I came to the PNW during this time so I can see it at it's worst.... It's a clear and beautiful day in Portland! Even though it's now 50F outside, I'm still cold!!
I hopped on a bus to cross the river so I can have Screendoor for brunch!
Yea there's a line out the door at 10am!! And the wait for first available seat for 1 was an hour!
No problem, coffee was highly recommended a few doors down
Heart ❤️ Coffee
They focus on lighter roasts and feature aeropress coffee, similar to a French press but uses a fine paper filter and a syringe like plunger to press the coffee. Delicious!
After an hour I finally got a seat at the bar (yay!)... A few specials stood out to me and I noticed that everyone walked out with leftovers so I knew I couldn't order more than 1 dish
Brisket Hash with any style eggs and tortillas (and locally made apple cider) - the brisket was nice and juicy, the sauces were delicious and the apple cider wasn't overly sweet... The portion was HUGE!
And I told the bartender I wanted to catch a photo of the Fried Chicken and Waffles because that was also insanely massive! And he hooked it up! Even the couple in the background can't stop lookng at them!
Crazy huh?! After all that deliciousness I needed to walk it all off... I wanted to stay in the area cause I planned on having dinner a few blocks away so my friend told me to walk down to Hawthorne and I would have a good time there.
SE Hawthorne Blvd.... The walk alone from E Burnside St was a nice way to consume time... This street is similar to Melrose Ave in Los Angeles. It's lined with different second hand shops, local made goodies, book stores, theaters, barbershops, coffee shops, restaurants etc. it was nice to walk the street leisurely and pop in and out of stores at my own pace. There were lots a beautiful things to window shop for and places to people watch. Portland has a fun character about it... I thought it was great that they won't let the gloom ruin the chance to have sun-kissed skin
This place looks like a house but is actually a Lebanese restaurant called Tarboush, I didn't eat here but I still liked the way it looked.... Many places in Portland look like this
After exploring everything I could on Hawthorne I wandered in to Bagdad Theater Bar. The theater itself shows various movies and also serves food and drinks inside the theater. The attached bar is a restaurant and bar where it happened to be happy hour when I walked in so I had a beer to kill more time. Beer in Portland is fairly inexpensive so when it's happy hour it's really inexpensive! Now for dinner...
Ava Gene's
I get to continue my love affair with fresh made pasta 😁
Ava Gene's is part of a larger restaurant group including Tasty N Sons and Toro Bravo so I anticipated this to be awesome
I sat at the chef's bar (yay!) and as a kitchen professional I had a geek out moment and drooled over their kitchen the enitre time I was there... It's a beautiful kitchen! And it's nice to watch other people work and see how other kitchens run... Unfortunately the cooks were all male and I found it peculiar that none of them talked to each other (not like having a chat with each other but cooks have to talk to each other so they know who's working on what and that pans are hot or someone is walking behind them etc. and I know this sounds biased but kitchens run better when there are girls in it as well 💁👩👸👧 Truth!)… at least the food was good!
Rabbit Agnolotti and Butternut Squash
The cauliflower and brussel sprouts portion was pretty large for one person and the couple next to me asked what I ordered and I offered them some cause I knew I wouldn't finish it all. They ordered a lot of food too so initially they declined but I insisted
The cauliflower and brussel sprouts were fried and tossed in something and the tonnato sauce was a ramekin of funky awesomeness!! Tonnato means tuna so the flavor was similar to sardines or mackeral in terms of funkiness and the texture was like hummus… the sauce added so much depth to the dish, it was a great dish to start dinner with
The agnolotti was so incredible in flavor… tiny little pillows filled with rabbit meat, perfectly cooked butternut squash, amazing and rich sauce, ricotta salata and something crunchy that looked like crumbled amaretti cookies
I really enjoyed my meal at Ava Gene's and the couple next to me were really great to speak with and full of great information about the city
I walked down the street and saw a shop I wanted to check out so I popped in
Salt & Straw
L: Honey Balsamic Strawberry and cracked Black Pepper/R: Chocolate Gooey Brownie
Both were really good and they had really good texture... They do crazy flavors too, offer samples, and have housemade waffle cones as well. These were 2 smaller scoops that counted as 1 large scoop so it cost $4
After taking the bus to the west side of the city, I decided to browse the largest bookstore in North America, containing over 68,000 square feet of retail space
Powell's Bookstore
I love getting lost in a bookstore and this is a HUGE bookstore to get lost in.... They sell other knick knacks like posters and inventive bookmarks… they have a reference desk so you can find the location of the book you are looking for and there's a map of the store that doubles as a poster you can take home as well! They have a coffee shop and work stations with power outlets and they buy back used books (around 3000 used books a day!). I purchased a couple books and souveniers and headed back to the hostel to get my read on
Day 3
Cold again... But it's actually quite refreshing up here
Another coffee recommendation to check out and it's close to my hostel
Barista
My macchiato
They feature siphon brewed coffee, the only place in the city to do so!
