A Levantine room on East Burnside where carrots arrive blistered, the labneh is older than your grudges, and the menu is famously vegetable-forward.
By the editor · 6 min read
There is a particular hour in Portland, somewhere between five and six, when the rain stops pretending and the windows of every restaurant on Burnside begin to glow the color of a struck match. Tusk catches that light and keeps it.
The room is bone-white and clay-warm at once — a contradiction the kitchen mirrors with tahini, sumac, smoke. Ask for the bread. Ask for it twice.
Southern comfort on East Burnside — fried chicken with a crust you can hear from across the room, and a brunch line that has, frankly, become a Portland landmark.
A review · 5 min read
Screen Door knows what it is. The chicken is fried in cast iron, the biscuits are tall and steam-soft, and the collards taste like someone's grandmother is in the back, listening.
Go on a Tuesday at 5:15. Order the praline bacon. Tip well.
Region
Central Eastside
Activity
Dining
Dietary
Vegetarian · Gluten-free
How to arrive
Bus 20 · Streetcar A Loop · Bike
№ 03 — The Table
Kann, and the Wood-Fired Imagination
Gregory Gourdet's Haitian live-fire room is the rare restaurant that earns every superlative. Plantains, fish, smoke, citrus — and a dining room lit like a saint's day.
A review · 8 min read
Everything at Kann moves toward the hearth. The fish arrives blistered and bright, the griot has a crackle you can feel in your teeth, and the cocktails taste like a memory of somewhere warmer.
Reserve weeks ahead. Sit at the counter if you can.
Region
Central Eastside
Activity
Dining
Dietary
Pescatarian · Gluten-free · Dairy-free
How to arrive
Streetcar A Loop · Bus 6 · Bike
№ 04 — The Pour
Deschutes Brewery, the Pearl in a Pint Glass
A cavernous Pearl District brewpub where the Black Butte Porter is poured at exactly the right temperature and the burger is, against all odds, a serious one.
A pour · 4 min read
Deschutes is the kind of place where a quick pint becomes three. The room is loud in the good way, the beer is some of the most reliable in the state, and the kitchen takes itself just seriously enough.
Ask for a Fresh Squeezed IPA. Sit near the windows.
Region
Pearl District
Activity
Nightlife
Dietary
Vegetarian
How to arrive
Streetcar A Loop · Streetcar B Loop · MAX
№ 05 — The Pour
Matcha Pdx, a Small Green Religion
A tiny ceremonial counter on Northwest 23rd where the matcha is whisked to order and a single drink can re-arrange your afternoon.
A pour · 3 min read
Matcha Pdx makes a case for slowness. The owner pulls each bowl by hand, the foam is bright and grass-thick, and the room smells faintly of cedar and citrus peel.
Order the iced ceremonial with oat. Sit on the bench outside if the rain allows.
Region
Northwest Hills
Activity
Coffee
Dietary
Vegan options · Gluten-free · Dairy-free
How to arrive
Bus 15 · Bike · On foot
№ 06 — The Table
Luc Lac, at the Hour Everyone Else Goes Home
Downtown Vietnamese with a late-night menu that has kept this city honest for over a decade. The pho is the answer to a question you didn't know you were asking.
A late-night dispatch · 5 min read
Luc Lac is a Portland verb. You don't go to Luc Lac, you Luc Lac. The dining room hums until two in the morning, the broth is deep and clear, and the lemongrass chicken would convert a skeptic.
Late-night happy hour is the move. Bring cash for the ATM line out front.
Region
Downtown
Activity
Dining
Dietary
Pescatarian · Gluten-free · Dairy-free
How to arrive
MAX · Streetcar A Loop · Bus 9
№ 07 — The Table
Tom Yum, and a Bowl That Argues Back
A Southeast Division Thai room where the soup arrives in a clay pot still murmuring, and the heat scale, when honored, will rearrange your week.
A review · 4 min read
Tom Yum doesn't suffer fools. Order it medium and you will be tested; order it Thai-hot and you will be transformed. The lime leaves are fresh, the chili oil is house-made, and the noodles are pulled the same day.
Sourdough loaves with crusts the color of old leather, jammy danishes, and the unassuming sandwich that has fed Portland's working hours for thirty years.
