I've never watched the show Portlandia, but I did get to experience my own wonderful version of this fabulous city. Hubby needed just a few more miles to maintain some version of "status" with United for 2013 so we found so great flight and hotel rates for this past weekend and jetted off last Thursday and returned last night. It was an epic, good time!
After getting in late Thursday night, we headed over to the
Teardrop Cocktail Lounge for a couple of fantastic and delish cocktails over a shared charcuterie plate and a split veggie wrap.
On Friday morning, we proceeded to break-fast at
Mother's. DO go there. DO get their french-press coffee (featuring Stumptown, which sadly, we did not go visit..). DO get their biscuits and sausage gravy. If you like that sort of savory, heavenly, delectable, buttery goodness.
After a random stop and credit charge at
The Fossil Cartel, we got out of dodge and drove out to the Willamette Valley for some wine tasting. At the recommendation of a friend's husband, our first stop was
The Carlton Winemaker's Studio where we got to experience some top-notch Oregon pinot noir as this brilliant collective of brilliant winemakers. Right next door, we checked out
Cana's Feast where they poured some equally fabulous non-pinot wines. Wes at Cana's Feast gave us to amazing recommendations -
Seven of Hearts for more amazing pinot noir and
Recipe for a top-ten (and that's a big deal) memorably delicious dinner. And here's a tip from wine tasting that day from me:
Honest Chocolates run by the talented chocolatier wife of the man behind Seven of Hearts. The amount of talent here is absurd.
So after an epic day of wine-tasting, we drove back to the city and met a friend for some drinks at Kask back in downtown Portland. Then it was bedtime. Saturday morning, repeat: brekkie at Mother's (we couldn't help it - the place is SO, SO good and in walking distance). Then randomly - Nordstrom to get me a warm, puffy coat. After I was warm we proceeded to
Boedecker Cellars to get toasty. Then we moved onto a cool neighborhood across the river from downtown Portland to meet the man who introduced us to good places (which begat other good places) that we visited.
Bruce owns
Vino Buys in Portland. He does tastings at the store every Friday and Saturday and his great, little shop is filled with amazing wine finds. He knows his stuff from around the world, so if you want a little respite from all that amazing Oregon pinot, he'll steer you in the right direction.
While driving around the neighborhood, we just happened, so luckily and fortuitously, to see a sign for a Trixie Whitley performance at the Doug Fir Lounge. Seriously??? We wanted to see her solo show in San Francisco, but sadly it had conflicted with another music performance we'd already bought tickets for. Hubby whipped out his phone, bought us two tickets online and we were set! Holy cow - this trip just gets better and better!
We went to
Tabla Bistro - amazing, amazing, amazing! Moved our car after dinner near the show venue and then walked over to the
Rum Club for a couple of more amazing drinks. Got back to the Doug Fir at 10pm for Trixie Whitley. Had a spiritual-music experience. Drove back to downtown and finished the night with a burger and barrel-aged negroni at
Clyde Common.
Sunday morning, sadly, was the final day of our whirlwind Portland trip. We drove back out the the Burnside neighborhood area and waited for nearly TWO hours to get brunch at
Screen Door. We never do that. On principle, we never do that. However, I have to admit - it was kind of worth it. Amazing biscuits and gravy and even more amazing fried chicken and waffles. GIANT portions (we had enough chicken leftover for dinner-for-two back in SF that night).
Food, drinks, drinks, food, shopping, drinks, food, drinks. Portland has it all!
The end.
