For the past three years, Portland Monthly has been cautiously optimistic (at best) about our city’s slow-simmering real estate market. But 2013 saw a surge of good news. Home buying is up—way up.
Almost half of our neighborhoods have returned to the median home prices they enjoyed five years ago. In many places, crime is down. Rosy outlooks abound. Indeed, a whopping 73 percent of people who took our reader survey think it’s a good time to buy—and to sell—a home.
In light of this citywide burst of confidence, we’re highlighting five Portland hoods that illustrate the promise of a new era in real estate.
Best For: First-Time Buyers
PORTSMOUTH (North)
Few neighborhoods saw more activity than Portsmouth last year. The average home in this almost exclusively residential patch of land north of Lombard Street was built in 1959, during a postwar frenzy that stocked the area with relatively small houses. Such homes are within the reach of our growing population of young singles and couples (61 percent of Portsmouth residents are single or unmarried). While Portsmouth doesn’t contain much commercial development (there’s a Taco Bell!), close proximity to the increasingly vibrant (and more expensive) Cathedral Park/St. Johns and Kenton more than make up for the lack. Indeed, the neighborhood’s prime location has spurred a sharp drop in median age (31). Eminently walkable (with or without strollers), Portsmouth packs in four parks, including one of Portland’s largest greenspaces, the 35-acre Columbia Park.
SNAPSHOT: 168 homes sold in 2013; $227,050 median price; $57,050 one-year increase
ALSO CHECK OUT: Cathedral Park (N), Brentwood-Darlington (SE)
Best For: Urbanites
RICHMOND (Southeast)
“Urban” doesn’t just mean high-rises and traffic. It can also describe a place that captures the spirit of the city. And that is just what this inner Southeast neighborhood does. Through a combination of coincidence and planning, what used to be a quiet neighborhood dominated by Craftsman homes has become one of the brightest epicenters of the city’s creative class. Coffee shops, bookstores, theaters, and yoga classes pepper the corridors of Hawthorne and Division, while an unrivaled smattering of restaurants makes it a serious tourist destination. Meanwhile, Division’s reinvention has spawned some 250 units of new multifamily housing in the past four years: a prime opportunity for those who value location and density over picket fences. Keep in mind that values here are likely to keep rising (median prices jumped nearly 9 percent over the last year), so now may be the time to jump in.
SNAPSHOT: 195 homes sold;$363,400 median price; $29,400 one-year increase
ALSO CHECK OUT: Goose Hollow (SW), Foster-Powell (SE), Hollywood (NE)
Best For: Investors
SELLWOOD-MORELAND (Southeast)
It’s telling, perhaps, that Sellwood began its life as a separate city. Long after its annexation in 1893, the perception of this quaint little neighborhood with its rickety bridge was at best a quasi-suburb, and at worst a bland community of perfectly synchronized biological clocks. But these days, Sellwood has never seemed more alive. With connections to downtown and other parts of Southeast Portland via the Springwater Corridor (as well as the coming MAX line), the neighborhood has seen a flurry of new restaurants and shops, as well as a reinforced bridge. And last year, a surge in home sales brought prices back to the same level as five years ago. With houses selling faster than most parts of the city (homes here are on the market for an average of just 39 days), continued upward growth is very likely.
SNAPSHOT: 231 homes sold;$360,000 median price; $45,000 one-year increase
ALSO CHECK OUT: Concordia (NE), St. Johns (N), Arbor Lodge (N)
Best For: Families
ASHCREEK (Outer Southwest)
This sleepy little neighborhood may not be on the tip of everyone’s tongue (it’s closer to Tigard than to downtown Portland), but for parents in search of a secure investment—and an affordable entry point inside the city—it has few rivals. Ashcreek’s snaking, tree-lined residential streets are among the safest in Portland, and kids at the local schools consistently test high in math, English, and science. The median home price is $325,000—but due to the fact that Ashcreek has some of the lowest costs per square foot of any traditional, family-oriented neighborhood in Portland, scaling up to fit a growing family is a viable option here.
SNAPSHOT: 113 homes sold;$325,000 median price; $41,300 one-year increase
ALSO CHECK OUT: Brooklyn (SE), Montavilla (NE/SE)
Best For: Empty-Nesters
SOUTH WATERFRONT (Southwest)
It’d be a stretch to call this gleaming bristle of high-rises poking out of the west bank of the Willamette the “other downtown.” But with nine 16-plus-story towers and a growing assortment of high-end stores and restaurants scattered throughout its 140-acre footprint, it may be getting closer. Indeed, this carefully manicured slice of riverfront property (technically a section of the “South Portland” neighborhood, which also includes John’s Landing and Lair Hill) was first nurtured in 1999 by urban renewal dollars, and is home for 3,000 med students, doctors, retirees, and others—75 percent without children. And with the Milwaukie-bound MAX line nearing completion and a new pedestrian greenway providing an easy commute into the central city, South Waterfront is becoming a more integral Portland neighborhood each day.
SNAPSHOT: 227 homes sold;$356,300 median price; $21,300 one-year increase
ALSO CHECK OUT: Happy Valley, Northwest Portland, Sauvie Island
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Microparks. Microbrews. Big air. Big hearts. Double lives, world records, and ancient roses. We offer a bouquet of our city’s countless charms.
Because the sun will always rise over Mill Ends Park.
That’s right, the world’s smallest park is still ours. Dedicated on St. Patrick’s Day 1948 as “the only leprechaun colony west of Ireland,” our tiny, 452-square-inch urban patch at SW Naito Parkway and Taylor Street appeared when a site intended to house a light pole began to sprout weeds. A pathetic recent British attempt to claim the title for a much bigger park only reminds us that in our beloved city, every shortcoming holds a new opportunity.
Because our female athletes kick ass.
1: Worldwide rank of Nadine Angerer, the new German goalkeeper who joins North American superstars Christine Sinclair and Alex Morgan on the Portland Thorns roster this season
60: Percentage of female contestants at last year’s Oregon Ironman (!) Bodybuilding competition
115: Weight, in pounds, of Portland’s MMA fighter Glena “Heartless” Avila, the first women’s champion in local full-contact fighting history
7: Years the Oregon Rugby Sports Union women’s team has ranked in the nation’s top 10 (as of press time, ORSU ranks no. 3 in the country)
4: Games the Portland Shockwave, our full-contact women’s football team, plays this month in Hillsboro Stadium (they won the PNW championship in 2011)
Because we are the secret tango-dancing capital of the hemisphere.
The sexy dance may be rooted in Argentina, but Portland is one of few places north of Buenos Aires with classes, practicas, and milongas every night of the week, all to serve about 300 dedicated local dancers. Plus, the nation’s largest tango event, February’s Valentango, draws hundreds of dancers from around the world.
Because even our major literary series totally kills it.
This year, Literary Arts’ Portland Arts & Lectures series tallied 2,337 subscribers. Indeed, our booklovers would fill two-and-a-half theaters at the country’s most pretigious lecture series, New York City’s legendary 92nd Street Y. Popularity fuels marquee-name ambition: the series attracts the likes of Ann Patchett, Sonia Sotomayor, and Salman Rushdie.
Because we've got the biggest Little Writing Scene in the World
Manhattan’s literary sphere provokes awe and anxiety: imagine a cocktail party full of sharp-elbowed Columbia grads. Portland’s more accessible scene is yet another reason to celebrate our town. And we’re on a strong upswing, word-wise: Powell’s City of Books is receiving a major face-lift, Reading Frenzy just reopened in a beautiful space on N Mississippi Avenue, and in 2015 Wordstock will escape the convention center’s fluorescent glare for promising new digs at Portland State University.
