portland neighborhood + event + business blurbs

Ringlers Annex and the Crystal Hotel on West Burnside with the Zoobomb Pyle in the foreground

I finished 2013 contributing some neighborhood, event and business blurbs to Neighborhood Notes, helping supplement our updated neighborhood and business district guides for West End, Mississippi, Alberta, Sellwood-Moreland, and the Pearl District. I wrote the main 'hood descriptions for all of the aforementioned (except the Pearl) and highlighted shops like Tender Loving Empire (West End) and Powell's (Pearl), Mississippi Ave. events like the summer street fair, 2nd Thursdays and Cirque du Cycling, music venues like the Crystal Ballroom and Al's Den in the Crystal Hotel (West End), and Pearl places and happenings like First Thursday, the Museum of Contemporary Craft, and Portland Center Stage and The Armory.

oregon wine month : meet alchemy

While today may be the last day of Oregon Wine Month, I featured one final urban winemaker yesterday on Neighborhood Notes' Local Agenda: Alchemy Wine Productions. The husband-and-wife team along with their sustainably minded neighbors (Stone Barn Brandyworks, Marigold Coffee, Nell & Mary, and Make It Good) are hosting another Producers Portland event at the Green Warehouse on June 8, so that'd be a good time to visit the winery and "take a peek behind the scenes of some of SE PDX's boutique manufactures."

---
Check out the other urban winemakers featured earlier this month.

oregon wine month : meet the winemakers

Oregon Wine Month has barely more than a week left, but every Thursday throughout May, I've been featuring a new urban winemaker on Neighborhood Notes' Local Agenda. So far, we've met the wine aficionados and received tasting recommendations from Hip Chicks Do Wine, Jan-Marc Wine Cellars, ENSO Winery, and the Southeast Wine Collective, which features four wineries (Helioterra Wines, Vincent Wine Company, Division Winemaking Company, and Bow & Arrow Wines) under one roof.

Learn about these Portland vintners and then go visit a few this Memorial Day weekend because all of them are hosting events.

resources for your ride — it's national bike to work day

It's National Bike to Work Day today, which means it's National Bike Month, which, in turn, means it's PDX Bike Month. Got it?

In honor of all of the above, I've written a Local Agenda for today as well as one the other week on some Portland-made biking accessories like bags from Black Star and Queen Bee, caps from Double Darn, and more really cool stuff from PDW and others.

Then, there's the behemoth of a list, featuring classes, co-ops and maps to guide you, dubbed:

Biking in Portland: Where to Learn and Ride

Greenest city, best coffee, hottest indie music scene. In the eyes of others (read: national media outlets), Portland is constantly competing for top listicle honors.

In 2012, Travel + Leisure liberally bestowed upon Portland "the best" titles for environmental friendliness, street food and food trucks, public transportation and pedestrian friendliness, pet-friendly vacation, and microbrewed beer (as well as "the worst" weather, naturally). Plus, CNN just named us the best beer town in the USA.

While the recognition is appreciated (and delivers a little ego boost), the measures are, honestly, completely arbitrary. Most Portlanders aren’t striving to be acknowledged—they’re just doing these things because they have a passion for the ideas, ideals and tastes (and to, hopefully, make a living).

As we continually vie with Minneapolis for the crown of America’s #1 bike city, one thing is official: The month of May is National Bike Month, which means the city has also declared it PDX Bike Month. With morning ride bike breakfasts and a free bike summit (the meeting kind, not a hill ride), May is an opportunity for Portlanders to celebrate the thriving bike community and culture that lives here. (Points of pride: Portland has the highest percentage of bike commuters for a large American city and is the only large American city awarded a platinum rating for bicycle friendliness by the League of American Bicyclists—plus more fast facts.)

But if you’re a little intimidated by the scene or simply don’t know where to start, we hope the following list of resources will show you that Portlanders love spreading the bike gospel through activities, education and affordable access to information for riders of all skill levels and ages.

