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Some of you may remember a post I made last year about my first trip there. I had accompanied my Wife on a work related trip; had such a blast that I came along this year too. We're fortunate that she has a couple of friends that live there that keep recommending new places to go to. One great recommendation was staying at The Hotel Monaco.
The rooms are as wacky as the city inhabitants.
Much nicer than that sterile Hotel by the Airport we stayed at last year. The Monaco is pet friendly. I've never seen a more behaved group of dogs before.
Check this guy out. I think his name was Hellion.
We had a list of so many places that we wanted to go to that we decided we weren't going to revisit any of the places from last year.........with the exception of 2: Powell's Book Store and Billy Galaxy. She wanted to check out some cook books and I wanted to try out someone that Bukowski was fond of:
Buk got me into Hemingway, Celine, Dostoyevsky and Huxley, so we'll give ol' Ezra a try.
Billy Galaxy was as amazing as I remember it being.
Picked up my first Grip piece.
And a Nakajima Skull Star.
A quick trip to The Rum Room...
then off to dinner at Le Pigeon. Tried a great place last year called Little Bird. Le Pigeon is the sister restaurant. Surf n' Turf Portland Style: Pork Belly & Octopus
Next day started with quad-espressos at this crazy place:
These maniacs gutted a double-decker bus and converted it to a gourmet coffee hangout. The entire interior was painted lavender, including the espresso machine. You take your drinks upstairs and chill.
Last year I kept seeing "Keep Portland weird" stickers everywhere. Snapped a pic of one that morning and it wasn't 'till I was getting my pics ready to post that I noticed they out weirded themselves:
Last year we took a trip to see the waterfalls; this year we drove out to the coast at Newport.
Got to see my first Lighthouse.
Drove back that night to have dinner at a cool place called Departure. If you watch Top Chef, you may remember a finalist named Gregory Gourdet. He's the Chef there.
Located on the 15th floor, it has a great balcony area you can hang out at if you don't want to eat inside.
Awesome view of the city.
A toast to this crazy town!
The next morning we tried out a breakfast place that my Wife's friend said was life altering, but warned of a wait.
It's called Café Broder and she wasn't kidding about the wait; an hour and twenty minutes in the rain.
The food was very good...
....but what was even better was what I saw on the corner:
Logan's Run, Rocky Horror and some Poe! What the hell am I doing in Pasadena?
A quick shot of espresso at The Flying Cat...
and we were off looking for a place that was showing the Steelers game. More Portland magic: We literally went to the first sportsbar we found from The Flying Cat. Walked in, went to the back room where the large TV's were and saw that it's a Steelers' hangout.
Crazy.
I don't want to talk about the outcome.
Had our last dinner in Portland at a place called Imperial. Another past Top Chef contestant, Doug Adams, is the Chef there.
Food was amazing.
The next morning, we were getting ready to head home. My Wife was finishing up some things for work while I took one last walk through the city. I came across some kind of Art School. They were closed, but had these little shoe box dioramas made by children all along their window. One caught my attention:
I never heard of Nancy Farmer or The Eye, the Ear and the Arm, but it's obvious some serious sh*t went down in that room.
Good-bye Portland. See you next year.
The rooms are as wacky as the city inhabitants.
Much nicer than that sterile Hotel by the Airport we stayed at last year. The Monaco is pet friendly. I've never seen a more behaved group of dogs before.
Check this guy out. I think his name was Hellion.
We had a list of so many places that we wanted to go to that we decided we weren't going to revisit any of the places from last year.........with the exception of 2: Powell's Book Store and Billy Galaxy. She wanted to check out some cook books and I wanted to try out someone that Bukowski was fond of:
Buk got me into Hemingway, Celine, Dostoyevsky and Huxley, so we'll give ol' Ezra a try.
Billy Galaxy was as amazing as I remember it being.
Picked up my first Grip piece.
And a Nakajima Skull Star.
A quick trip to The Rum Room...
then off to dinner at Le Pigeon. Tried a great place last year called Little Bird. Le Pigeon is the sister restaurant. Surf n' Turf Portland Style: Pork Belly & Octopus
Next day started with quad-espressos at this crazy place:
These maniacs gutted a double-decker bus and converted it to a gourmet coffee hangout. The entire interior was painted lavender, including the espresso machine. You take your drinks upstairs and chill.
Last year I kept seeing "Keep Portland weird" stickers everywhere. Snapped a pic of one that morning and it wasn't 'till I was getting my pics ready to post that I noticed they out weirded themselves:
Last year we took a trip to see the waterfalls; this year we drove out to the coast at Newport.
Got to see my first Lighthouse.
Drove back that night to have dinner at a cool place called Departure. If you watch Top Chef, you may remember a finalist named Gregory Gourdet. He's the Chef there.
Located on the 15th floor, it has a great balcony area you can hang out at if you don't want to eat inside.
Awesome view of the city.
A toast to this crazy town!
The next morning we tried out a breakfast place that my Wife's friend said was life altering, but warned of a wait.
It's called Café Broder and she wasn't kidding about the wait; an hour and twenty minutes in the rain.
The food was very good...
....but what was even better was what I saw on the corner:
Logan's Run, Rocky Horror and some Poe! What the hell am I doing in Pasadena?
A quick shot of espresso at The Flying Cat...
and we were off looking for a place that was showing the Steelers game. More Portland magic: We literally went to the first sportsbar we found from The Flying Cat. Walked in, went to the back room where the large TV's were and saw that it's a Steelers' hangout.
Crazy.
I don't want to talk about the outcome.
Had our last dinner in Portland at a place called Imperial. Another past Top Chef contestant, Doug Adams, is the Chef there.
Food was amazing.
The next morning, we were getting ready to head home. My Wife was finishing up some things for work while I took one last walk through the city. I came across some kind of Art School. They were closed, but had these little shoe box dioramas made by children all along their window. One caught my attention:
I never heard of Nancy Farmer or The Eye, the Ear and the Arm, but it's obvious some serious sh*t went down in that room.
Good-bye Portland. See you next year.
-Tallahassee 
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