Portland hosts readings nearly every night—at Powell’s, Literary Arts, the Independent Publishing Resource Center, and via long-running series like Loggernaut and Spare Room. (See no. 28, left, for why we think Literary Arts, in particular, qualifies as exceptional.) Our city is also home to established literary darlings like Cheryl Strayed and Kevin Sampsell, along with upstarts like Emily Kendal Frey, Erin Ergenbright, Michael Heald, Evan Schneider, and Natalie Serber. New York will always dominate commercial publishing, but Portland could be the Small Press Capital of the World. There’s also no better place to study writing on the cheap, via the Tin House Workshop, the IPRC’s yearlong Certificate Program, or the Attic.
Rather than major industry or institutions, Portland’s literary world is built around a community of readers and writers: indeed a thing worthy of love.
Justin Hocking is the executive director of the IPRC and author of the memoir The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld
Because you can drink beer and support charity at the same time!
Woodlawn’s aptly named Oregon Public House claims to be the world’s only nonprofit pub. Here’s how it works: when a customer orders a beer, she or he “votes” for one charity from a list. At the end of the month, the pub tallies its profits, tallies the votes, and divvies up the money accordingly. If 20 percent of customers voted for the Neo Fund, for instance, 20 percent of profits go to microloans for Nicaraguans. Altruism and genius.
Because Seattle envies us.
The February 2014 issue of our sister publication, Seattle Met, put us in the spotlight with “Perfect Portland Getaways,” effectively reversing a favorite Portlandia skit in which, to the dismay of Portland’s mayor (played by Kyle MacLachlan), Seattle is featured on the cover of Portland Monthly as the “Gem of the Northwest.” We have arrived! (Note: Seattle has never appeared on the cover of Portland Monthly.)
Because 10 years ago, two Reedies ignited a distilling renaissance.
When Tom Burkleaux and Matthew VanWinkle unveiled New Deal vodka in 2004, it propelled craft brew–loving Portland in a spirited new direction. The modest debut eventually sparked Southeast Portland’s Distillery Row and the nation’s first state distillers guild. “It just hit me: everybody is making good food and wine and coffee—let’s go make good spirits,” remembers Burkleaux. “I wouldn’t have thought of it if I wasn’t living in Portland.” Next up for New Deal, which now produces 12 distinct lines of spirits? Growing a field of flowers for the city’s first rose liqueur.
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Because the Burnside Skatepark is the best example of anarchist architecture, anywhere.
Legend has it that sometime in 1990, a few skateboarders hauled bags of cement to a scrap of unclaimed ground beneath the Burnside Bridge. They built a couple of ramps and started skating. Word spread. More wildcat construction followed—as did successful negotiations with surrounding property owners and even city council.
Today, the Burnside Skatepark is a global icon of skate culture, featured in movies and video games, sustained by volunteer labor and what one regular describes as “a weird lack-of-hierarchy hierarchy.” Its rounded and ever-evolving bowls and walls have a strange, organic beauty: the poetry of concrete, applied with love.
Because Willy Vlautin has already completed his bucket list.
The 47-year-old author and Richmond Fontaine bandleader has had a remarkable year—in fact, he’s had a remarkable life.)
√ Start an alt-country band. Release at least 10 albums. Be big in Europe.
√ Write a novel. Get compared to Raymond Carver and Charles Bukowski.
√ Have said debut novel adapted into a movie starring acting legend Kris Kristofferson. (The Motel Life was released last November.)
√ Write fourth book: Iraq war vet goes into Blade Runner–esque coma-dream. (The Free came out in February.)
√ Start new band with a lady singer. Release album. (The Delines, fronted by Austin’s Amy Boone, release their first album, Colfax, on June 17, and will play a record release show at Mississippi Studio on June 25.)
Because while others seek to escape the city, we find joy in burrowing further in.
Down an old road frocked with blackberries—and a No Trespassing sign—lies this little nook of land carved from the river. At one time a lumber mill—and a dry dock for the city—this lost place now bears only wilting madrones and remnants of concrete, spouting tails of black rebar. Trails wind through the grasses.
You can say it is poisoned, and it is, a legacy of our history. But it is also a place of wild beauty, where native grasses poke industriously through the concrete slabs, and teenagers have splashed paint among the ruins. There are rabbits galore, and ground squirrels, and sometimes a bald eagle comes to soar overhead. A band of homeless people live in mired boats in the river.
This place reminds me of how Portland was when I was a child: a working-class town, perhaps a little seedy, but also a place where beauty existed among the raw, and anyone down on their luck could find a home. When I am here I feel at peace. When no one is around I spread my arms wide, like a child, and run in the grasses.
Rene Denfeld is a writer and private investigator. Her novel, The Enchanted, appeared in March.
In 2004, a ragtag crew organized a naked bike ride as part of Pedalpalooza. More than 125 people showed up. In the summer of 2013, Portland’s World Naked Bike Ride attracted 8,150 scantily clad cyclists. Wherefore the nudity? Consult the manifesto: “We face automobile traffic with our naked bodies as the best way of defending our dignity and exposing the vulnerability faced by cyclists and pedestrians as well as the negative consequences we all face due to dependence on oil, and other forms of non-renewable energy.” This year, Portland rides on June 7—best start getting in pedaling shape now!
Because you can see FOUR massive volcanoes from downtown Portland...
Each of which could conceivably erupt at any second. So, theoretically, we Portlanders cheat death just by waking up.
Because our urban growth boundary actually works.
12%: Expansion of the area within Portland metro’s urban growth boundary over 25 years
60%: Metro population growth over that same time
375,000: Acres devoted to farm production in counties touched by the UGB, 1978
570,000: Acres devoted to farm production in counties touched by the UGB, today
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Because one man hand-builds sculpturally beautiful microphones in his own 1930s speakeasy.
Philip Graham, founder of Ear Trumpet Labs, runs one of Portland’s most intriguing basement workshops, where he makes striking retro microphones (as seen here) designed to produce high-quality live sound. Bonus: he handles shipping out of a room that operated as a Prohibition retreat for thirsty Northeast Portlanders, complete with shady side door, bar, and rusty sink.
Because Portlanders are prone to setting odd world records.
Largest gathering of redheads: Last August, more than 1,300 gingers congregated in Pioneer Courthouse Square. Biggest tree hug: Up in Hoyt Arboretum, 951 people gave minute-long hugs to trees. Burpees: That nausea-inducing push-up/plank/jump extreme exercise? A Portlander did 9,480 over three days. High-speed grocery bagging: Executives from a local scanning technology company clocked 50 items in 51.91 seconds. Most successful three-point basketball shots in one minute: Twenty-five, to be precise. In your face, world!
Because we don’t just read, write, and listen—we publish.
Here’s just a handful of the great indie presses in Portland:
TIN HOUSE Our highest-profile indie press.
MICROCOSM Many of the –isms—anarchism, veganism, activism—with wild cards like health and religion.
OOLIGAN Portland State’s publishing program builds books from start to finish.
HAWTHORNE A literary house with strong regional roots, national reach, and a sharp design sensibility.
GLIMMER TRAIN Twenty-plus years of dedication to the short story.
FOREST AVENUE “Quiet novels” that counter tradition: the world changes the hero.
LAZY FASCIST Specializing in the unquantifiable: adult fairy tales, hybrid plays, zombie sharks. And great covers.
DEADITE“The very best in cult horror”: like Silence of the Lambs met Amityville Horror and conceived a literary baby.
Because we’re home to the tech world’s most reclusive superstar.
Linus Torvalds could be Portland’s Bill Gates, but he gives his product away. The Helsinki-born programmer pioneered the Linux operating system in 1991, and began allowing other programmers to use, change, and add to it—free. Long the choice of hard-core nerds, over the past few years Linux has become the world’s fastest-growing desktop operating system. It runs more than 95 percent of supercomputers, and forms the backbone for many tablets, phones, and game consoles. Torvalds has a house in Beaverton and an utterly nondescript public persona. He’s the Most Interesting Least Interesting Man in the World. Perfect.