Where To Learn: Hands-On Bike Maintenance and Safety

Tori Bortman, owner of Gracie's Wrench

Depending on what you aim to do with your developing bike knowledge, Portland offers a multitude of opportunities to learn in a variety of environments.

A good place to start is the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s (PBOT) Portland By Cycle program, which hosts spring and summer classes and rides (all are free but some classes require registration). You can learn basic bike maintenance and safety in interactive clinics or discover new cycling routes while practicing these skills during group rides—and maybe you’ll make some two-wheeled friends along the way. Find the 2013 schedule for upcoming dates of interest.

While Portland By Cycle has several dates specifically for seniors, Women on Bikes is a female-only series of free clinics and rides. With activities from now until September, find one that works for you and join in.

For those determined DIYers desiring more advanced training, become a bike mechanic under the tutelage of Tori Bortman at Gracie's Wrench where she offers everything from beginning to intensive tune-up classes and individual tutoring, or learn wheel building from the experts at Sugar Wheel Works.

And if you’re really serious about being official, get professionally certified at the United Bicycle Institute, “the industry's leading technical school offering courses in repair, frame building, and mechanic certification for beginner to advanced technicians.” That’s right, you can literally build your own bike from scratch. Fire up your torch and start brazing that chromoly. (And if you have no clue what that even means, just start hanging out at the adjacent Hopworks BikeBar and maybe you’ll learn through inebriated osmosis.)

---
Find out where to learn safty tips, how to self-service your ride, and discover a plethora of riding routes inside and out of the city on Neighborhood Notes.

¡salud! — it's cinco de mayo

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, today's Local Agenda features tacos, cervezas, margaritas made with aguas frescas, tamales and homemade salsa from several of my favorite spots around town. (We're talking Robo Taco, ¿Por Que No? and suggestions for several tamale spots.)

Every. Single. One of those things is literally my favorite thing in the whole wide world. ¡Qué rico!

just brew it — it's national homebrew day!

It's National Homebrew Day so naturally we planned accordingly for today's Local Agenda as well. Find out where to meet up with some homebrewing comrades and how to spend your sunny Saturday afternoon.

weddings galore

Here's another batch of small business blurbs written for Neighborhood Notes' The Localist. Most of these have a matrimonial angle, featuring specific products and services for brides- and grooms-to-be.

There are custom-made invitations for any occasion at both Paperjam Press and Ecru Modern Stationer (which also provides myriad convenient personalization options via Envelopments), plus flowers, bouquets, centerpieces and more at both Emerald Petals and Broadway Floral, and then a few little bits on beauty and gift registries.

beer me — it's national beer day!

I wrote up a few quick introductory hits for today's Local Agenda on Neighborhood Notes encouraging you to consume (or brew) a few on what looks to be a damp Sunday afternoon. Managed to slip in a mention of strip clubs and I know a certain storied inner southeast establishment that has an admirable happy hour pretty much all day long. So, while you're busy blowing your hard-earned cash on coveted curiosities, you'll be saving on beer!

---

Find lists of Portland breweries, bottleshops and homebrew supply (as well as other DIY) stores on Neighborhood Notes.

portland business blurbs

Lately, I've been contributing content to Neighborhood Notes' The Localist, a business directory of locally owned businesses in Portland. Some of these blurbs are repurposed from past content I've written, some are basic write-ups to introduce a business, and others highlight specific products, events, services, or just things we like (because we think you should be in the know too). All of them show up in various places around the site (like on a business' directory page) and sometimes on the homepage as part of the curated Local Agenda, which changes daily.

Here are a few samples and links to more.

