Date-worthy Happy Hours

In case you haven't noticed, I like a good deal. Portland has so many restaurants, trying them all for full evenings out would be a financial undertaking akin to a downpayment on our first house. So I have become a self-proclaimed expert on Portland's abundant happy hour scene, a scene that has allowed us to sample restaurants that would otherwise be outside our normal dining budget. After 18 months of exploration, here are my six favorites, from the casual to the upscale:

Dig a Pony: This is where the 20-something hipsters come to play like it's 1899. Huge windows fill this lovely open space with natural light; the artisanal lightbulbs and plentiful candles means attractive lighting for all once the sun sets. Exposed brick walls, an old-fashioned horseshoe bar, and a smattering of old books class up the joint, while the thumping (but always hip) music keeps it young, and the moody bartenders with their suspenders and bowties keeps it attitudinal. Happy hour runs until 7, with local beers, well drinks, and plates of food all $3. Best bet: the Cubano. The fries are good, too.

Hubers (411 SW Third): For something completely different - think 1890s without the irony - get to Huber's early to snag a booth in its dark-wood bar before it fills up with happy hour regulars. The menu is not particularly noteworthy other than its incredible cheapness: a long list of meal-sized dishes for $3 or $4. Since the food's such a deal, splurge on a Spanish coffee, the making of which Huber's has turned into performance art.

Clyde Common (1014 SW Stark): A new classic on the Portland scene, Clyde Common combines the woodsy/light industrial look with well-executed dishes that typify Portland's trendiest food trends (e.g., nettles, terrines, obscure pasta shapes, various forms of pig). The happy hour food menu is limited - you're here primarily for the $5 cocktail specials, most of which involve bourbon. Sitting around the communal table as the open kitchen behind you gets on with dinner prep, you will feel jazzed and maybe even a little hip; you might even feel inspired to stay for dinner, but be forewarned that the dinner menus aren't even printed until happy hour ends at 6.

Heathman (1001 SW Broadway): On the other side of downtown, and at the other end of the new school/old school spectrum, is the Heathman Hotel. Portland doesn't go for grand or ostentatious; it likes understated and comfortable elegance, which pretty much sums up this traditional lodging and dining establishment. The Heathman's reliably excellent restaurant is a popular lunch spot for lawyers and business types, and its bar is a classy choice for an afterwork drink. A cheaper food menu is available all night long in the bar and in the tea court lounge, where you can sip with sophistication on chaise lounges and love seats underneath the grand chandelier. Even better, the tea court lounge hosts live jazz Wednesday through Saturday.

ClarkLewis (1001 SE Water Ave.): For a classy but modern ambiance, head over the Hawthorne Bridge to the cluster of trendy establishments in the inner east side's warehouse district. ClarkLewis was a hot restaurant five or seven years ago; the buzz has died off, which just translates to "same great space, more chill vibe." I love that their happy hour drinks include real martinis and gimlets - and more-than-just-house wines - for $5. As for the food, expect a scaled-down version of their regular fare, not as good or as intricate but a decent value: a deliciously fatty burger is $6, a plate of house-made spaghetti bolognese (properly cooked al dente and not overladen with sauce) is $4, and a large green salad with seasonal toppings is $3. They also keep a dessert option on the happy hour menu (usually around $3, too), so you could have a full three-course meal for $12-$15 per person. Particularly on a nice day, with the garage-door windows rolled up, this lovely space feels positively date-like, or at least more New York than new Portland. Happy hour runs daily until 6:30 (6:00 on Fridays).

Lincoln (3808 N. Williams): Like Clyde Common, Lincoln focuses on what I think of as new Portland cuisine - house-made mousses and terrines; perfectly prepared local vegetables; well-seasoned game ragus. Like comfort food, but cooked with the precision of a French-trained chef (and speaking of chefs, chef-owner Jenn Louis is one of the best in town). Even the space feels like an upscale pub, with big windows and comfortable booths and a small bar flooded with light as the sun sets. Service is friendly and attentive; the happy hour menu is ample and constantly changing to keep pace with seasonal ingredients. This is a perfect end to the day: mellowing over plate after plate of perfectly executed fare while watching the bike commuters on N. Williams whizz by. Happy hour runs until 7 on weekdays. 