Because Portlandia came with a poem that not enough people know.
She kneels down and from the quietness of copper reaches out. We take that stillness into ourselves and somewhere deep in the earth our breath becomes her city. If she could speak this is what she would say: Follow that breath. Home is the journey we make. This is how the world knows where we are. —Ronald Talney
“All my friends were vegan punk rockers,” says Elias Cairo of the days before he started curing 8,000 pounds of meat a day at Olympic Provisions’ 33,000-square-foot factory. In the mid-’90s, Cairo dropped out of high school to pursue a sponsorship from outdoor gear titan Burton and do backflips for national magazines.
By age 18, the adrenaline wore off. “I remember the tipping point,” says Cairo. “I was boarding with some of my snowboard idols—the greatest in the world—and they kept hurling themselves off this huge ledge. There was zero visibility. All I could hear from below was: ‘Go faster! You won’t clear the jump!’ All of the big-time guys were crashing on the rocky cliffs below. I made it ... barely. The next year I moved to Switzerland and learned how to make salami.”
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Because TV shows pretend to be in PDX now.
This fall’s Fox show Backstrom adapts an irritable detective (The Office star Rainn Wilson) from Scandinavian source novels to solve crimes for the Portland Police Bureau. Hidden twist? Backstrom actually shoots in Vancouver, B.C. Creator Hart Hanson: “The preoccupations of Portland—art, style, coffee, education, environment—are all good for Backstrom. I have the distinction of having three cities annoyed with me: Portland, because we’re shooting in Vancouver. LA, because they are losing production to other cities. And Vancouver, because they’d love to play themselves in a series for once.”
Because maybe—just maybe—beer counts as health food.
Upstream Public Health will celebrate its 10th anniversary in June by challenging local breweries like Ecliptic, Widmer, and Upright to concoct their healthiest possible brew. Can a beer infused with nutrient-rich ingredients, antioxidants, and beneficial herbs be tasty? A panel of local celebrity judges will decide.
Because our coffee shops are more than just coffee shops.
Coffee + interior design: Designer Chris Giovarelli curates the Pearl District’s stunning CDExD, where florist Cosmin Bisorca arranges fresh blossoms and Kevin Nichols, formerly of Water Avenue Coffee, presides over the gleaming espresso bar.
Coffee + wine: Enso Winery joined forces with Water Avenue Coffee to make its SE Stark Street tasting room a daytime coffee bar.
Coffee + laundry: North Portland’s Spin Laundry Lounge ingeniously combines clean clothes with Fog Valley Coffee.
Coffee + nonprofit: Volunteers founded TaborSpace in a disused bell tower at Mt Tabor Presbyterian Church—it’s now a nonprofit café and grassroots community center.
Coffee + bar: A beautiful little Euro-accented bolthole on NW 21st Avenue is Sterling Coffee Roasters by day, convivial M Bar by night.
Coffee + lighting: Ristretto Roasters’ third location, in Schoolhouse Electric, is incandescent in metaphor and fact.
Because green building isn’t just for the rich.
For more than 30 years, Reach Community Development and William Wilson have created buildings that only the most experienced eye might identify as affordable housing. The Orchards, a new project at booming Orenco Station slated for completion next year, should be the largest multifamily Passive House project in the nation. (The technique, pioneered in Europe, uses insulation and tight seals to create super-efficient buildings.) The complex will serve renters making less than $30,000 a year.
Because our city is living science fiction.
Portland, a town that defines itself as forward-looking, makes a good match for science fiction, genre of the future, and sci-fi writers have produced some notable visions of the Rose City.
In Octavia Butler’s 1993 novel Parable of the Sower, as LA dissolves into armed cul-de-sacs, water is a luxury, dirty is the new chic, and people dream of green Oregon—anticipating a future in which we may have to defend the Columbia River and cope with climate refugees. But suppose that, instead, Tea Party activists take over Oregon and abolish the urban growth boundary. Jay Lake described the possible result in his 2009 story “In the Forests of the Night.” Cascadiopolis is a non-city woven through the forests and mountains, a network of low-impact enclaves that look like forest compounds but together amount to an ecologically sensitive alternative to Portlandopolis. And of course there’s Ursula K. Le Guin, who projected a Portland of 2002 in 1971’s The Lathe of Heaven. George Orr can literally dream different versions of Portland and the larger world into existence.
Then there is more metaphorical food for thought. In his 1956 classic City and the Stars, Arthur C. Clarke described a city so full of interesting things that nobody feels the slightest urge to venture outside—for millions of years. Could that forecast how self-satisfied Portlanders, ensconced in super-cool neighborhoods, think—or don’t—about the boring world beyond the range of an easy bicycle commute?
Carl Abbott is a professor of urban studies at Portland State University. His book How Cities Won the West: Four Centuries of Urban Change in Western North America appeared in 2008.
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Because we’ve got more than one life to live.
GEORGETTE ECK: THE PEARL ROOM GALLERY AT POWELL’S // THE WORLD’S BEST KARAOKE SCENE
A social worker at Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization
“Indigo Hurls,” cocaptain of the notoriously ruthless Breakneck Betties team in the Rose City Rollers roller-derby league
“It’s hard to hide why you have a sprained ankle,” Eck explains. But with her clients, she keeps her skating under wraps: “It would be a surprise that their nice caseworker puts on roller skates and knocks people to the ground after work.”
Roller derby serves as a refuge from refugee work—and that makes Eck a better social worker, she says. “We spend so much time giving to other people that we don’t fill our cup back up. I have a place where I can work that energy off.”
Rex Ritter
Vice president and adviser at Umpqua Private Bank
Guitarist for local jazz-fusion combo Fontanelle; member of noted drone-metal collective Sunn O))) (known for wearing black hooded robes during performances)
Depends on your clearance. “The details are tailored to the audience,” Ritter says. “Most folks appreciate that I’m not just a boring banker.”
Ritter caught flak for his day job while on tour with Sunn O)))—till he whipped up a spreadsheet projecting the total tour income.
Dana Haynes & Katy King
Haynes is Mayor Charlie Hales’s communications director; King, his partner, runs her own government relations firm.
Published mystery writers—both of them. King is the author of the lady-detective mystery City of Suspects, while Haynes has written four Clancyesque novels of international intrigue. “We’ll sit in coffee shops,” says King, “fingers poised over our keyboards while we have deep conversations about staging plots of mass destruction in fiction-land.”
Haynes’s double life is on the down-low. “I don’t talk much about it at work,” he says. “I’m not the story; the mayor, or the city, or the policy is the story.” When her book came out, King was less clandestine—she even wrote some colleagues into future books at their request: “I made a particularly nice set of brothers into drug lords.”
Characterization. Just like he’s had to “hear” his characters’ voices to write convincingly and distinctly as them, Haynes needs to “hear” the mayor’s voice to serve as his spokesman.
Robb Wolfson
Citizen-involvement coordinator for Multnomah County
A competitive eater. Since entering his first eating contest six years ago on a dare, Wolfson’s won about two-thirds of his approximately 20 competitions.
Wolfson finds his hobby only helps at work. “One of the best ways to engage people is to make them laugh,” he points out, “and it’s an almost guaranteed laugh if you tell people you do competitive eating.”
Thick skin. Getting yelled at by angry citizens and getting laughed at with your face planted in sauerkraut aren’t, after all, so different.
Aaron Woo
Chef-owner of vegetarian eatery Natural Selection (and owner of its casual neighbor, Vita Café)
A managing partner of indoor-soccer complex Rose City Futsal, where he oversees the on-site pub
When you own two restaurants, co-own a sports facility (and play there), and are raising two kids in Northeast Portland, covert operations are near impossible.
