Portland, the weird. Portland of “Portlandia” fame, so hilariously politically correct that locavores need to know the name of the chicken they’re eating. Portland, deliciously marinated in craft beer.
Got a feeling of “been there, done that”? Perhaps you’ve already stopped to smell enough roses in the famed International Rose Test Garden? Exhausted the stock of your favorite mystery writer at the heavily flogged Powell’s City of Books? Familiarity need not breed contempt in this entertaining town. Next time, get off the beaten path with these ideas:
• Mississippi Avenue: You’ve “done” downtown? Spent time aplenty in the Pearl District? Hop aboard a Route 4 TriMet bus to North Mississippi Avenue, one of several happening North Portland neighborhoods just east of Interstate 5 (www.mississippiave.com.) Merchants describe it as having “a lot of history and a ton of love.”
The busiest commercial stretch, four blocks between Fremont and Mason streets, is an intimate, tree-lined street anchored at night by the music scene revolving around Mississippi Studios, “built, owned and run by and for musicians” since 2003. It’s a recording venue that also hosts some 500 shows a year with bands, DJs and comedians (3939 N. Mississippi Ave.; mississippistudios.com.)
At any hour, there’s novel shopping and dining. I liked the Mississippi Pizza Pub, 3552 N. Mississippi Ave., which deservedly claims Portland’s best gluten-free pizza. There’s sidewalk dining plus inside booths with old English pub tables.
Among many other eateries there’s the StormBreaker brew pub, the Bar Bar, and ¿Por Qué No? Taqueria (all with inviting patios), a breakfast-all-day place enigmatically called Gravy, and Miss Delta, a Southern soul-food joint with an appropriate Mississippi bent.
The offbeat doesn’t stop there. Learn how to roast your own coffee beans at Mr. Green Beans, pick out an “aerium” with Tillandsia air plants at Pistils Nursery, or browse through a DIY-er’s dream warehouse full of recycled doors, windows and even vintage claw-foot bathtubs at the nonprofit ReBuilding Center.
• Oaks Park amusement park: Head for Portland’s charming Oaks Park, a riverfront amusement park with rides open March to October, and you’ll never look back.
There’s the usual quota of Rock-O-Plane, carousel, roller coaster and such, plus a go-cart track and a giant, year-round roller-skating rink with laser-light show and a wood floor so mirrorlike you can look down and comb your hair.
Friends and I indulged in the miniature-golf course ($6/round) shaded by, yes, oaks. It edges the Willamette River, with an outstanding view of passing boats, plus sunsets over the wooded hills south of downtown. 7805 S.E. Oaks Park Way; www.oakspark.com.
Tip: On the way to Oaks Park, two off-the-beaten-track business districts, Moreland and Sellwood, have enticing places to eat and drink.
• World’s smallest park: From downtown, it’s a short walk to the riverfront to see what the Guinness World Records folks officially recognize as the world’s smallest park.
It’s a 2-foot diameter concrete planter with a small fir tree, some ground cover and whatever whimsical additions recent visitors may have left (such as tiny plastic horses on my visit).
In the late 1940s the concrete hole was intended to be the site for a light pole. When the pole failed to appear, Dick Fagan, a columnist for the now-defunct Oregon Journal, planted flowers in the hole, named it after his column in the paper, “Mill Ends” (a reference to leftover pieces of wood at lumber mills), and devoted considerable ink to the idea that a leprechaun lived there. It became an official city park in 1976.
Mill Ends Park is in a crosswalk on the median of Southwest Naito Parkway, at Taylor Street. Be careful of speeding cars as you take your “I was there” selfie.
• Distillery Row: It’s gaining its share of tourist promotion, but you still might be the only visitor present on a summer Sunday when you step into any of the seven tasting rooms on Portland’s Distillery Row.
Purveyors of gin, vodka, rum, whiskey and various specialty boozes are not so much in a “row” as they are scattered near each other in an otherwise untouristed Southeast Portland light-industrial area east of the Willamette River.
Among my favorites was New Deal Distillery (Southeast Ninth and Salmon Street, www.newdealdistillery.com), in a handsomely renovated small warehouse where the tasting counter has an open view of aging barrels and a gleaming, copper-topped Christian Carl still from Germany.
Owner Tom Burkleaux got his license in 2004, making him one of the old-timers in Oregon’s modern era of small-batch distilling.
“We had such great things as the coffee roasters and the brewers, why not a distillery? So here I am,” he said, offering a sample tapped from a barrel of in-the-works bourbon.
Most tasting rooms open weekends, some open daily; see www.distilleryrowpdx.com for details. Various tasting fees apply.