PDX Brews: the Micro, the Macro, and the Nano

My mom has always been ahead of the times. She moved to Portland in the '70s - way before it was hip  - and, when I was a kid, would take us to the city's first brewpub: McMenamin's Hillsdale Pub. Lyza and I liked it because if you were a rube enough to order a "large," the thinly cut fries (skin still on) would come out heaped on a baking sheet. Tee-hee. Mom liked it because she could bring along a Ball jar to fill with fresh beer to take home (a growler before we called them growlers).

Today McMenamin's is a huge chain; their food is rather mediocre and their beer quality rather spotty. A micro-to-macro growing pain, I suppose. But they have a thing and they do it well - see, for example, my notes on the Kennedy School. McMenamin's is still a stalwart of old Portland, as are the other early pioneers of the Oregon microbrew scene: Bridgeport (Portland 1984), Widmer (Portland 1984), Deschutes (Bend 1988), Rogue (Ashland/Newport 1988).

Joe, our beer guru, with tasters at the Commons Brewery.

So if you're visiting Portland for the first time, know that all of these breweries have large, welcoming brewpubs with full menus and (for the most part) family-friendly atmospheres. For a great, old-school beer crawl right downtown, start at McMenamin's Ringler's Annex (1223 SW Stark) and then work your way through the Pearl district - past Rogue (1339 NW Flanders), then Deschutes (210 NW 11th), and ending at Bridgeport (1313 NW Marshall).

You might have a sensed theme, though, in my PDX posts: as a native Portlander, I can't help but view Portland through an "old Portland/new Portland" prism. Let's say you have a beer-savvy friend coming to town, and you want to impress her with a more "new Portland" (hip/edgy/small batch) brewery experience. You're in luck: in the last few years, there's been an explosion of "nano-breweries" around town. As I've said before, I'm no beer expert, but I know what I like - and this stuff is good.

New Portland Comfort Food

Old Portland is alive and well when it comes to food: from the Heathman to Huber's, Portland's culinary institutions soldier on unfazed by the vegan/pork belly/itzakaya/food cart fads that might be sweeping the rest of the city. More on these stalwarts later.

The East Side: Home of New Portland

Then there is New Portland, the Portland of Portlandia, of hipsters and mavens and prematurely retired young people of a creative and entrepreneurial bent who seem unfazed by their limited economic prospects. In the extreme, this Portland can be tiresome - but it also provides great benefits. Like the following: my favorite destinations for New Portland-style comfort food, all with distinctive ambiance, good food, and weeknight-friendly prices.

Sweet Hereafter (3326 SE Belmont): Vegan comfort food served in a dark and hip bar - and it doesn't even have a website. You can't get more Portland than that. The dishes are rich and not particularly healthy (other than the lack of meat and cheese), just the way pub food should be. The beer list is decent, particularly given that all the beers are vegan, too (though I'm not particularly clear on what differentiates a vegan from a non-vegan beer). But while we really like the food at the Sweet Hereafter, the reason we keep coming back is its date-worthy atmosphere. Hint: Order before 7 p.m. for a $1 off entrees and a $1 off most beers.

Bollywood Theater, before the dinner rush.

Bollywood Theater (2039 NE Alberta): Indian street food, served casually in a bustling cafe of mismatched tables and silent screenings of the cheesiest of old Bollywood movies. The flavor of each dish is multilayered; the paneer is housemade. Excellent vegetarian options abound. The paneer kati roll, our favorite item on the menu, is a full dinner for just $7. Other winners include the shrimp curry (light on the coconut, balanced use of cardamon, a noticeable kick of spice) and, for those looking for less rich and more mild comfort food, the aloo tiki - fried potato cakes with peas, served with a chickpea stew.

Grain & Gristle (1473 NE Prescott): We might be particularly partial to G&G because it's right down the street from our house, but this cosy pub of rough-hewn wood tables and a welcoming bar is our winter-time favorite. The menu is meat-focused, classic bistro food but with fresh flavors and local ingredients. Best of all, most dishes land in the moderate $10 range. The cheeseburger is a perennial favorite, as are whole pan-roasted fish and freshly made pastas. I particularly appreciate the bar's excellent draft list of local beers, as well as their per-ounce pricing (there's no shame here in ordering just a glass, and no volume discount for ordering a pint). Also popular: the "two-fer," a daily meat special large enough to share, served with vegetables, a couple beers, and a dessert for just $20.