Futsal—a fast-paced, passing-heavy soccer variant—is marked by the same teamwork and all-consuming intensity as cooking on the line, Woo observes. “That’s the thing I feed off of: living in the moment.”
Portland’s famed International Rose Test Garden cultivates 10,000 varieties, from the Betty Boop and the George Burns (yes, really) to the Moondance and the Golden Showers (yes, really). Among them blooms the world’s oldest known rose, soon to celebrate its 1,200th birthday: a “dog rose” known as Rosa canina (pictured), cut from a giant rose bush at a cathedral in Hildesheim, Germany. No one seems to know exactly how we got a piece of that huge mothership, planted in 815. (Some think it was a gift to Mayor Vera Katz.) But we do know that the mysterious German rose is in good company. Portland’s test garden was founded in 1917 to provide a home for European hybrids that rose aficionados worried would be destroyed in World War I. The original Hildesheim Rose burned during Allied Forces’ 1945 bombing. Eight weeks later, it sprouted 25 new shoots.
Because our evangelicals believe in evolution.
“Christianity can be what the Bible says it is, and evolution can be what the evidence says it is, without any horrible conflict,” says 26-year-old Newberg journalist Tyler Francke. Francke’s blog godofevolution.com has gotten him called a heretic. But it also attracts thousands of readers per month. “Multimillion-dollar organizations claim Christians must reject a few, select scientific principles,” he says. “I’m just offering a modest alternative.” And Francke’s not finished: his first novel, out this month, may be the first for an evangelical audience to feature a gay protagonist.
By 2015, Oregon weddings will be all the more amazing.
With a recent poll showing 61 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of Democrats under 30 in favor of same-sex marriage, it’s pretty clear that fighting gay marriage is a losing position. And as political leaders across the party lines of our great state show overwhelming support for the November 2014 ballot measure filed by Basic Rights Oregon (good on ya, Dorchester Conference!), it appears that marriage equality is inevitable. (In an after-party-related side note, legal cannabis may be on its way, too.) We hear lots of wedding bells in Oregon’s future...
Because this is the ultimate kids’ city.
Cosmic Monkey Comics and hot chocolate. MarchFourth Marching Band. Miyazaki film festival at the Northwest Film Center. The zoo. “Kindie rock.” The “grilled cheese bus.” Oaks Park six-dollar preschooler days. A zombie musical for kids. Trapeze class. Picking berries on Sauvie. The libraries.
I thought I loved Portland before my daughter was born. It seems to me now that was just a crush. Thisis what it feels like to love a city: to know that I can count on it to light Clementine’s mind on fire every day in some new way, to keep her vigorous and fascinated—and muddy. To keep me happy, along with my husband and countless other parents, as we figure out how to grow our small people into interesting big people.
Thirteen years ago Jim and I moved here straight out of art school and hunkered down to write and draw. Portland has been the perfect bubble in which to nurture our own creative lives and careers, and now it has taken on this tremendous new dimension as a kid’s city: playground, wilderness, book paradise, riverscape, art-land, and center of quirk. It’s a beautiful, inexhaustible puddle to stomp in.
Laini Taylor is the author of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy; the final installment of the series, Dreams of Gods & Monsters, appeared this spring.
OMSI AFTER DARK (above): Grown-up geeks mob the museum for a night of boozy science and kid-free fun.
HISTORY PUB MONDAY:Local experts lead lively humanities lessons between pints of McMenamins ale.
PAINT AND PROST WORKSHOP: Art School Studio students sip Northwest beer and wine and hone their craft.
SCIENCE PUB PORTLAND: Beer halls put the PhD in pub with talks on robotics, geology, and oceanography.
THINK AND DRINK: Oregon Humanities hosts this happy-hour conversation series, combining deep discussions with deeply discounted drinks.
Because you can get there from here.
Fourteen American airports fly nonstop to both Europe and Asia year-round. Portland International is the smallest. Delta’s routes to Amsterdam’s Schiphol and Tokyo Narita pump an estimated $215 million into the region’s businesses. Beyond money, the flights put us on the world map: Schiphol connects Portland to Africa; Narita opens up China and Southeast Asia.
Because small is the new big.
We’re a haven for VIPs looking to trade in Big-City success for a unique brand of careerism. A sampling of Stumptowners who braved the 21st-century Oregon Trail:
Steve Gaynor, former game designer at California’s major AAA gaming company 2K Marin, returned to Portland to launch indie game studio the Fullbright Company—and its critically acclaimed debut game, Gone Home.
Rick Gencarelli left a culinary career in New York City and Burlington, Vermont, to open a food cart called Lardo, which has become a local sandwich empire with three brick-and-mortar locations.
Rodney Hicks, who made his Broadway debut as a part of the original cast of Rent, came to town for Portland Center Stage’s Oklahoma! and never left. He returns to PCS’s stage this spring to play the lead role in Othello.
Scone whisperer Kim Boyce, former pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Beverly Hills, relocated to open shoebox-size Bakeshop on NE Sandy Boulevard.
Carrie Welch, once vice president of public relations at the Food Network, traded meetings with Bobby Flay and Rachael Ray to wait tables at Wildwood, launch local PR company Little Green Pickle, and co-found Feast Portland.
Because sometimes, you can’t even pick a reason.
How easy and fun it would be to write about oceans of clean water falling profligately from the sky, in a world where clean water and wars over it will be the story of this century; or to write about shaking hands with Ken Kesey and Barry Lopez and Ursula K. Le Guin in the streets of this city, the three greatest writers we ever had; but why don’t I say something real and blunt instead?
I love the shaggy moist grace of people here. I love the insistence on creativity. I love the general lack of class-snottiness and status-brandishing. I love that money matters but it doesn’t rule the roost. I love that mostly people are friendly except about parking. I love that spiritual search beats religious arrogance here. I love that a mayor once exposed his personal sculpture to a statue.
I hate that we need an active, energetic food bank, and I love that it collected 44 million pounds of food to share last year. I love that when the sun finally comes out in July people emerge from their caves moaning and steaming and singing songs of awe. I love that who your parents were is not as important here as who you are. I love that a river runs through us and I hate that it’s a foul sewer.
I love that we don’t care much about what outsiders think of us because finally we grew up enough to care only about being a better us. I love that the city bird looks like a grim blue skinny dinosaur with wings and a bad toupee.
Brian Doyle edits the University of Portland’s magazine. His novel The Plover appeared in April.
...And all the other stuff that makes us Portland:
North American Organic Brewers Festival // Hidden staircases in Goose Hollow // The Springwater Corridor Sellwood’s Stars Antique Mall // Sunday Parkways // Pier Park disc golf course // Portland Winterhawks // Cherry blossom season // Forest Park’s Wildwood Trail // The St. Johns Bridge // Alley 33 fashion show //Summer berries! Winter mushrooms // Microbrews in movie theaters // The Timbers Army // Hiking to Pittock Mansion // The Hillsdale farmers market // Pendleton blankets // Open skate at Oaks Park // The Writer’s Room at Multnomah County Library // Sunset MAX commutes over the Steel Bridge // Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade // Snow at the Japanese Gardens // OBT Exposed // Old-growth trees within city limits // Oregon Zoo train... Did we miss your favorite thing about Portland? Tell us in the comments below!
