One day, travel writers will write about Portland, Oregon, without mentioning Portlandia. Today is not that day, however. If you've never seen it, Portlandia is the TV sketch show that riffs on the perception of the city's crafty, farm-to-table, hippy redux obsessions. "Put a bird on it!" and "We can pickle that!" are two of the show's catchphrases – references to local artisans' obsessions with all things artsy, Etsy and – well – pickling stuff.
Even if customers in restaurants don't, in reality, demand to
know the name of the chicken they are considering ordering from the
menu, Portland is still a city with a real-life vegan strip joint.
It's also a verdant, friendly, indie-orientated mixture of guitar
bands, checked shirts, tattoo parlours, animal rescues, coffee
snobbery, Pinot, thrift stores and food trucks. It's a pioneer
town, way out on the north-west fringes of the USA. As Gus Van
Sant, a long-time resident says: "It's a place that's isolated from
the rest of the country, so everyone feels abandoned together."
Portland's culture is unique, although elements of it echo
through the cooler neighbourhoods of the world, from Bushwick to
Dalston. It's a place where being a salumist – that is, the chap
who recommends what salami you should be ordering – is seen as a
solid career option. And everyone seems to be in a band.
I happened to be in town in September for Feast, the city's
first food festival. I discovered which local Pinot Noir goes best
with which pork products, courtesy of the team who run Olympic
Provisions (one of the city's favourite delis), and also just how
well foie gras goes with chocolate, courtesy of Xocolatl's David
Briggs, who makes "foietella cups", and what might just be the most
amazing confectionery item I've ever eaten: chocolate with flakes
of sourdough toast and salt. "I also make a bar with parmesan," he
told me, during a tasting session. "It's my version of milk
chocolate." I came home with stacks of his bars from Cacao, the
ultimate chocolate lover's boutique, which also stocks edible,
gilded religious icons.
People do things in their own, maverick way in Portland, from
chefs to designers. Ann Sacks, one of the biggest names in interior
design in the USA, recently founded Fetch Eyewear, a company
producing a range of chic eyewear, donating all profits to animal
rescue. "We wanted to create a pet-friendly footprint in the
community," she says.
Another very vocal member of the animal welfare community in
Portland is Paige Powell, who is something of a legend in the
international art world. She was Warhol's publisher and confidante
in New York in the 1980s, and remains very much the glamorous It
girl, striding around her native Portland in vintage Pucci, with
long hair, fake fur and thigh-high boots. She's also one of the
biggest cheerleaders for all things local.
I met her drinking latte out of a jam jar, which is how they do
these things at Courier Coffee. This new café is adjacent to
Powell's Books, the largest used-and-new bookstore in the world. "I
think these guys make the best coffee in the city," she said. "I
had an exhibition of some of my photographs from the New York art
scene here for their opening. There were pictures of Andy [Warhol]
watching breakdancers. Someone came up to me and asked me who
Jean-Michel Basquiat was."
Two streets from Courier Coffee is the city's most celebrated
hotel. I've checked in to some of the fanciest places in the world
in my time, but The Ace Hotel in Portland – with its charismatic
brand of rough luxe – is the only place I've wanted to live in.
Back when this building was a flophouse, Gus Van Sant filmed
Drugstore Cowboy here; now, after an industrial chic makeover, with
some army green calico and surplus brown blankets, a lot of
whitewash, rough wood and cubes of black soap in the bathrooms, and
turntables and vinyl in the bedrooms, it feels like the epicentre
of all things hip in the city.
The West End streets around the Ace, just a few blocks from
downtown but with a funkier feel, have come to life with galleries
and boutiques. The cluster of stores around the corner of Southwest
Stark and West Burnside include Cacao and Tanner, which is fast
becoming America's most prestigious leather brand among fashion
insiders. Meanwhile, Radish Underground, directly opposite the Ace,
represents an array of local product, from letterpress cards to
hoop earrings made out of recycled skateboard wheels.
I spent several afternoons grazing on food from the massed ranks
of food trucks that line the squares between Southwest Washington
and Southwest Alder. The local favourite is the chicken and rice at
Nong's Khao Man Gai. Likewise, the city's most cherished chef is
Vitaly Paley. I ate at his original restaurant, Paley's Place,
years ago, and had a transcendental experience via bacon ("It's all
about getting the right local pig – the ones we use are a certain
size and live on hazelnuts," he told me). Downtown, he's just
opened Imperial, which harks back to historical cooking techniques
and ingredients. I had some lush duck meatballs with prunes and
orange, fried rabbit with semolina corn cake and far too much
Matello Pinot Noir.
The West End of the city is next to the arty Pearl District with
its warehouses converted into restaurants and galleries. The leafy,
monied, Northwest District, with its pretty late-Victorian
townhouses and brunch spots, is about half an hour away. There's
always a queue outside Besaw's on a Saturday morning, and with good
reason. I waited nearly an hour, but it was worth it for the most
indulgent eggs Benedict I've ever eaten. The meal wasn't nearly as
excessive as the next day's brunch over on the east side of the
city, however, at Tasty * Sons: chocolate potato doughnuts in crème
anglaise, followed by a fried egg and cheddar biscuit sandwich,
with fried chicken and extra cheese. Apparently Tasty * Sons is a
favourite brunch spot of Carrie Brownstein – singer with
Sleater-Kinney and Wild Flag, and co-creator of Portlandia.
There are some obviously up-and-coming neighbourhoods in
Portland right now. I noticed huge changes in Chinatown, thanks
largely to the efforts of restaurateurs and creative masterminds
John and Janet Jay, who are working on what will be the coolest
youth hostel on Earth, right around the corner from their
restaurant, Ping. Across town, in the Northwest District, the
eastern stretch of Northeast Alberta Street remains one of the
buzziest areas to walk around. It's also home to what might be The
Most Portland Shop there is: Monograph Bookwerks sells expensive
art tomes, prints, and other generally lovely things. There, on a
shelf, next to a vintage camera, interestingly shaped pieces of
wood and quirky ceramics, is a row of apothecary-style bottles.
Each comes with a price tag: with handwritten details of the
bottles contents: "$16 – Squirrel Highway Walnut Ink, 2012:
homemade walnut ink from a Portland heritage tree." Very
Portlandia. The only thing missing was a bird on the bottle.
Travel Essentials
Getting there
There are no direct flights from the UK to Portland. The writer
flew Heathrow-Dallas on BA (0844 493 0787; ba.com)
and connected to Portland on American Airlines.
Staying there
The Ace Hotel, 1022 SW Stark St, Portland (001 503 228 2277; acehotel.com/portland) has doubles from $165
(£97).
Visiting there
More information