A field note · 3 min read
Grand Central is a quiet institution. The morning bun is laminated, the country loaf is sour in the right way, and the egg sandwich at 7:15 a.m. is among the city's better-kept secrets.
Multiple locations. The Hawthorne one has the best light.
Region
Hawthorne
Activity
Coffee
Dietary
Vegetarian
How to arrive
Bus 14 · Bike · On foot
№ 09 — The Counter
In-N-Out Comes to Town
Yes, that one. The California cult burger has a Portland-area outpost now, and we have feelings — animal-style, three-by-three, the works.
A dispatch · 3 min read
It is a perfectly fine burger and an excellent fries-redo. The lines are still absurd. The milkshake is the move.
Go at 10:30 p.m. on a Wednesday or do not go at all.
Region
Crosses the river
Activity
Dining
Dietary
Vegetarian
How to arrive
MAX · Drive
№ 10 — The Stacks
Powell's City of Books, an Afternoon Lost
A full city block of new and used books across nine color-coded rooms. Bring a list. Abandon the list. Buy three things you didn't know you needed.
A wander · 6 min read
Powell's is the most reliable navigation tool in Portland: every conversation eventually arrives here. The Rare Book Room is upstairs and worth the climb. The Pearl Room has the best light at 3 p.m.
Coffee at the in-house café. Then more books.
Region
Pearl District
Activity
Bookshops
How to arrive
MAX · Streetcar A Loop · Streetcar B Loop · Bus 20
№ 11 — The Pour
Stumptown Coffee, the Original Counter
Downtown on SW 3rd, the original Stumptown still pulls espresso the way it did when it taught the rest of the country what coffee could be.
A pour · 4 min read
The Hair Bender is still the house blend, the baristas still know what they're doing, and the room still smells like the early-2000s in the best way.
Order it black. Sit at the window. Watch downtown wake up.
Region
Downtown
Activity
Coffee
Dietary
Vegan options · Dairy-free
How to arrive
MAX · Streetcar A Loop · Bus 9
№ 12 — The Long Walk
Pittock Mansion, and a View of the Whole Thing
A French Renaissance house on a forty-six acre estate above Northwest Portland — and the single best free view of the city, on a clear day, in any season.
A view · 6 min read
You can walk up from Lower Macleay through the woods, or drive to the parking lot and just gasp. On a clear day, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Rainier line up like a class photo.
Tour the house if you have time. Stay for sunset if you don't.
Region
Northwest Hills
Activity
Outdoors
How to arrive
Bus 20 · Bike · On foot · Drive
№ 13 — The Long Walk
Forest Park, in the Fog That Won't Lift
Five thousand acres of Douglas fir, fern, and a kind of silence the city forgets it owns. Wild Cherry Trail begins where Thurman Street finally gives up.
Field notes · 9 min read
You don't enter Forest Park so much as you are absorbed by it. The trailhead at Lower Macleay smells of wet cedar and old pennies, and within ten minutes the traffic of NW 23rd is a rumor.
Bring layers. Bring nothing else. The moss takes care of the rest.
Region
Northwest Hills
Activity
Hiking
How to arrive
Bus 15 · Bike · On foot
№ 14 — The Long Walk
The Wildwood Trail, All Thirty Miles of It
The spine of Forest Park — a single continuous trail from Washington Park to Newberry Road. You don't need to do all of it. You need to do some of it, today.
A field guide · 8 min read
Pick a section. The four-mile loop from the Pittock parking lot is the postcard. The longer haul to Germantown Road is the meditation.
Trail runners, pace yourselves. The fog is part of the experience.
Region
Northwest Hills
Activity
Hiking
How to arrive
Bus 20 · Bike · On foot
№ 15 — The Long Walk
Multnomah Falls, the Cliché Worth the Drive
Thirty minutes east of the city, six hundred and twenty feet of water falling in two tiers. Yes it's crowded. Yes you should still go.
A day trip · 5 min read
Park at the lot, walk the paved path to the bridge, and let the spray hit you in the face. If you have the legs, switchback up to the top — the view back down is the one you actually came for.
Go at 8 a.m. or 6 p.m. Skip the gift shop.