Gone are the days of the wine critic’s monopoly on taste. Here in Oregon, nuance is king, oddball wines are winning, and old-school winemakers are defying expectations with lighter, more eclectic styles. For this year’s annual blind tasting of Oregon’s wide world of wine, we rallied 13 of our favorite grape-stained wretches to uncork more than a thousand bottles. The results were clear: great wine is great wine, regardless of hue, price, or region. We were so pleased and surprised with our final ranking that this year we decided not to divide our list by category, but by ranking alone. So in celebration of Oregon’s new era of grape diversity, we raise a glass to 17 varietals from around the state in a single list, allowing the pinot noir to entwine with the pinot blanc, the Riesling with the tempranillo, the merlot with the Melon de Bourgogne. It is a true democracy of wine, and it’s time you added your palate to the chorus
99 This bright, balanced bottle from winemaker Merrilee Buchanan Benson melds classic pinot noir fruit flavors of cherries and cranberries with an herbaceous backbone of eucalyptus and tea tree. The family-owned and -operated label has maintained a commitment to small-batch quality wines and sustainability for more than 29 years, using 100 percent solar power at the winery and managing its own certified Salmon Safe estate vineyards side by side with wetland and woodland habitats. Visitors to Tyee’s Corvallis farm and tasting room can explore the estate’s nature trails and hazelnut orchards, catch outdoor concerts, dive into the family history of the land (dating back to 1885) and, of course, taste the estate’s wines.
“Two years ago, when this bottle appeared in Portland Monthly’s Top 50, it was one of my favorites. What wonderful things are happening down there? I’m so impressed by its balance, earthiness, and structure. It is the real epitome of what good pinot noir should taste like: elegant complexity that unveils its layers like a beautiful peacock.”—Savanna Ray (manager, RingSide Fish House)
2. Brandborg Wines 2011 Riesling Umpqua Valley, $16
98.8 From the state’s new cool-climate Elkton Oregon AVA, wine pioneers Terry and Sue Brandborg prove that Southern Oregon isn’t all hot air. This vibrant, textbook-dry Riesling combines crisp minerality with flavors of tart peach that you won’t quickly forget.
3. Domaine Drouhin Oregon 2012 Arthur Chardonnay Dundee Hills, $35
98.7 This exciting European-style chardonnay is rich and elegant with aromas of lemon pie and anise, and gets even fresher on the palate with flavors of tart apple and nectarine.
“I love a beautiful chardonnay that tastes like chardonnay, and this is one of Oregon’s best. Fermented in both older oak and stainless steel, this bottle rides that great line between richness and acidity.”—Dana Frank (wine director, Ava Gene’s)
98.5 Best known for providing certified organic grapes to some of Oregon’s top-shelf winemakers, Croft Vineyards also blends its own pinot noir with incredible results. This structured wine offers refreshing acidity and plenty of cranberry, cinnamon, orange rind, and tart cherry.
“I know Croft for its great sauvignon blanc, but I think we were all floored when this wine was unveiled. It displayed those classic cool vintage Oregon characteristics, making it immediately charming but with potential to improve over the next five years.”—Michael Garofola (general manager, Accanto)
5. Van Duzer Vineyards 2011 Alchemy Pinot Noir Willamette Valley, $65
98 Waving a banner for the velvety, polished side of pinot noir, this silky wine from certified Salmon Safe and LIVE (Low Input Viticulture and Enology) vineyards in Dallas, Oregon, offers bright acidity and notes of grapefruit and strawberries.
6. Ponzi Wines 2012 Chardonnay Reserve Willamette Valley, $35
98 Grassy and bright, this new-wave chardonnay offers flavors of peaches, melon, apple, and lemon. Pair its delicious minerality with salmon or roast chicken.
“This lush, creamy wine shows off what’s great about Oregon-style chardonnay—and why the grape deserves its reputation as one of the best in the world.”—David Speer (owner/sommelier, Ambonnay Champagne Bar)
7. Apolloni vinEyards 2012 Estate Chardonnay Willamette Valley, $15
97.9 A true “patio pounder,” this fun, easy-drinking wine will convert anyone with its bright stone-fruit tang. Serve with pineapple salsa and scallops.
“A crisp, clean expression of the varietal that hits all the right points and gives you tons of value.”—Josh Wiesenfeld (general manager, Remedy Wine Bar)
8. RoxyAnn Winery 2011 Tempranillo Rogue Valley, $26
97.8 Lush with flavors of ripe marionberries and jammy blackberries, this balanced, complete wine is rich enough for lovers of big, bold reds but won’t put off fans of lighter wines.
“After a change of winemakers a few years back, this Medford winery is back with an impressive new take on tempranillo that has it all—power, structure, finesse, and the ability to age alongside your favorite Ribera del Duero for the next five years or more. A real standout from Southern Oregon!” —Darryl Joannides (owner, Cork Bottle Shop)
9. Willamette Valley Vineyards 2012 Estate Pinot Noir Willamette Valley, $30
97.75 Winemaker Don Crank transforms the fruit from vineyard founder Jim Bernau’s 31-year-old vines into a beautiful pinot noir that delivers from the nose—bursting out of the glass with black pepper, candied cherries, and spice—to a satisfyingly long finish.
10. Torii Mor Winery 2013 Viognier Applegate Valley, $20
97.75 Introducing your go-to Thai takeout wine: with lush flavors of creamy peach, plenty of acidity, and a complex finish, this bottle can stand up to spicy, salty, savory, and sweet. (Fish-sauce wings, anyone?)
11. Brooks Wines 2012 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley, $28
97.75 Our tasters loved the complex and playful nose of this biodynamically farmed wine (bouncing from sweet thyme to crème fraîche and back to white flowers) and its evolution into a clean, savory bottle that’s tailor-made for the Oregon wine geek and ready to drink right now.
12. Ribera Vineyards 2013 Pinot Noir Rosé Willamette Valley, $18
97.68 A true rosé lover’s rosé, this complex, crisp wine refreshes with flavors of peach, rhubarb, and an edge of salinity.
“This is the easy-drinking, Southern French–style rosé you want to drink alfresco with your friends. It won’t break the bank, it’s super food-friendly, plus it’s just such a pretty pink!” —Samantha Hobbs Chulick (beverage director, Feast Portland)
13. Brigadoon Vineyards 2012 Lylee Pinot Noir Willamette Valley, $22
97.5 Spicy and jammy, this is a pinot noir for big-red lovers. While it will benefit from a few years in the cellar, it can stand up to heartier food—and wouldn’t be out of place on your Thanksgiving table.
97.5 Grower Todd Hansen and winemaker Jay Somers aim to make “analog wine for a digital world.” Full of character and a sense of place, this bottle does just that with flavors of tart, crunchy cranberry and black tea with an edge.
15. Abacela 2013 Albarino Umpqua Valley, $20
97.5 Effervescent and rhythmic with lemony and floral notes, this bright, Spanish-style wine is affordable and picnic-ready.
“This is an every(wo)man wine—serious enough for those that want it, with enough fruit character for the novice. A real crowd-pleaser.”—Greg Cantu (wine director, Grüner)
16. Brooks Wines 2011 Temperance Hill Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills, $48
97.5 Drinkable right now, this wine jumps out of the glass with aromas of Asian spices and shiso. Extremely food-friendly, it’s ready to pair with funky blue cheese or brie.
17. Methven 2013 Gamay Rosé Eola-Amity Hills, $21
97.5 Love Beaujolais? This pretty, dark pink rosé offers a clean finish that begs for burgers and ribs.
“What a distinctive take on one of my favorite ‘underdog’ grapes! Playful, vibrant, and beautiful, with flavors of bright strawberries and cherries.”—Colin Howard (owner, Oso Market and Bar)
18. Jaxon 2011 Grenache Rogue Valley, $35
97.5 A complex mouthful of wild raspberries with spearminty menthol and structured tannins, this easy-drinking intro to grenache will please all kinds of wine lovers.