Artistic Taxidermy

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! More like deer, elk, antelope, ducks, and “a lot of bears lately,” says Artistic Taxidermy’s Garret Heying of the fauna he regularly sees come through his shop. Although he does stuff some African game (including an impressive kudu on the wall behind the counter) and some exotics from New Zealand, add to that list aquatic creatures like bass, trout and salmon—including a 75 pounder once—and you have the bulk of Heying’s Northwest fare. Peering through the doorway into the “Employees Only” zone, the ceiling racks hold more than 100 antlers while the showroom—where you can stop in and browse—of the 71-year-old business, which has called Foster Road home for more than three decades, houses an ever-changing inventory, from finished orders awaiting pick up to examples of the professional mounts, scaled and feathered trophies, rugs, restorations, and antler lamps and chandeliers fashioned on-site.

Artistic Taxidermy, 5700 SE Foster Road, 503.771.DEER

Take A Trip But Don't Forget Your Passport

Laurie Lewis of Hip Chicks Do Wine was instrumental in organizing the PDX Urban Wineries association, which represents a range of winemakers making a variety of wines all right here within the city's limits. And now, the burgeoning number of urban wineries involved in the collaborative coalition has created the perfect way for you to tour their facilities and taste their wines. The PDX Urban Wineries Passport grants you a free tasting at wineries around town—including Hip Chicks, ENSO, Alchemy Wine Productions, and Seven Bridges as well as three different winemakers in the shared space of the Southeast Wine Collective (which features Helioterra Wines, Vincent Wine Company and Division Winemaking Company) and the appointment-only, garage-based operation of Jan-Marc Wine Cellars—plus discounts at local wine-oriented bars and restaurants. Want to get a group together and arrange your own tour? The passport also provides deals on transportation options like the Portland Short Bus and PDX Pedicab. So, buy your own passport ($20) and organize a tasting trip. Then, present your passport for complimentary sips and swirl, sniff and swallow—or spit, if you must. Like what you tried? Receive 10 percent off any bottle purchased that day. Then, repeat this process at your next urban winery stop.

The Jane from Tiffany Bean's 2013 Riviera collection

Plus, read about Muse Art and Design's month-long An Artist A Day event in April or Tiffany Bean's new spring 2013 collection at Mabel and Zora. Or, there's weekly Fiber Fanatic Fun on Thursdays at Pearl Fiber Arts and tons of canning supplies at Mirador. Physical Element has new shoes in stock while Milagros Boutique's event space is now available for rental. Then, catch a weekend show when the daytime workshop of Sellwood-Moreland's Modcott Pianos turns into a nighttime venue called The Piano Fort.

10 noteworthy things to do in portland's old town-chinatown

Portland’s Old Town-Chinatown presents a dizzying array of shopping, sights, eats and events as well as characters and characteristics, from serenely traditional to outlandishly artistic to rambunctiously drunken. Historically home to significant emigrant populations of Chinese and Japanese, today’s Asian influence is mostly surface only as just a handful of gift shops, importers and restaurants remain in the neighborhood.

Yet, the impressive Chinatown Gate over Fourth Avenue still welcomes visitors to NW Portland with two imposing bronze lions sitting on their haunches. Iconic red lamp posts line the streets north of Burnside and the re-erected Hung Far Low sign endures just two blocks past the gate.

Amongst all the activity and weekend merrymaking, there’s a seedier side—strip clubs and an adult theater—and a blunt reality to the area where a significant homeless population lives and human services abound.

Nevertheless, a few things are guaranteed every night of the week: The echo of live music always hangs in the air as does the aroma of deep-fried dough and crystallized sugar, each welcoming you to your destination even before it’s in sight.

DO: Tour By Foot or Bike

Jump in an orange PDX Pedicab for a 45-minute tour guided by an audio recording, or set your own pace with the Old Town-Chinatown walking tour. While each will take you by many of the major historical sites of “Portland's oldest neighborhood,” according to the Old Town-Chinatown Neighborhood Association, there are two more stops you can add to your list: Take a stroll up the north side of the Burnside Bridge and turn around once you’re over the water to view the neon White Stag sign, which welcomes you to Old Town as you drive across the river; and then head down to what remains of the oddity-filled 24 Hour Church of Elvis, on NW Couch Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, to push the buttons of the coin-op kiosk, which offers fortune-telling and marriage ceremonies.