Broder (2508 SE Clinton): Brunch done right. Scandinavian-style, with aebleskiver, lefse, and mixed bords of delectable treats. On weekends, expect a wait, but at least you can sit around inside the Savoy Tavern next door with some Stumptown coffee to keep you company. I love the bright ambiance and the very good food (unusual for a brunch spot), plus it reminds me sweetly of our time in Copenhagen.

Snuggling up at Biwa.

Biwa (SE 9th & Ash): Portland has an abundance of good Japanese restaurants, and we're not talking just sushi here. Biwa is our favorite among the city's many itzakaya (drinking pubs), a snug underground gathering place with a long menu of ramen, yakitori, and drinking snacks and an even longer menu of shochu and sake. This is where we often take friends from out of town, both for the good food and for the hip but comfortable atmosphere. Also, their logo is an adorable chick. Best deal: After 9 p.m., at the bar, giant bowls of ramen are only $5.

Kennedy School (5736 NE 33rd Ave.): OK, so this isn't technically New Portland - the McMenamin's franchise is about as Old Portland as you can get. But it has a great set-up: they converted an old elementary school into an adult amusement park with multiple funky bars ("The Boiler Room," "The Honors Bar"), a restaurant that includes a lovely courtyard, a hotel (complete with "soaking pool"), and a second-run movie theater with $3 tickets. This is our preferred movie venue in Portland - not great on the technological front, but the seats are vintage sofas with homey end tables in between for your food and beer, and did I mention the tickets are $3?? (Fair warning: weekend movies can sell out - get there early.) Granted, the food is mediocre, but Jeff is particularly fond of their soft pretzel.

#1 Very Best Day Trip

Mt. Hood from the air: a "real" mountain.

When we have out-of-town guests, our #1 very top pick for a day trip from Portland is not wine country, but the Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood. Natural beauty, sunnier weather, a plethora of outdoor activities, a "real" mountain – all an easy drive from Portland. It's a winner every time.

So hard do we push the Gorge/Hood loop, we compiled detailed instructions on the route for our wedding guests last year. The guests' consensus: two satisfied thumbs up. For posterity, then, the Maggie & Jeff Guide for the Best Day Trip Ever from PDX:

Part I: The Historic Highway and Vista House
Drive east on I-84 out of Portland for about 30 minutes until you reach Troutdale. Take the main Troutdale exit (Exit 17) and follow the signs for the historic highway: go straight through the first light and turn right at the second light past a big shopping center. After you clear the shopping area, take a left at the light and head down Troutdale’s main street. You are heading the right direction if you go under the arch that says “Troutdale” and past a bunch of new Old West-looking storefronts.

The highway first takes you across the Sandy River and then starts to climb up through fields. When it crests, you will get your first view of the Gorge. Shortly afterwards, the road passes around the Vista House. Get out here for some key photo ops.

Vista House (on the right): Gateway to the Gorge.

The highway – and the Vista House – were built during the Depression by the WPA. Before I-84 raced along the bottom of the Gorge, the old highway wound its way precariously along (and through) the cliffs. Only this stretch, from Troutdale to Multnomah Falls, is still open to car traffic.

Vista House itself is a charming little rest area situated at the mouth of the Gorge. It is aptly named: the start of the Gorge unfurls to the east in lush folds of cliffs and river. Once you have pictures of the vista, if you'd also like pictures of the vista that includes the Vista House, backtrack slightly up the highway to the prior lookout.

Part II: Waterfalls and Hiking
After the Vista House, you will pass a series of waterfalls: Latourell Falls, Sheperd's Dell, Bridal Veil Falls, Wahkeena Falls, and the biggie, Multnomah Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in the western hemisphere (and a key Oregon photo op).

On Coffee: A Portland Declaration

Around these parts, people take their coffee with absolute seriousness. This leads to a certain amount of pretension and posturing - something I've been guilty of since high school. But let's be honest: most of us do not have any real expertise to distinguish between, say, excellent coffee and really excellent coffee. Hence my Portland declaration: We should just drink what we like.

