra­teurs and mer­chants, we learned why so many peo­ple love Port­land.

It’s a place of pas­sion­ate pur­suits: out­door sports (no mat­ter the weather), cycling, arts and crafts, wine tast­ing,  farm-to-table din­ing, and hours spent brows­ing books at Pow­ells. When peo­ple dis­cover you’re an out-of-town vis­i­tor, they can’t wait to share what they love most about Port­land. Friendly con­ver­sa­tions abound.

Outdoor Sports

Know­ing we’d entered Port­landia, we weren’t sur­prised to see this Lul­ule­mon van just off the main drag. Lulu is a brand well-known for its man­i­festos urg­ing peo­ple to do what they love.

We fig­ured out why we’d seen the Lulu run­ners’ van, a few hours later, while watch­ing cos­tumed Ore­go­ni­ans cross the fin­ish line on one of the main down­town streets.

Dressed in comedic or out­landish cos­tumes, entire fam­i­lies were com­pet­ing in a mixed 5K/10K/half-marathon race.

Asian Design Influences

I loved the tastes, aro­mas and zen-like ambiance of the Japan­ese tea and cof­fee shop, Behind the Museum Café.

Espresso-style cof­fee is also avail­able for die-hard cof­fee lovers, using beans roasted locally in Port­land.

This café spe­cial­izes in Japan­ese teas, small plates and desserts. One of its charms is the dis­play of antique fur­ni­ture and ceram­ics that can be pur­chased from a dealer who shares space with the café owner.

Another is the kimono dress and tra­di­tion-based cour­te­sies of the owner and her wait staff, who warmly greeted my friend Margie in Japan­ese.

Foods and desserts are all home­made, Japan­ese style, such as short­bread with gin­ger. Some are new to West­ern palates, such as the matcha brown­ies that Margie bravely tasted (the small green cubes in the photo).

Do What You Love

While sip­ping her tea, my friend Margie shared what she’s been doing since we worked together 10 years ago. Margie gave up an exec­u­tive role at a well-known PR firm to become a self-employed designer. You can see (and buy) her prod­ucts online at Sweet Per­sim­mon.

She cre­ates hand­made leather bags and totes that she adorns with scraps of silk or linen from her col­lec­tion of antique kimonos. She is also a teacher of clas­sic Japan­ese tea cer­e­monies, a sen­si­bil­ity that infuses her designs.

Margie had just returned from a 2‑week busi­ness trip to Tus­cany, where she researched leather hand­bags in places like Flo­rence where leather goods have been per­fected over cen­turies of crafts­man­ship. Her lat­est col­lec­tion should be avail­able in mid-Novem­ber. I can’t wait to see how the Ital­ian designs influ­ence her hand­bags… Leather, kimono silk and Italy — what an intrigu­ing com­bi­na­tion!

Treats for Wine Lovers and Locavores

Before din­ner Bruce and I treated our­selves to some fine local pinot noirs at a spe­cialty wine bar on Broad­way. He went for the pre­mium flight: small pours of three wines that were “drink­ing splen­didly” that after­noon. I opted for a glass of wine, rely­ing on the bar­tender to serve some wine that would match my descrip­tion of what I like in a fine pinot noir. With just two tries, she got it just right.

Thanks to OpenTable and pre­plan­ning, we enjoyed two top-notch restau­rants, Beast and D.O.C., con­sid­ered among Port­land’s finest. Both restau­rants more than lived up to their well-deserved rep­u­ta­tions for fine din­ing, based on absolutely fresh local ingre­di­ents and imag­i­na­tive cui­sine. In both cases we opted for the tast­ing menus, includ­ing the matched wines — a won­der­ful way to see how the chefs and wine stew­ards com­bined their magic. Both restau­rants are tiny, so advance reser­va­tions are required.

You enter D.O.C. by pass­ing through the kitchen en route to a hand­ful of tables just beyond. On a cold and rainy night, the warmth from the stove is well appre­ci­ated as you wait for your table to be ready.

But the real treat is to put your­selves in the hands of the chef and wine stew­ard — go for their tast­ing menu!

Funky Crafts, Charming Shops

Yes, there are lots of brand-name chain stores in Port­land, but there are also local trea­sures such as Pow­ells Book­store. We spent sev­eral enchanted hours there, and felt lucky to leave with a bag of books that cost <$100. (We could eas­ily have done more dam­age to our wal­let.)

We were charmed by the funky shop win­dows of bou­tiques like this one, which hap­pened to spe­cial­ize in pho­tog­ra­phy and mosaics (who knows why).

This bou­tique is down the street from a vin­tage con­sign­ment store, cur­rently fea­tur­ing cos­tumes…

Well-heeled shop­pers can revel in The Real Mother Goose, a high-end crafts store that caters to dis­cern­ing tastes and peo­ple who love “fine Amer­i­can crafts.” We could­n’t resist, and found our­selves fan­ta­siz­ing about some beau­ti­fully designed rock­ing chairs, tables and lamps. Sadly, well beyond our bud­gets…

All in all Port­land is a place for the pur­suit of pas­sions.