24 Hour Church of Elvis, 408 NW Couch St., 503.226.3671

PLAY: Game On at the Barcade

Founded by lifelong pinball and classic video game enthusiasts, Ground Kontrol “celebrates and preserves arcade gaming's ‘golden age’ by operating over 100 of the best video games and pinball machines from the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s,” according to its website, as well as offering a full bar and snacks, which you can put away while seated at glowing tables. Bask in the warmth of buzzing, chiming machines and the luminescence of the retro-futuristic, TRON-inspired interior where white- and indigo-hued fiber-optic lighting and LEDs line the stairs and archways as DJs spin a fresh variety every night. The long-running Rock Band Tuesdays, dubbed “karaoke for gamers,” will allow you to pick up plastic instruments and rock out using pro gear (microphones, guitar and keyboard controllers, drum mod), lights and sound (PA system, audio monitors), but before you head home for the night, be sure to make your way to the restrooms to check out the floor mosaics—Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, respectively.

Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade, 511 NW Couch St., 503.796.9364

EAT + DRINK: Imbibe and Consume, Outdoors and In

Taking a page out of the old town playbook of Europe, Portland closed off SW Ankeny Street between Second to Third Avenues to traffic in 2011, effectively creating a communal, open-air space where the surrounding bars and restaurants set up picnic tables. Sit outside with your bright pink Voodoo Doughnut box while mulling over the stained glass likeness of a bacon maple bar and the faces of Voodoo’s owners, as well as the late Ted Papaioannou, owner of neighboring bar Berbati and music venue Ted's, and then wash down that cereal-, cookie- or candy-covered sweet with a drink from the uber-hip art space Valentines, or a craft libation from Central as you watch the chef work a compact kitchen through the restaurant’s one alleyway window. The dim recesses of the new-ish industrial chic, speakeasy-style bar may be blocked by a curtain, but the large windows of next door's 105-year-old Dan & Louis Oyster Bar—Portland’s “oldest family-owned restaurant”—reveal shucked oysters and nautical paraphernalia, like a massive wooden ship's wheel that hangs above the bar in the The Old Shucking Room.

Voodoo Doughnut, 22 SW 3rd Ave., 503.241.4704
Ted’s Berbati’s Pan, 221 SW Ankeny St., 503.226.2122
Valentines, 232 SW Ankeny St., 503.248.1600
Central, 220 SW Ankeny St., 503.719.7918
Dan & Louis Oyster Bar, 208 SW Ankeney St., 503.227.5906
Berbati, 19 SW 2nd Ave., 503.248.4579

---
Find seven more things to do in Old Town-Chinatown, including art galleries, drag shows and live music, on Neighborhood Notes.

5 noteworthy things to do in portland's foster-powell neighborhood

Portland’s Foster-Powell neighborhood sits at the center of several southeast neighborhoods whose borders blend together and the people share parks, bars, bike lanes, and food carts. Affectionately dubbed FoPo, the area is rich in diversity and the variety of businesses in the community reflect this. As new venues crop up to complement neighborhood staples, a flux of new and old, youthful and aged, Vietnamese, Eastern European and American residents come together to shape a district in transformation.

EAT: Transcontinental Coalescence

Originally a commercial supplier, FoPo’s An Xuyen Bakery might be most popular for its $3.99 bánh mì and Vietnamese iced coffee special. Yet, the expert provider of fresh, daily, natural French bread still supplies loaves to bánh mì joints, restaurants and grocers all over town, as well as the next door Foster Burger with speciality brioche buns. Stop in for a to-go lunch, add a pork or veggie (cabbage, carrots, noodles) bao if you’re extra hungry, and top it off with a selection of fresh-baked sweets—choose from a variety of tropical cookies (like guava or pineapple), towering puff pastries, red velvet cupcakes, or sugar-covered, deep-fried Hawaiian doughnuts.

