Portland hotel/eats

Been awhile since there was a portland thread. Wife and I are heading to portland for three nights next week. Should we just stay in the downtown area, looking at The Sentinel and Benson? Eat/drink/shop are our intentions

Also any recs on where to eat? My wife wants to try this place Departure. I have no idea anywhere else. In fact I don’t really know what we’re going to do for that many days, but my wife really wants to go to porland, so there we go ;D. A day trip to wine country? Watch the Blazers play?

Not sure if your timing lines up… but this is apparently an interesting pop up fine dining place:
http://holdfastdining.com/events

We like “Ken’s artisan pizza” for … well… pizza. :slight_smile:

Also heard that Beast is good. Pigeon is pretty classic.

You can spend 3 days in wine country alone so shouldn’t be an issue. Enjoy some tax free shopping… etc.

only time they have when we are there is the $150/pp dinner. Interesting, but not interesting enough. 19 courses + wine pairings sounds like a good deal tho, but my wife nixed the idea

Here are a few places we like (in no particular order):

Paley’s Place
Atuala
St Jack
Tabla
Pok Pok
Cafe Castagna
Toro Bravo
Bar Avignon

This is a good web site for Portland info: http://portlandfoodanddrink.com/

Are you talking about March 7/8th? that’s funny. we have a couple from vancouver going, and we were thinking of joining them… but ultimately finding child care is too much work :wink:

Of the Hotels you mentioned, The Sentinel is an old classic, recently updated nicely with a lot of contemporary touches. The Bensen is more classic/old school. The Westin and the Nines are good. I’d avoid the Hilton. Outside of Downtown, there is a great place, The Allison, out in Wine Country.

Hotel-wise the downtown area is about it unless you want to party at the Jupiter across the river on Burnside near Le Pigeon etc. Benson and Sentinel are old-school (except for the new club Jacknife in Sentinel’s block). Ace Hotel is very hip and adjacent to great bar/resto Clyde Common. Hotel Lucia is also a little more new and adjacent to some nice spots. Oregon Wines on Broadway has a great by the taste or glass or bottle selection of mostly Pinots and is very casual.

If you like bubbly check out Pix Bar Vivant and Ambonnay which have excellent Champagne lists. For a light lunch bite especially late afternoon check out Maurice, but it’s not a fillup type of big lunch experience. Unbelievable small pastries and savories though.

we ended up booking at Hotel Lucia cause my wife’s firm gets a ridiculous rate there. Taxis are easy to find? or do you have to call them? I saw some places aren’t easily reachable by bus/rail

Taxis will be easy from the Lucia. The return may take a phone call. Radio Cab (503) 227-1212 is pretty good.

Rental Cars are really cheap this time of year in Portland (often less than $20 a day). Avis is about 2 blocks from your hotel.

If you are in a wine mood, Oregon Wines on Broadway, diagonally across from the Lucia, is definitely worth a visit.

Typically the taxis hang out at hotels. It is the getting back part that can have a wait. Ask your driver if they have a number.

Personally, I really like little bird and paley’s. Two new places are Verdigris and Le Vieux. I have been to Verdigris and it was excellent in all ways. It is new so the wine list is being developed but very select. I have heard great things about Le Vieux. If you were strolling NW 23rd it is the end of the strip.

Have fun.

If you go to cascadia for beer, Nostrana is three blocks away. Great wine list and food is top notch.

Get a driver’s number if you want to taxi back downtown from somewhere or ask the establishment to call for you. Even downtown, late night taxis are few and far between in Portland, it’s actually an embarrassment there are so few. Tough to grab one on the street. In the area you are describing things are pretty close though. Lucia is very close to OWOB.

Any recommendations on things to do in the daytime in portland?

We’re going to do some urban hike my wife found, but that’ll take all of a few hours on Friday. On saturday we’ll go to the farmer’s market at the university then we’re going to hit up 2-3 breweries, but since she’s not a beer person, we won’t be staying particularly long in any of these places. Anything must do things at night?

If you are at the farmers market, you should walk up the way to Powells book store, an adventure for sure.

We did a biking tour of the Columbia Gorge water falls. Good way to burn off all of the food/drink you’ll be having and it was quite scenic.

The Farmer’s Market at PSU is walkable from downtown. I forget the name of the vendor, but they served a killer fried chicken biscuit sandwich with shitake gravy. Also, really good charcuterie, pate, etc from Olympic Provisions and Tails & Trotters, but we took that with us to wine country.