Region
Columbia Gorge
Activity
Hiking
How to arrive
Drive · Columbia Gorge Express bus
№ 16 — The Market
Portland Farmers Market at PSU, Saturday 9 a.m.
The flagship Saturday market in the South Park Blocks — peaches in August, mushrooms in October, and a hazelnut stand that has changed lives.
A Saturday · 5 min read
Bring a tote, bring cash, bring patience for the slow shuffle past the bakery stalls. The Unger Farms berries in June are non-negotiable.
Coffee from the cart at the north end. Eat the pastry before you get home.
Region
Downtown
Activity
Markets
Dietary
Vegetarian · Vegan options · Gluten-free
How to arrive
MAX · Streetcar A Loop · Bus 9 · Bike
№ 17 — The Market
Portland Saturday Market, Under the Burnside Bridge
America's longest-running open-air arts and crafts market. Weekends from March through Christmas Eve, with elephant ears the size of your face.
A weekend · 4 min read
It's part craft fair, part street food court, part river breeze. The makers are real, the food carts are reliable, and the music is, somehow, almost always good.
Saturdays and Sundays. Free. Bring small bills.
Region
Old Town
Activity
Markets
Dietary
Vegetarian · Vegan options
How to arrive
MAX · Streetcar A Loop · Bus 12
№ 18 — The Market
Montavilla Sunday Market, Neighborhood at Its Best
A small, year-round Sunday market on SE Stark — the kind of place where the farmer remembers your name by the third week.
A Sunday · 3 min read
Smaller than PSU, friendlier than most. Bread from Tabor Bread, eggs from a stand whose chickens have, by all accounts, opinions.
Sundays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Walk there if you can.
Region
Montavilla
Activity
Markets
Dietary
Vegetarian · Vegan options · Gluten-free
How to arrive
Bus 15 · Bus 71 · Bike
№ 19 — The Event
Waterfront Blues Festival, Independence Weekend
Four days of blues, soul, and zydeco along Tom McCall Waterfront Park, with fireworks over the Willamette on the Fourth.
A weekend · 6 min read
One of the largest blues festivals in the country. The lineups are deep, the river breeze does most of the cooling, and a portion of proceeds still feeds the Oregon Food Bank.
Bring a low chair. Sunscreen. A friend who can two-step.
Region
Waterfront
Activity
Events
How to arrive
MAX · Streetcar A Loop · Bike · On foot
№ 20 — The Event
Rose Festival on the Waterfront, Late May
Three weeks of Portland at its most enthusiastically itself — a CityFair carnival, a fleet of Navy ships, a Grand Floral Parade, and dragon boats on the river.
A tradition · 5 min read
The carnival lights on the waterfront after dark are, against all sophistication, lovely. The dragon boat races are the part to actually attend.
Free to stroll. The carnival rides cost; the river view doesn't.
Region
Waterfront
Activity
Events
How to arrive
MAX · Streetcar A Loop · Bus 9
№ 21 — The Ride
An Evening Aboard the A Loop
On riding the streetcar with no destination at all, and the slow burnished geography it unspools through the Pearl, the Lloyd, and back again.
A dispatch · 4 min read
The streetcar is the city's most generous instrument. For $2.80 you buy yourself an hour of weather — the river crossing, the bridges, the long slow arc past OMSI as the sky turns the color of an old penny.
Sit on the right going north. Trust me on this.
Region
Crosses the river
Activity
Wander
How to arrive
Streetcar A Loop · Streetcar B Loop · MAX
№ 22 — The Makers
Hands the Color of the Hills
In a south-facing studio in Sellwood, Mira Okafor is binding journals in vegetable-tanned leather. We spent a Saturday watching the thread decide where it wanted to go.
A portrait · 7 min read
Mira works in a single dark color family — pine, ink, brass. "The whole palette is just Oregon at dusk," she says, which is the kind of sentence you only earn after a decade at the bench.
Her studio is open the first Sunday of every month. Coffee is on. So is the lamp.
Region
Sellwood–Moreland
Activity
Studios & Craft
How to arrive
MAX Orange Line · Bus 70 · Bike
From the editor
A letter, once a season.
Quarterly. Never on a weekday. Read it with coffee.