An Xuyen Bakery, 5345 SE Foster Road, 503.788.0866

SHOP: Multifariously Eastern European

Besides a handful of easily recognizable brand names, most of the products lining the shelves of Good Neighbor European Deli Market are utterly foreign—and that’s not just because many of the labels are written in Cyrillic. With an impressive selection of canned fish, herbal remedies, teas, and sunflower seeds, Good Neighbor offers more than 70 varieties of meat with a cold case dedicated to baloney, two for salami, one for smoked and dried fish, and another for Eastern European cheeses, as well as a freezer full of pelmeni and perogi dumplings. A rear corner features a wall of colorfully wrapped, assorted candies in bins, but owner Alex Shkurov, who runs the grocery with his brother Slava, says he’d “take a pickled cucumber over candy” any day. Pickled goods, like cucumbers, tomatoes and green beans, are amongst the in-house specialities made using old-fashioned recipes that don’t use vinegar, while other rarities include jars of pickled apples and watermelon. Other highly recommended and hard-to-find items include house-baked Georgian flat bread and German rye-based breads as well as cheesy puff pastries. And if anything starts to feel too unfamiliar, ask for a sample and the staff will gladly oblige.

Good Neighbor European Deli Market, 4107 SE 82nd Ave., 503.771.5171

---
Find three more things to do in Foster-Powell on Neighborhood Notes.

5 noteworthy things to do in portland's kenton neighborhood

Located in the shadow of Paul Bunyan, Kenton may feel sleepy on certain days of the week when the antique and resale shops are shuttered, but there’s always plenty of activity within this North Portland neighborhood that feels like you’ve stepped into a small, tight-knit community where neighbors know each others’ names.

SEE: Stumptown’s Patron Saint

Built to celebrate the Oregon Centennial in 1959, Kenton’s towering concrete and metal Paul Bunyan statue has become a symbol of the neighborhood and was even added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Originally slated for demolition following the Centennial Exposition, state officials ultimately decided to allow the 31-foot sculpture remain standing, and over the years, it was relocated 50 feet to a new plaza when TriMet needed to make room for a new MAX line. And although there’s no Babe, TriMet also commissioned bench-sized imprints of the Blue Ox’s feet at the base of the statue.

Paul Bunyan statue, corner of North Interstate Avenue and North Denver Avenue across from the North Denver Avenue light rail station

SHOP LOCAL: "One Man's Junk Is Another Man's Treasure"

A worn wooden sign above a doorway reads "One Man's Junk Is Another Man's Treasure" in the symbiotically crafted retail space affectionately dubbed The Fort, where the owners of three independently owned businesses—Salvage Works, Solabee Flowers and Boys' Fort—have come together to share not only their space but also their manpower and talents. Packed with salvaged and recycled curiosities, Salvage Works offers vintage building materials and custom, handmade furniture while Boys’ Fort peddles everything from bowties to lighting fixtures to oil can and voltage meter robots by Dean Freiman of Tin Bones Manufacturing, and Solabee Flowers brightens up the place with botanicals and floral arrangements. If all that sounds just uniquely lovely, don’t miss the grotesque display of decapitated Cabbage Patch and Chucky-esque doll head planters by Tim Brock, which make good reuse of discarded (and mutilated) children’s toys.

Salvage Works, 2030 N Willis Blvd., 503.285.2555
Solabee Flowers, 8315 N Denver Ave., 503.307.2758
Boys' Fort, 2030 N Willis Blvd., 503.886.9077

---
Find three more things to do in Kenton on Neighborhood Notes.

10 noteworthy things to do in portland's west end

Less polished than the abutting Pearl, the West End maintains a bit of its viable grit as it experiences a rebirth of sorts. Representing the craft and culture that’s become the definition of Portland, the district is a den of fashionable boutiques containing handmade goods and art, where dining, drinking and dancing abounds at night, and a quiet corner, good book and mug of coffee awaits in the morning.

