Visiting Portland (2022)

Glad you found some things there! It's been a few years, but your description sounds pretty accurate. If you're willing to head into Portland, Beermongers and Belmont Station both have more cold storage than warm and the former has small enough inventory that I doubt anything lasts too long there. Belmont Station has their inventory on their website, so you can plan ahead. Belmont's hoppy beers are typically kept cold.

The distributor in Oregon that has the former Shelton catalog is called Upstanding Distribution so if Lime imports ex-Shelton stuff it would go through them. Drie Fonteinen is all over the place. There's still some Ridgeway at John's Marketplace in Portland but I think it's from the final Shelton drop before they went out of business. The Cantillon tradition in PDX seems to be for places to sit on the bottles and then have a tasting. This was pre-Covid of course. In the 15-ish years I've been in Portland I've literally seen Cantillon on shelves 3 times (not counting the Gueuze, which sees shelves occasionally) but gotten bottle pours of quite a few of them.

Good luck!

 

Oregon is one of just a few states that my wife and I have yet to visit. We enjoy visiting places known for their beer/wine scene, good food, and outdoor/natural sights. So a trip to Portland has been on our "to-do list" of vacation destinations. With the announcement about Hair of the Dog closing soon, seemed like a good time to start seriously looking into a trip later this Spring.

Travel website guides to the city talk about all the different neighborhoods. So a question for the locals - if you had to pick an area to stay that has the best walkable area for beer/food and cultural stuff, where would you recommend?

Also, sorry if this is a sensitive topic - but I am seeing some travel blogs saying to avoid Downtown and Old Town because they are one big homeless encampment and aren't safe to walk at night. Is this overblown? I don't buy the conservative media hysteria about Antifa murdering people in the street, but want to be realistic if there are areas to avoid where harassment or violence from tweakers is a legitimate issue on the sidewalks or public transit.

 

Hoping to piggyback on @jmdrpi post above. Planning to come up to PDX in the next couple weeks to spend some time at HotD. Wondering where to stay for the night(s). Preferably with easy access to HotD and Chuckanut.

 

Lived here 10 years and the state of downtown PDX breaks my heart, especially Downtown and Old Town. I don't necessarily feel unsafe, but seeing such suffering is distressing and not what I'd want when on vacation. I haven't taken much transit the past two years, but the few times I have, I haven't had much of an issue. The last friends I had visit stayed in a centrally located hotel, around 8th and Burnside on the east side. The Pearl is another good option.

 

For culture, what exactly would you be looking for? The Portland Art Museum is pretty good, but it doesn't compare to the better ones on the East Coast (NY/Philly/DC). For quintessentially Portland experiences, there's Powell's, the Japanese Garden, the Rose Garden and other Forest Park/Washington Park attractions that give you a sense of what living here is like. Food options are numerous, and depending on what cuisine you're looking for, options are numerous. Don't pass on the seafood. I'm very happy with the Japanese (specifically: ramen), Thai, Vietnamese and Korean food here. We also take our fried chicken seriously.

 

@guajolote any thoughts on Eastside Lodge? $86/night is hard to beat.

 

I'll be looking into both options, so thanks for the advice

 

Any type of interesting museums whether art, history, science, music, etc. peak our interest. We like botanical gardens and arboretums, so I did already noted the Japanese garden and the Hoyt Arboretum that I've seen listed on tourism lists. Does Portland have any streets/areas known for live music bars?

As for food, we usually go for whatever cuisine the area is known for, so sounds like probably Asian food? We also like a good gastropub, and farm to table type places.

 

Well played. Very well played.

 

Plenty of those are around, but they haven't worked with the kids, so I don't have good recommendations. Also, there's more than Asian good here. Fantastic pizza - Ken's is a must, Apizza Scholls, Scotties - and more.

 

I'm not local, but a semi-frequent visitor and from that perspective these recommendations are spot on. When staying for work I've stayed in the Pearl district; when I'm on my dime I've stayed at the Jupiter and several nice airbnb's east of the river. There's plenty of great food and drink options in each area, and I generally cross back and forth several times during my stays anyway. I usually walk to most destinations if I can. Depending on the distance, time of day, and how much I've enjoyed myself I usually Uber or Lyft back to where I'm staying. Because the distances aren't too great they tend to be relatively low cost trips.

As far as the homelessness, there are signs of it pretty much everywhere, and it's nothing like what we typically see in the midwest or the east. It could be shocking but I don't believe Portland to be any more dangerous than any other major city. While more pervasive than what I typically see in Chicago (I live well within the city limits), in contrast I've never been harassed or even asked for anything. However, I'm a big 40-year old guy who tries not to carry myself as a tourist or stand out - be aware of your surroundings, don't walk around staring at your phone, etc.

 

There are a lot of farm to table places and gastropubs. Tons of food carts, many of which go the fusion route. Some really good Vegan options. Pizza is big. Burgers are big. Mac and Cheese is big. Thai and Indian food. Salads.

 

Yeah, the new beds, new blinds, new furniture, new everything... sounds like they had an issue with something... roaches, mice, hookers, drunk guys peeing on stuff... who knows...

 

caveat that I moved away from PDX 10 years ago, so a lot has changed, but my guess is that place hasn't changed much... it defintely used to be very shady. The Jupiter across the street is (was) the hip low budget spot, but also in a you get what you pay for type of thing.

As far as food, PDX is paradise. I think it compares with any food city in the us. check eater for good info.

 

I mean... their taplist is better than most cities best beer bar....

 

Great prices too.