If only it were that easy.

I recently sent Jeff to a barista class at Clive Coffee, an exemplar of the Portland coffee scene. Clive doesn't sell coffee, they sell the coffee experience - by which I mean $70 old-fashioned coffee mills so you can grind your coffee by hand, $65 Japanese water kettles so you can pour your water with precision, and $170 stands crafted from salvaged wood for your conical filter and glass beaker (to replace your $5 plastic coffee filter holder and freebie mug). I'm actually not being cynical here - this stuff is beautiful. But it's nothing you need, and in that sense reminds me of the Japanese tea ceremony: the beauty of the form becomes as important as the quality of the final product.

Clive also sells $5000 home espresso machines, which then necessitates classes to teach the new owners how to use them. I just thought it would be interesting to learn how to pull a shot. So off Jeff goes, and he brings back this story.

At the outset, the barista-instructor pulled a shot of espresso and tasted it. "Mmmm," he said. "That's good." Then he passed it around to the four students. The first three concurred: this was the good stuff. Jeff was last.

Jeff's first thought: "I don't even drink the communion wine at church, and you want me to revel in four strangers' backwash?" Jeff's second thought: "This tastes like a particularly sour lemon." Jeff says, "Oh. I don't think this tastes good." Everyone laughs, but it wasn't a joke.

My point: Way to go, Jeff! A $5000 machine does not guarantee a transcendant coffee experience, just like a two-hour-long wait doesn't guarantee a transcendent brunch experience or a triple-dose of local hops doesn't guarantee a transcendent microbrew (in truth, it never does). We should be honest with ourselves and drink what we like.

Consider also Jeff's personal mission to score a "real" cappuccino in Portland. In Portland, people love foam art. You know, the leaf/heart/tree/flower that skilled baristas can shape through precision pours of "microfoam." Problem is, foam art is not conducive to old-fashioned cappuccinos - the kind with thick foam you can stand a spoon up in. Baristas' solution: insist that microfoam coffee art does a cappuccino make. Yes, that means a cappuccino is pretty much the same as a latte, but only plebeians insist on a dry cappuccino, and plebeians' requests are easy to ignore. So foam art it is.

This is, however, a good problem to have, this imbibing pretension, because it's a symptom of having wine/beer/coffee worth being pretentious about. Our collective standards here in Portland are high, and human beings generally don't want to end up on the wrong side of public opinion, so we reach imbibing consensuses that sometimes miss the bigger picture: we should like what we drink, especially when we have so many high-quality products to choose from. 

That's all I have to say about that. Here are a few of my favorite coffee drinking establishments, plebeian though I am, for those passing through Portland and seeking something beyond Starbucks.

Barista: The store on Alberta is my current favorite coffee shop in Portland because it is so Portland. The coffee can be exquisite (advanced foam art, ahoy), and its decor nails 1890s hipster, complete with artisanal lightbulbs and wall-mounted taxidermy wearing Timbers soccer scarves. (Meanwhile, their Pearl District store nails the exposed-brick-light-industrial look. I appreciate their neighborhood-specific aesthetic.) Also important: it's a pleasant place to sit.

Extracto: I had the most beautiful espresso at their secondary location on Prescott. Unfortunately, not as pleasant as a place to hang out.

Water Avenue Coffee: I recently had a transcendent espresso experience here. It was so good, I had to restrain myself from jumping up and immediately ordering another. I also like the layout of their space, with a few different types of seating options. Conveniently located next to Clive.

Spella: Tiny storefront right in the middle of downtown that's hardly every open. Like many places around town, they roast their own coffee (one of our favorites), and they hand-pull their shots. It's a little slice of Italy, complete with European hours.

Stumptown: As they like to say on Portlandia, it's OVER! Except it's not. Stumptown is no longer "cool" or cutting edge, but it's still reliably good. I'm a fan. Their shop on Belmont is worth spending time in - and their nearby Annex, which serves only individually brewed cups of coffee (no espresso), pretty much started the whole individually brewed cup of coffee thing. It's worth a visit.