Recently I had the good fortune to be sent to Portland,
Oregon, to attend an editing conference for work. The conference was on a
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so I flew in Wednesday evening and stayed
through Sunday morning. Work paid for my food and hotel through most of Saturday
and my flights, so I was able to see a new town (one I’ve been wanting to visit
for years!) for only the cost of a hotel room on Saturday night, a few extra
meals, drinks, sightseeing, and souvenirs. AND it was sunny and in the 70s the
whole time I was there. AND my friend
Michele was coming to visit on Saturday.
Luck was definitely on my side!
I rarely get to travel for work, but when I do I try to add
an extra night or two at my expense when possible. Flights tend to be the
biggest expense, so if someone else is covering that for you, take advantage! I
won’t bore y’all with details of the conference (although if anyone wants to
know about it, I will happily nerd out with you) other than to give you the
bare bones as a backdrop for my experience in Portland. The conference was in a
Hilton downtown, which was also where my company put me up Wednesday through
Friday nights, meaning I could walk around the downtown area super easily. Also,
the conference included a dinner on Friday night, but no other meals, so I got
to try a bunch of different restaurants.
Day One (Half)
After an easy, direct flight but a painfully expensive cab
ride from the airport to the hotel (pro tip: take the train!), I dropped off my
bag in my room around 8 pm and headed right back out. I had looked up
restaurants and breweries before I left Austin (Portland has more
microbreweries than any other U.S. city), so I knew exactly where I was going:
Deschutes Brewery in the Pearl, an area just north of downtown. It was a ten-
or fifteen-minute walk from my hotel and the weather was perfect.
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| Deschutes |
The restaurant was packed and I waited about 15 minutes for
a table next to a vacationing family who kept staring at me. At one point I
heard the dad tell his daughters I looked sad and lonely (I wasn’t; I was
eagerly picking out beers to try). It seemed like the sort of parenting fail
that’s probably going to keep those girls from being very adventurous, but I
might not be a good source of parenting advice, not having any kids and all. My
waiter was terrible, too, but otherwise the experience was great. For less than
the price of two beers I got a flight of six different Deschutes brews (Theory
of Sourtivity was my fave, but I’ve been on a sour-beer kick recently and admit
it’s not for everyone).
Even more exciting for me was dinner. I’ve been a vegetarian
for 22 years, but for the last year or so I kept toying with the idea of adding
seafood into my diet. So, I took the plunge! Deschutes had a crab roll on the
menu, and it sounded too delicious not to try. Plus, it didn’t seem too
seafood-y for my first meal back. And damn if it wasn’t one of the best things
I’ve eaten in recent memory. Obviously I don’t have much to compare it to, but
I’d highly recommend it to anyone visiting.
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| Random pretty building |
After dinner, I strolled back to the hotel and walked by a
semi-homeless artist or musician, Powell’s bookstore (the one place on my
must-see list that I didn’t make it to, which feels like a huge failure
considering I was at a conference for people who read for a living and it’s all
anyone was talking about), another semi-homeless artist or musician, a building
with really pretty lights on it, and a gaggle of semi-homeless artists or
musicians. Finally it dawned on me: there were more “homeless to be cool or to
live more authentically, but not out of necessity” people in Portland than I
have ever seen in one place before. And I’ve been to lots of places. It seems
to be a subculture that springs out of predominately middle-class, white
enclaves (I’m a sociology expert now as well as a parenting expert), so I
wasn’t surprised to see so many of them in Portland once I thought about it. I
just hadn’t really anticipated it.
Day Two
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| Maurice |
The next morning I had breakfast at the hotel (I thought
breakfast would be included in the conference so I hadn’t researched any
options at that point), learned some stuff, and then headed north during my
lunch break. I had read about a quaint French bakery called
Maurice and decided it would be my first
lunch in Portland. It was every bit as adorable as I was hoping, and my meal (risotto
and lemon soufflé pudding cake) was delicious. A woman who I think was the
owner/head chef made my risotto directly in front of my seat at the counter in
an old-timey, French-country-looking pot and asked with genuine interest how I
liked it after I finished eating. So, so charming.
I took the long way back to the hotel and walked along the
river. It was a nice, open space with people biking, jogging, and just walking
around on their lunch break like me. And did I mention it was sunny and in the
70s?