I enjoyed my macchiato for a bit while I watched the baristas brew coffee… it's very addicting to watch
Now that I'm hungry, brunch at Olympic Provisions!
The NW Thurman St location is connected to the Meat Department where they make their own sausages, charcuterie and salumi. They feature many of their meats on the menu and you can also purchase them to take home
My kielbasa hash with house cured bacon and poached egg - I love the snap of sausage casing. The kielbabsa was good but personally it needed another poached egg... The food options for brunch are really nice as they offer French toast, sandwiches, etc. and a Ploughman's Platter: 2 salami, pork terrine, cheese, pickled egg, bread and a glass of draught (pronounced draft) beer for $14!!
I purchased a couple of cured meats for some friends and was on my way
So very close to Powell's Books there's an area called Brewery Block... Apparently there used to be many breweries around here but now I only found 1 (I also wasn't looking very hard)
Deschutes Brewery… I know you've heard of them
My sour beer... It only cost $4 for a goblet!! I had 2!
My neighbors and their 2 different sampler options… and their sock monkey calender 😄
So I overheard my neighbors tell the server they're new to Portland and I learned that they like my Maneki-Neko cat phone cover so we started talking about their move to Portland, the sock monkey calander, what we do for a living, my consideration of Portland as a city to live in... We totally hit it off and they were so much fun to talk to. They were trying to make friends in their new city so when a girl sat down by our bar we chatted her up too... An auditor from Chicago (but she was fun and had great eyelashes!)… so I had mentioned to the guys that I was planning on having dinner at Le Pigeon later and welcomed them to join me so we can continue the party. I was so excited to have Le Pigeon and that I made new friends, we hopped on the bus and headed to the Eastside and arrived at LP... It was 6pm and the doors were still closed, there were people waiting outside and I was confused cause their website says they open at 5:30 so what the heck is going on?! We stood there and waiting another 5 minutes before we read the sign on the door that said "We are closed tonight for a private party, sorry for the inconvenience" …… massive FAIL!!!! It's my last night here and the only restaurant I was looking forward to eating at on this entire trip to Portland was CLOSED?!!! Uuuuuggghhh FML!
So after I went through a rollercoaster of elation, denial, anger, and sadness we made a move to decide on what to eat next... They took me to their favorite ramen/izakaya place. The ramen was very comforting and tasty on this cold night… mostly comforting as I was still sad I didn't get to try Le Pigeon
After dinner they showed me around their area of residence, Goose Hollow, which is close to Portland State University in the Southwest quadrant. We bar hopped to our heart's desire… we ended up doing karaoke!
And bar hopped some more… I almost got in to a bar fight with a big white guy trying to defend my friend's honor! I'm from LA bitch!
This was the last bar we went to before calling it a night… the amount of alcohol here was incredible so I had to get a picture of it (they use a library ladder to climb up there!)
After our drink, my new friends walked me to my hostel and we exchanged contact info, they insisted that when I visit Portland again I would stay with them and when I move there, we would be roommates!
They were so incredibly kind and fun, I'm so glad we were at Deschutes at the same time!
Now I must leave Portland and I am unbelievably HUNGOVER!! Uughh it's too early and the sun is too bright! My friends from last night texted me and told me they feel terrible too, HA! So I caught the Max Red line down the street from my hostel going towards PDX. It costs $2.50 and takes 40 mins to get there (I've found that the Max in Portland, the Skytrain in Vancouver, and the Link in Seattle work on an honor system, there's no one or machine there to collect the tickets but if asked for it, you better have it or there's a fine!). Since I've already checked in online and don't have any bags to check in, I printed my ticket and headed to the dreaded TSA line.... Seriously don't understand people who travel… on top of being hungover, now I have to deal with people not knowing they must have their ticket and ID out or that they have to take off their shoes, and I don't understand why they only had 1 officer checking tickets on a Monday! Uuugghh I need something greasy in my stomach!
I had the only thing I have at McDonald's… Sausage Egg McMuffin! I felt so much better!
After peeling off 3 layers of clothing, I'm finally home!!! And it's HOT! ☀️☀️
This guy missed me!
And I missed this guy!
Now to pack for abroad 😩
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