19. Harper Voit Surlie Pinot Blanc 2013 Willamette Valley, $20
97.5 Blending flavors of poached peaches, warm spices, and a tropical edge, this wine is big and rich, balanced by bright acidity and a light honeysuckle finish. Pair it with pork tenderloin and apples or stuffed winter squash.
20. Quady North 2013 Rosé Rogue Valley, $14.50
97.5 Jubilant and delicious, bursting with strawberries, cherry, and lime, this easy-to-find bottle is a revelation for anyone who thinks they don’t like rosé.
21. Brick House 2012 Cuvée du Tonnelier Pinot Noir Organic and Biodynamic Ribbon Ridge, $45
97.3 Smart, balanced, and elegant, this earthy wine blends vanilla, cedar, and sandalwood with the pleasantly musty aroma of tomato leaves on a hot day.
“It’s pretty simple—you should drink Doug Tunnel’s wine as often as you have the opportunity. I think of his wines as being soft-spoken but incredibly opinionated (and I often agree with his opinion).”—Joel Gunderson (wine director, Coopers Hall, St Jack, Oven and Shaker, Grassa)
22. Adelsheim 2012 Caitlin’s Reserve Chardonnay Willamette Valley, $45
97.26 Tropical and vibrant, this delicious Dijon-clone chardonnay is all about pineapple, guava, and macadamia nuts—it’s the beach in a bottle.
23. Torii Mor 2011 Nysa Vineyard Pinot Noir Dundee Hills, $55
97.25 Attention, dessert lovers: this bottle bursts with aromas of banana and brown sugar and flavors of molasses and brandy—it’s like pinot noir dreaming of a perfectly caramelized fruitcake.
24. Van Duzer 2013 Pinot Gris Willamette Valley, $18
97.25 Charming floral aromas jump out of the glass, shifting to a slightly savory, herbal palate accented with apricot.
97.2 Inky purple in the glass, this ode to elegant Argentine-style malbec offers flavors of boysenberry and dark chocolate-covered cherries—surprisingly balanced while jammy and fruit-forward.
“Winemaker Ashley Trout knows a thing or two about malbec, having crafted the grape both in the Pacific Northwest as well as in its New World homeland of Mendoza, Argentina. The wine is fruit-driven and spicy, but full of restraint.”—Caryn Benke (beverage director, Andina)
26. Winter’s Hill 2012 Estate Block 9-115 Pinot Noir Dundee Hills, $44
97.1 Think dark cherry pie filling with notes of juniper and pine—perhaps infused with aromas from the protected Douglas fir woodland bordering this LIVE and Salmon Safe–certified vineyard.
97 Bright and juicy, this approachable wine is like a grown-up’s Vanilla Cherry Coke, with bold, ripe fruit and vanilla from a year spent aging in French oak barrels.
28. Folin 2010 Syrah Folin Vineyards Rogue Valley, $30
97 Bloody, earthy, gamey, and dusty ... if you’re a lover of big, lush Syrahs balanced by bright acid and creamy oak, this gutsy Northern Rhône–style wine will surely seduce.
29. Love & Squalor 2011 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley, $24
97 Food-friendly and easy-drinking, this fresh, vibrant bottle is your go-to for a weeknight dinner with friends.
“What I love about Matt Berson’s wines are their simplicity. He works with the varietals he loves, and he’s consistent. That’s the trick in my book, and that’s what makes his wines so versatile.”—Sarah Egeland (sommelier, Smallwares)
30. Willakenzie 2011 Pierre Leon Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton, $48
97 With flavors of cherry cordial, orange, and anise, this bright, easy-drinking pinot is about as sessionable as a red wine can get.
31. De Ponte Cellars 2012 DFB Estate Melon de Bourgogne Willamette Valley, $25
97 A perfect match for fresh Northwest oysters, this bright wine’s salinity draws its spiritual lineage back to Loire muscadet.
97 Smooth and seamless, this wine is all about texture. While the flavors stay safely in cherry country, this is one you’ll keep coming back to for the mouthfeel, with a finish that just won’t quit.
33. Grochau Cellars 2013 Pinot Noir Rosé Willamette Valley, $16
97 Bright and easy-drinking, notes of raspberry and strawberry are balanced by a savory edge of white pepper and mouth-puckering acid.
96.75 Balanced by a creamy undertone and a backbone of spice, this wine’s flavors of lychee, rose petal, honeysuckle, and poached peaches make it perfect for everyday drinking.
35. Ledger David 2011 Syrah Rogue Valley, $35
96.75 Fruit-forward and full of blueberry boldness, this accessible wine won’t overshadow anything on your plate.
36. Andrew Rich 2013 Croft Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc Willamette Valley, $22
96.74 Savory and spicy, this certified-organic wine has hints of lime, green chiles, and white pepper. Pour it with Mexican food, Asian takeout, or pasta.
37. Delfino 2011 Tempranillo Umpqua Valley, $24
96.6 Herbaceous and perfumed with aromas of rose and eucalyptus, Jim and Terri Delfino’s juicy, playful wine shows the bright and light side of tempranillo. Said one taster: “I could smell this all day long—it’s a pinot drinker’s big red.”
96.5 A newcomer to the pinot scene, Alabama transplant Justin Paul Russell crafts this wine at the SE Wine Collective using fruit from the renowned Demeter-certified Biodynamic Momtazi Vineyard. To get the most out of this young wine’s flavors of clove, dried cranberries, and chocolate, decant before drinking.
39. iOta 2011 Pelos Sandberg Vineyard Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills, $38 96.5 Aromas of sweet, rich cherry give way to a palate of smoked meat and crunchy red fruit.
40. Trisaetum 2013 Wichmann Riesling Dundee Hills, $24
96.5 This classic offering boasts clean flavors of honey, petrol, and white flowers, with a vibrant acidity that draws a line from the nose to the finish. Pair with ceviche or oysters.
41. Trisaetum 2013 Pinot Noir Rosé Willamette Valley, $24 96.5 This light copper pour is rounded out with peaches and a long, smooth finish.
42. Griffin Creek 2011 Cabernet Franc Rogue Valley, $40
96.2 A bright red beauty with zippy acid and flavors of tea leaves, jasmine, rose hips, and ripe red fruit, this bottle pairs well with Indian food, braised short ribs, or coffee-infused desserts.
43. Roco 2012 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley, $24
96 Easy-drinking and approachable, this pinot should be sipped on the front porch, where you can savor its notes of roses, brown sugar, lilacs, and dried cherries as the world goes by.
44. RoxyAnn 2010 Claret Rogue Valley, $26
96 This juicy, Bordeaux-style blend rounds out with punches of black cherry, espresso, dark chocolate, and dark raspberries. Pour it with a grilled steak and make the most of its creamy oak profile and soft tannins.
45. King Estate 2012 Domaine Oregon Pinot Gris Willamette Valley, $28
96 Balanced with aromas of wet stone and grapefruit, this easy-drinking wine is accented by a warm note of cardamom.
95.41 Complex, with flavors of pine needles, white pepper, and nutmeg, this savory wine features integrated oak and bright acidity. Bring it along on a picnic with cold roast chicken.
95 Light ruby in the glass, this pretty wine will appeal to lovers of pinot and gamay, with its notes of sweet green herbs, red currants, and cherry skins.
50. Cliff Creek Cellars 2010 Merlot Rogue Valley, $22
94.5 Ripe and rich, this über-drinkable merlot offers clean flavors of sweet orange peel, cherries, and roses.
For more wine tasting discoveries, check out our behind-the-scenes slide show from the 2014 blind panel!
The food arrived on plates. Otherwise, nothing was predictable in a year when Portland dining cracked open old cuisines and fresh ideas in entirely new ways. Rigorously old-school Thai recipes went underground, Russian classics got positively giddy, and even ritualistic Japanese kappo cuisine got free-style and farm-grown. Mostly, in 2014, the best menus were invitations to plunge into cooks’ personal worlds—deliciously, without a crumb of pretension. Pull up a seat.