I spent the afternoon engrossed by editorial wisdom and then
hobnobbed with a few fellow editors at the hotel bar for happy hour. Ever the
introvert, though, I politely (or so I hope) ducked out for dinner by myself,
hoping it wasn’t obvious that I was intentionally not inviting anyone to join
me. I had a couple brewpubs on list, and I decided to try
Old Town Brewing
because it was near the Lan Su Chinese Gardens, which was also on my must-see
list. The plan was to walk over to the Gardens with about an hour of daylight
left, wander around inside, and then pop over to Old Town. It was only about a
twenty-minute walk and I was going to see Chinatown. Long story short, that
didn’t work out and I just went to Old Town.
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| Old Town and Chinatown |
I ordered the Old Town Pils and learned that beer isn’t
brewed onsite, but it’s still a local beer, just brewed at a different Old Town
in Portland. I had a chatty bartender, which was perfect for the mood I was in:
wanting to talk when it was easy without being obligated to carry on a
conversation. There were two other people at the bar, not together, who seemed
to be in the same mood as me, so we all chatted while I ate my (giant and
surprisingly tasty) Caprese sandwich. I learned about heroin’s recent comeback
in the area, the Portland basketball team, and the bar's sordid history relating to the Chinatown slave trade. Bartenders used to get people drunk and open a trap door under the bar stools that dropped the drunkards into underground tunnels, where slave-traders would carry them to ships waiting to take them to China and a life of slavery. I did not order a second beer.
By the time I was done eating it
was too dark to visit the gardens so I said goodbye to my bar buddies and
headed back to the hotel. I walked by Voodoo Donuts on the way but the line was
too long and we have one in Austin now anyway. I also walked by the Chinatown
arch but there were so many homeless and semi-homeless people around it that my photo is terrible. Then it was a quiet night and early to bed. I was there for
work, after all.
Day Three
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| Imperial |
The next morning I still hadn’t looked up breakfast places
nearby, so I grabbed a bagel and coffee from the hotel restaurant. For lunch I
went to
Imperial, a restaurant in a trendy hotel downtown, just a few blocks
from the Hilton. It kept popping up in my searches as one of the best
restaurants in town and the chef seemed to be a celebrity on the Portland food
scene, so I was excited to try it. I was so taken in by all the hype about it
that I made a reservation online. For lunch, for one. I know. But, I had a
limited window and it was Friday and it was the most popular restaurant in
town, so I couldn’t risk it! When I arrived there were open tables and tons of
room at the bar, so I asked to sit at the bar without telling the hostess I had
a reservation. Pro tip: if you take some very lame, type-A precaution like this
while traveling, and it turns out to be unwarranted, no one needs to know
(unless you write it in a blog).
Imperial was stylish and looked cool, and the food was good,
but nothing was as amazing as everyone made it out to be. Maybe it was because
I ordered simple food (kale salad and a roll), but it didn’t live up to my
expectations. I’m glad I checked it out, but Maurice was so much better in
every aspect of the experience.
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| Lan Su Chinese Gardens |
After lunch I had enough time to go back to Chinatown and
see the
Lan Su Chinese Gardens. It cost almost $10 but I’m always willing to
pay for gardens in new cities. It was peaceful and beautiful and a mini-oasis
surrounded by city architecture. But then it was back to the Hilton to learn
more, followed by another informal networking happy hour at the bar. It was
banquet night, so I headed down with my networking friend Gina and grabbed
spots at a table in the giant ballroom. The food was just okay and it was a
cash bar, but one of my table-mates was an editor of Christian romance novels,
so that kept things interesting. To close out the night Kory Stamper gave a
keynote speech. She’s the editor of
Merriam-Webster
and a major celebrity among editors. (She seemed super cool, btw.) It was a fun
night even if I didn’t leave the hotel.
Day Four
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| Mother's Bistro |
I finally did a little breakfast research and headed over to
Mother’s Bistro in the morning. I got there right as it opened because I read
that it fills up quickly. I sat at the bar and watched more and more people
squeeze through the door as a wait formed, then happily ordered cereal-encrusted
French toast. There were two other ladies next to me at the bar and we became
buddies. One was attending the same conference I was, and the other was
attending a printmaking-artist convention. They were both in their fifties, one
early and one late. I glimpsed my future as they discussed how good the fabric
stores in Portland were compared to their hometowns.