CAFFEINATE: Drink Local

Pull up a chair to sip your in-house roasted coffee from a locally made ceramic mug at Courier Coffee Roasters. And because you took a seat, you can also enjoy some of the shop’s baked goods, which are made from scratch on-site using as many locally sourced products as possible.

Courier Coffee Roasters, 923 SW Oak St., 503.545.6444

SHOP LOCAL: Accessorize

Focused on the quality and sustainability of the products it sells, look beyond the selection of dresses, tops, pants and jackets at Radish Underground to the one-of-a-kind, hard-to-find accessories: Go for Rad Bad Lands jewelry (made locally with dinosaur bones and ancient fossils from Hell City, Mont.), or Portland-made Martine leather satchels and Jonny Sport bags, a “man-tastic,” 100 percent vegan, basketball-textured accessory.

Radish Underground, 414 SW 10th Ave., 503.928.6435

SHOP LOCAL: Skim the Illustrated Editions

Specializing in the little guys, geeks and independents of the publishing world, Reading Frenzy stocks a bounty of scarce small press and self-published books, art, local comics, graphic novels, and zines, like The D.I.Y. Guide To Drums by local musician Lisa Schonberg and a guide to edible weeds as well as one to help you discover Portland by bicycle.

Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak St., 503.274.1449

SHOP LOCAL: Listen Local, Too

Amongst the array of handmade art, clothing and jewelry at Tender Loving Empire lies a record label. The DIY retail consignment store and screenprinting studio stocks indie releases on vinyl from Portland up-and-comers like Radiation City, Typhoon and Y La Bamba.

Tender Loving Empire, 412 SW 10th Ave., 503.243.5859

---
Find six more things to do in West End, including more shopping, happy hour and live music, on Neighborhood Notes.

portland neighbors challenged to spend within walking distance

Lents neighbor and neighborhood activist Cora Potter has issued a challenge to her East Portland community hoping to invigorate the hyperlocal business economy in her area.

The challenge?

Do everything in your “power to only spend money east of SE/NE 60th Avenue on the weekends,” Potter says posting on Facebook.

Why?

Because “small businesses aren't going to see our neighborhood as a viable market until we start spending money in our neighborhood and up the $$$$$ that changes hands here instead of taking it to Williams or Hawthorne or Alberta or East Burnside and creating the illusion that the economic strength lives there alone,” she explains.

Potter goes on to say that she believes many other Portland neighborhoods have “the reputation [of] being able to support businesses—and the businesses are flocking there in multiples.”

“There are three places to buy hand-crafted ice cream in and around Williams and Alberta,” but “when I look at the actual population and market statistics, this doesn't make sense,” Potter explains. “There's not enough people there to support that many similar businesses. So, what's going on? They're getting business from outside the neighborhood, and I'm betting that some of it is East Portlanders making a trek to get something nice because we can't get it here.”

Potter’s Challenge Is Spreading

Both the Foster-Powell and Mt. Scott-Arleta districts “are on board with the east of 60th campaign,” Potter says, adding that “a few of my friends that live further north in Hazelwood and Parkrose are aware,” hoping that the word starts to spread there.

Blogger Jeff Lynott of Foster Powell PDX picked up the challenge by writing that while his community might “begrudge” other districts “for their vibrancy and access to shopping, groceries, and many of the amenities we lack, we also contribute to the disparity on some level.”

Admitting that Foster-Powell may not be in control of “environmental, economic or infrastructural elements that determine the shape, character and prosperity of our neighborhoods,” Lynott says, “we do have a choice in where we spend our money and which neighborhood businesses to support. And to that effect, it is no wonder that restaurants thrive on Division, but have little chance of expanding to the nearby environs of Foster Road. As long as we choose to hop in our cars to eat, shop and play, our own economy will lag and sputter.”

---
Find out why spending your money hyperlocally is important for your neighborhood and shared commercial corridor on Neighborhood Notes.