When it comes to your child’s education, we think it’s OK to be a nerd.
That’s why, once again, we’re crunching the data* for about 600 public and private schools in Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, and Clark Counties to show you how your school measures up. In our comprehensive grids, we focus on the Portland area’s achievement scores, showing you how our schools are doing in math, reading, class size, diversity stats, enrollment numbers, and extracurriculars. Sure, numbers don’t tell the whole story. But they’re a good place to start.
Academic Success, Hunger Games-Style?Trackers Earth, a radical homeschool program, teaches archery, blacksmithing, and survival with an "unschooling" philosophy.
*Oregon data reflects the 2013–2014 academic year; Washington data reflects 2012–2013. Data is from the Oregon Department of Education, Washington State Board of Education, and Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Private school data is voluntarily self-reported for the 2013–2014 academic year. Schools offering only preschool and/or kindergarten were excluded, as were schools that did not complete Portland Monthly’s survey.
Portland is in the throes of a dessert breakthrough, with cozy cafés reimagining classic cakes, innovative pastry chefs whipping up sweet fever dreams, and local kitchens buzzing with chocolates and ice cream. Grab a spoon and get decadent. It's February, after all—we deserve it.
The Ultimate Portland Chocolate Box We chomped through chocolate collections and candy aisles to curate the city’s defining expressions of cacao, from bars to bonbons.
Throw-Back Decadence By the slice or the spoonful, we’ll never grow tired of pure nostalgia from Portland's top bakeries, cakeries, and pie shops
It’s officially crazy out there! Scarce inventory. Levitating prices. Fierce bidding wars. Is a sizzling market changing the city? Of course. Has it changed what we all really want out of the places we call home? No. Over the next few pages, find out where the Portland good life thrives right now—and, like this cute crew right here, how to find your place within it.
LEFT: Biscuits, bacon, and babies abound at Old Salt's sunny brunch in Northeast Portland. RIGHT: Nostrana owner Cathy Whims’s Italian Bloody Mary swaps celery and pickles for basil and a bright squeeze of lemon.
Whether standing in line to devour a coffee-fueled meal at one of the city’s top a.m. spots or gathering with friends around your kitchen table to nibble a smorgasbord of your own making, one thing is clear: we Portlanders love brunch.
Named after the Alpine flower that’s an emblem of southern Germany, the Baier family’s Teutonic haven has cranked out house-made sausages, cold cuts, and hearty German breads for three decades and counting. They manage to pack a butcher shop, deli, bakery, and grocery store into a tchotchke-cluttered space barely bigger than a Plaid Pantry—evoking the authentically hectic, congested atmosphere of shopping in actual Germany, where Costco-size megastores are mostly unheard of. The meat showcase features enough wieners and animal pâtés to make Prince Ludwig gasp—around 130—from rich, spreadable liverwurst (delectable on toast; watch out for gout) to the noble currywurst. Skip the familiar brats and kielbasas and throw a thick slice of warm leberkäse (literally, liver cheese) on a crusty bun with mustard, and lunch is served.
ALSO TRY:Stock up on spicy brats at Woodstock institution Otto’s Sausage Kitchen(ottossausage.com) or amp up your own sandwiches with house-made German bologna at outer Northeast’s Old Country Sausage Company (503-254-4106).
SHOPPING LIST
The quintessential Bavarian breakfast: the pale weisswurst—Carlton Farms pork, lemon, parsley, and pepper—a tub of Edelweiss’s own sweet, grainy mustard, and a warm-from-the-oven giant pretzel. Wash it down with a bottle of Franziskaner Weissbier, Munich’s breakfast beer of choice.
A bright, clean supermarket that stocks all of the ingredients in your Vietnamese cookbook, Hong Phát is Fubonn’s less-crowded, no-frills little sister—with way more parking. The star here is the affordable produce section, where huge, pebble-skinned jackfruits pile high next to heaps of fresh herbs, lychee, dragon fruit, rambutan, and large, juicy limes cheaper than almost anywhere else in town. The owners have preserved most of the fixtures and signage from the building's previous incarnation as a Safeway, which makes for a disorienting, delicious East-meets-West Hanoi marketplace experience. It also stocks Chinese, Korean, and Japanese treats, making it a truly one-stop destination. Pro tip: grab a fresh-squeezed orange or sugarcane juice at the café counter to fuel your exploration.
ALSO TRY:Stock up on fresh banh mi bread at An Xuyen Bakery (anxuyenbakery.com) and make a pilgrimage to Fubonn for Portland’s shopping-mall-size pan-Asian immersion (fubonn.com).
SHOPPING LIST
Tropical fruit, fresh rice noodles, boxes of Aroy-D coconut cream
When Oaxaca-obsessed chef KELLY MYERS needs ingredients for her bustling SE Division Street restaurant, Xico, Mexico City native Jose de Jesus Mendoza’s thoughtfully stocked Foster-Powell grocery is her direct pipeline down south.
"Look for the fun mural of Acapulco and Mexico City with the Day of the Dead skeletons out front. This is where I buy most my dried chiles for Xico. With Campesino’s chile de árbol, chipotle, and guajillo chile, you can make salsa, a marinade for grilled meat, or mole, of course. The owner, Jose, is really extroverted, and loves sharing his culture—he used to work at a tortilleria operating a molino to grind corn. He’s got a really good selection of Mexican cheeses: three different kinds of queso fresco, including a sweet special one from Oaxaca (they’ll let you sample them all!), and unusual varieties of crema. Plus, it’s the only place in town that I can regularly find ripe plantains. Grab their good house-made salsas and escabèche—also, fresh sweet corn tamales if they happen to make them that day. You never know what little surprise you’re gonna find." —Kelly Myers
ALSO TRY: It’s a daily fiesta at Latin American cart pod and marketplace Portland Mercado (portlandmercado.com), where you can nab Don Felipe green chorizo and precut nopales. Farther east, La Tapatia (tapatiamarket.com) stocks essentials—marinated carne to piñatas.
The farmers-turned-tastemakers from Dayton’s Viridian Farms stock some of the best, most obscure Spanish and French ingredients on the shelves of their new specialty foods market.
After two years of R&D, Spanish modernist food legend Ferran Adrià (El Bulli) and his team discovered a way to make olive oil caviar: tiny, glistening orbs popping with flavors like black sesame, basil, and chili. Bonus: it’s vegan!
“Canned seafood means a totally different thing in the United States,” explains Conserva co-owner Manuel Recio. “In Spain, it’s more desirable (and expensive) than the freshest fish.” Conserva’s stock of olive oil–packed sea life includes cockles, octopus, and scallops from Galician waters.
Massive pig haunches hang in the corner of Conserva, the crème de la crème of Spanish jamón. The premium line, a ham fed on acorns and aged for four years, can cost thousands of dollars for an entire leg—so think statement piece more than appetizer.
ALSO TRY:Grab house pasta cut to order at Pastaworks (pastaworks.com) or head to Italian kitchen Luce’s teeny market to score small-batch olive oils and Sicilian sea salt (luceportland.com).
IMPERIAL EURO MARKET
RUSSIAN/EASTERN EUROPEAN11050 SE Powell Blvd, 503-761-5659
Bonnie Morales surveys Imperial Euro Market's epic candy wall.
Her Central Eastside restaurant, Kachka, is a retro-Soviet hipster fantasy. But to stock her home larder, BONNIE MORALES hits a real Portland Slavic crossroads: SE 110th and Powell, between a Russian-speaking dentist and a Ukrainian credit union.