For my lunch break I headed straight for the river and the
Saturday Market. Blocks and blocks heading west toward downtown from the waterfront were
taken over by vendor stalls selling prepared food and all the hallmarks of a
craft market: jewelry, soap, various forms of art, purses made from recycled
jeans, and lots of crystals. My kind of place. I bought a handmade necklace and
a purple tank top with an elephant on it. On my way back I walked by
Huber’s for
probably the twentieth time and decided to have lunch there, solely based on
the sign outside saying it was Portland’s oldest restaurant. Meh. It was nice
and old-fashioned-looking inside, but the bartender couldn’t have cared less
about bringing me anything and what I finally got was mediocre. However, they
have a “famous” flaming coffee cocktail that I didn’t order; maybe if I had I
would’ve left with a different impression.
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| Huber's |
A couple afternoon sessions later, I was officially on
vacation! I had about eight hours of unfettered adventuring in front of me before
I would just start falling asleep wherever I was (because I’m old and my body
loves sleep more than anything else in the world), and I was going to live it
up! First, I wheeled my suitcase about ten blocks south to the cheap hotel I
booked by the university. Work was no longer covering my bills, and the Hilton
was way too fancy for my checking account.
Michele had been working in Seattle that week and was
driving down to hang out for the night. She met me at the hotel and we
immediately headed back out. Mish used to live in Portland and was happy to get
me out of downtown to see “real” Portland. We hopped in her rental car and headed
east across the river. I’m pretty sure we went to three distinct neighborhoods:
Mississippi, not sure, and Hawthorne …sorry I can’t remember the middle one.
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| Ecliptic spread |
First she drove us to Mississippi and we went to a brewery
(
Ecliptic) with perfectly fine beer and delicious snacks. Then we walked down
to a bar in a pink house called
Liberty Glass Bar. Ecliptic was a little too
stark and warehouse-like for my taste, but Liberty was perfect. We sat outside
under a vine-covered awning for another drink but time was limited and we had
to keep moving. Next was
White Eagle, further down the road. It used to be a
brothel but now it’s a bar, live-music venue, and hostel. They serve pink beer.
One of us ordered one. One of us loved it.
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| Happy with my life choices |
After our beers it was time for dinner, so Michele drove us
to the neighborhood whose name I can’t remember to an old school that’s been
turned into an adult-fun complex and hotel. Mish informed me that it and the
White Eagle are owned by McMenanims, a brewery and real estate investment
company that finds old, dilapidated buildings around Portland and turns them
into cool places to sell their beer. She also told me they’re better at
creating cool bars than making good beer.
The
Kennedy School had a full restaurant and lots of little
bars scattered around the building, along with a theater. I embraced my new pescatarian
side and ordered lobster mac and cheese, and … dang. It’s the richest thing I
can remember eating, I think ever. We walked around the whole school to see
everything they had (and almost crashed a wedding), but then we had to keep
moving.
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| Backstage |
We drove to Hawthorne, parked a couple houses down from the
one Mish lived in while she was in Portland, and walked around the corner to
our final McMenamins bar of the night:
Backstage. This one used to be the
backstage of a live theater (that part is a movie theater now), and they kept
the high ceilings and catwalk. We had a couple drinks and played shuffleboard,
but then my internal clock started telling me it was time for bed. Michele took
the hint when I couldn’t stop yawning and we headed back to the hotel, but
decided to have one last nightcap before bed, since there was a bar right next
door. Besides, we only see each other a couple times a year and we were still
catching up. But then it was off to bed, up early to go to the airport, and my
Portland experience was over.
It was such a short trip, and I know there are so many areas
of the city I haven’t even seen, so I’d love to go back, especially with some
time to hike. It’s so green and beautiful that I instantly wanted to move there
as we flew in, and I still think it would be a nice place to live. Although
Michele insists that it really does rain all the time, so I’m not sure. But I’d
definitely be up for another trip (and more of Portland’s delicious food and
beer) to continue forming my opinion.