"Imperial Euro Market is a little off the beaten path—they don’t speak much English there—but I think they have a much better-curated store than some of the other, more well-known Russian markets. Borodinsky bread is hearty rye bread with coriander seeds sprinkled all over the top—my favorite bread. It’s much more dense than white bread, so cut thinner slices of it. Alef Moscovskaya salami is a drier style, made from pork and beef. Ask them to slice it for you. The best mustard, Zakuson, is much spicier than your average mustard, in a sinus-clearing way.
Now that you have Borodinsky bread, Moscovskaya salami and Zakuson mustard, make a quick open-faced sandwich. This is the sandwich of my childhood. It’s fast and the ingredients are always at home. That, with some Kirby cucumber spears, is my jam." —Bonnie Morales
ALSO TRY:Roman Russian Market (503-408-7525) can hook you up with delicacies like medovik, an addictively spongy honey cake sold by the pound.
This is Oregon’s Indian megagrocery; the place where expats shop and culinary adventurers check off their lists, from huge sacks of lentils and rice to dozens of jarred pickles made from unusual fruits and spicy, puffed snacks in every shape and size. The real find here is the fresh produce, more diverse and comprehensive than nearly any other market in town, with bitter kerala melon, fenugreek leaves, and serpentine snake gourd. Don’t miss the newly opened Apna Chaat Bhavan, a casual cafeteria next door cooking up standout bhel puri, dosas, and biryani.
If Apna Bazaar is the immersive market experience in which to get lost, Bollywood Market, the colorful bodega attached to Division’s popular Bollywood Theater restaurant, is the curated version with training wheels. What Bollywood lacks in scale, it makes up for in quality; this is one of the only places in the Northwest to find just-made ghee, paneer, and chutney. Bollywood’s trio of freshly ground masala spice blends includes tikka, garam, and vindaloo, each with careful recipes and thoughtful notes from Bollywood’s India-obsessed chef Troy MacLarty to help you master your first Indian feast.
Really, it’s worth a trip for the kimchi alone. At the very least, 10 pungent varieties await, neatly stacked in a gleaming cooler of banchan—salty-sour house-made side dishes featuring everything from squid to radish, sea squirt to lotus root. And this is just the beginning at H Mart, a sprawling, immaculate location of this national Korean grocery chain just off Highway 99W in Tigard. Carve out a good chunk of time to wander these brightly lit aisles, each one boasting a universe of discoveries: the bakery’s sea of baskets, cradling carefully wrapped pastries; bright sacks stacked with every imaginable variety of rice (sweet, brown, mixed, sprouted, rose, etc.); a wild landscape of crisp (and cheap!) produce and tropical fruits; an eye-opening fish department boasting super-fresh, smoked, and dried specimens; and, of course, a central repository of housewares from kimchi refrigerators to smart toilets and rice cookers. We hereby challenge you to imagine a thing you won’t find in this pan-Asian fantasyland for serious cooks.
ALSO TRY:East Portland insiders get their kimchi fix at 82nd Avenue stalwart Boohan Oriental Market (1313 SE 82nd Ave) while cooks and Japanophiles flock to Beaverton’s Asian superstore/holy land Uwajimaya (uwajimaya.com) to gather nori, manga, and cult Beard Papa cream puffs.
SHOPPING LIST
Kimchi and banchan (as many as you can carry), marinated beef and pork for bulgogi, brown sweet rice, fancy sea salts, any candy that looks good
AWASH
ETHIOPIAN 2322 NE MLK Jr. Blvd, 503-281-0844
One part convenience store, one part East African outpost, this market stocks all the trappings of an Ethiopian feast, from injera griddles and enamel trays to essential imported herbs, beans, and spices.
Don’t bother setting the table—Ethiopian eats are served on injera, spongy sourdough-like bread that acts as both platter and utensil. To prepare your own pancake plates, you’ll need teff flour, milled from the world’s smallest grain. Great news, gluten-free folk: you can eat this stuff!
Once you’ve covered your injera with lentils and lamb curries, place the communal dish in this traditional lidded serving vessel for extra style points.
These simmer sauces from Hillsboro-based Eleni’s Kitchen help cooks infuse dishes with Ethiopian flavor. The base of this spicy red sauce is berbere, the piquant chile pepper powder that anchors many regional recipes.
ALSO TRY:Pop across the street to score funky Ethiopian music albums and warm, homemade injera at Merkato (503-331-9283), or journey across the African continent via Mama Pauline’s (mamapaulines.com) colorful trove of pan-African fabrics, jewelry, snacks, and cooking staples.
LILY MARKET & MORE
Chef and Thai food acolyte ANDY RICKER is notoriously picky about ingredients for his restaurants. He makes the rounds of a handful of under-the-radar PDX shops for genuine Southeast Asian goods.
THAI SAUCES, PASTES, AND HERBS
“The best place to shop for ingredients is Thai-run LILY MARKET(11001 NE Halsey St, 503-255-0448). They have good customer service, too,” says Ricker.
TIP: A visit to Lily is a game of Ingredient Where’s Waldo; enlist patient staffers to locate essentials like fresh galangal root, dried shrimp, and a bottle of Ricker favorite Pantai Norasingh fermented fish sauce.
NOODLES
Ricker says: “JC RICE NOODLE (8405 SE Foster Rd, 503-788-1668) is one of the only sources of fresh rice noodles in the city. Other markets carry noodles mostly from California, which are at least a day old.”
TIP: This 7-Eleven–size factory makes around 3,000 pounds of preservative-free chow fun noodles (or sen yai in Thai) daily; buy the wide, silky-chewy strands by the pound and don’t leave without a takeout box groaning with freshly stir-fried noodles with meat and veggies.
SEAFOOD
“For seafood, there is no better place than ABC SEAFOOD COMPANY(6509 SE Powell Blvd, 503-771-5802): low prices (they get Maine lobster for absurdly low prices in season), great selection, and really fresh product,” says Ricker.
TIP: From live clams to tilapia, ABC’s an international aquarium you can eat; look for Dungeness crab—take the staff’s advice and boil the Oregon crustaceans whole, guts and all, for maximum flavor.
No spot in the extended Attar family’s Mediterranean restaurant and grocery kingdom—which extends from Ya Hala to Nicholas with a trio of markets in between—is more vibrant than this flower-festooned riot of brightly spiced spreads, fresh fruits, and international beers. Like a homier, Lebanese-accented Whole Foods, this cook’s standby marries the city’s appetite for Oregon-born eats and global goods; kombucha on tap and Unbound pickles to dime bags of piney mastic, five varieties of pistachios, and a world-class wall of halva. It’s all, frankly, deliciously overwhelming. Your best bet: order a lamb shawarma sandwich at the far-reaching deli and spend the 10 minutes it takes your pita to puff in the wood-fired oven getting lost among the dried fruits, pats of Georgian sulguni cheese, bottles of Valencian saisons, and sunset-hued melons until your brain short-circuits from gastronomic happiness.
ALSO TRY:The picture-perfect World Foods Everett (830 NW Everett St) location in the Pearl expands its reach to include goods from Asia and Latin America; nibble salty-sweet pistachio baklava while you peruse the dozen-plus-variety olive bar. La Bouffe International Gourmet (8015 SE Stark St) keeps Montavillans stocked up on pomegranate molasses and Iranian sweets.
SHOPPING LIST
Olives, za’atar and other country-specific spices and blends, marinated meat skewers, pungent house toum (labneh-garlic spread).
Have you sprinted up Tabor? Gone commando at the World Naked Bike Ride? Consumed *all* the beer? Take our quiz to find out if you’re (nearly) native—or just got off the bus.
We tallied more than 11,000 peer votes from doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and complementary medicine providers for our annual guide to the city’s best.
We scoured the city for the best warm-blanket dishes from across the globe. So go ahead, wrap your napkin around your shoulders like a Snuggie and dig in!
