Going to Portland! What to do?

[sergiomunoz74]

So I was taking a trip to Portland to hang out and see if it's a worthy option to move to in the future as I'm tired of the Chicago winters. I was hoping people could direct me to possible bars/venues/food places worth checking out possible synth/guitar shops that have an interesting vibe/selection.

I'm up for really anything also any clue on the way people live out there would be great. I'm hoping for an awesome trip so any help is totally welcomed!

[AxAxSxS]

I don't live there, but make the trip south every now and then to hit a show that isn't coming up to Wa. It's a fun town. Tons of venues, quite a few small music shops, lots of rad places to eat.
Be prepared for people not caring how much of a freak you are, or if you are not a freak, be prepared to deal with all the freaks.
Breakfast is King. Good places have long lines and you cant get in. thats how you know they are good.
If you like books, Powells is the shit. A bookstore that takes up a city block.
Own a bicycle.

I'll let people who know better than me recommend individual places. When are you coming out?

[Hyphen Nation]

Go to mississippi Avenue:
Mississippi Studios: good venue, Bridgetown Comics, Control Voltage [synth dreamland], black book guitars [small by nice mix of gear]. Theres also other interesting retail up there, not to mention Wolf and Bear falafels [great stuff] and an outpost of Pok Pok

Old Town Music is a must stop: great selection of mostly used gear. A lot of local pedals builders represented there: Wright Sounds, Spaceman, Mr Black, etc…

It is a food town. What kind of eats are you into? Off the top of my must do list: Por Que Non! Pok Pok and Biwa. Tons of other stuff if you are into big meaty foods like Pine State Biscuits, Lardo, Le Pigeon, etc, as well as food carts galore…oh and Blue Star Donuts are the jam. ignore the Voodoo Donut hype.

Other venues to look at: Doug Fir, Wonder Ballroom, sometimes the McMennimans will have some good shows, etc…

What do you like to do? Can give better advice from there.

Oh, and pot will be legal July 1.

and there is more beer than I can begin to list out: HUB, Apex, Green Dragon, Bridgeport, Deschutes, Rogue….really every major street has at least one good place to get a beer/beer garden. This place in the summer is amazing. I'd wait till early July to come out...

[sergiomunoz74]

Well I'm glad yer telling me this, I'm not a freak but I love freaks so I guess I win out in that shit. I already am a bike messenger here in Chicago so the biking thing actually was something that drew me to the city. I'll make sure I check out powells. I come in next month april 16-20. If I like it a lot I'm probably going to go back in the middle of winter to see how it is in "the cold".

Let me see, I'm a pretty big foodie with a love for hole in the wall food and smoked/curated meats. Price isn't a big deal but I love finding some great food at low prices. I'm really into noisy rock, sludge, doom, and a mix of electronic music such as house and dub techno. I enjoy interesting architecture, and cityscape type stuff.

Also I'm taking notes on a lot of this, also if anyone is free those weeks, I'd more than love to meet up over a beer or some good food and talk about Portland living.

as much as I'd like to come out in the summer, it's harder to get off in the summer as I do bike messaging and work at a hotel full time. Chicago has a ton of musical festivals so summer tends to be extremely busy and sometimes we have periods of time where we cant request days off.

[Mudfuzz]

^ all good advice above, there are several cool music shops besides Old Town… I say explore! every time I go down there I end up finding something cool to see and another cool spot to much at… a warning though about McMennimans… What Hyphen Nation is true but… they are kind'a a chain up here in the NW where they buy a cool old building and McMenniman it.. I'd say go there for a show if you want but except for the one in seattle the service is … and the food is … just say'n on the other hand The Pizza shop cross the street from them the last time I was there [we where forgotten and then they got it wrong so we left] was great

[Hyphen Nation]

oh yeah…McMennimans as a place blows, but occasionally they are the right venue for some of the larger acts. I am fucking over their schtick though…its where you take your wife's aunt when they come to town and they only eat pub-type food…

April is my busy time, but definitely down to try and grab a beer…

i'll add to the list as it comes up:

Ground Kontrol: vintage arcade plus beer
Find Olympic Provisions: purveyors of fine salted meet…definitely check out Lardo.
The food cart pod on Division is great…tons of food, beer, fire pit.
Trade Up music is hit or miss, but they have decent gear occasionally.
There's a Muffwiggler here now. Maybe go visit some of the pedal builders in town, too? Stop by Devi Evar's? [joke].
This will be going on a week later, and is pretty awesome: http://www.nwmusicalinstrumentshow.org
Really you have to plan on speeding some time at Pok Pok.

[sergiomunoz74]

I honestly picked a really random time, I didn't even research if there was anything going on that week, I just felt like trying my luck. Hmm I'm not sure if I understand this McMennimans I feel we don't have anything like that in chicago franchise wise, but I totally understand the concept of lame pub food with some random acts. Yeah Hyphen we should keep in touch so we could possibly meet on one of the days.

Lardo is totally up m ally and I love used gear shops especially if it's all this random junk, I love finding old rack synths and crappy doodads.

I think I'm definitely gonna try and visit one or two of the dudes that build pedals out there also is there like a DiY punk scene out there like house shows or anything?

[AxAxSxS]

You guys should hook this dude up with the house shows or oddball venues.
How could I forget to talk about beer .....

[Hyphen Nation]

Unfortunately, I am too old for the house show scene I have a 6 year old son.
A lot of musical adventures ceased in 2008 for me.

Still, there's so many venues that have good stuff: Hawthorne Theater, Ash Street Saloon, Branx, White Eagle, Ron Toms, Doug Fir, Tonic, Mississippi Studios, Holocene, Dantes [leaving Dante's late is the only reason to eat a voodoo donut.]

Explaining McMinnemans:

A few brothers bought a few dilapidating buildings in the mid 90's, and brewed a passable batch of beers. They renovated the buildings in the style of dead head college fantasy. They serve passable pub food to go with said beer. The buildings are often in outposts on the edge of wilderness, like driving back into town after a long hike, and this was far and away your best option versus the inedible mountain pizza shop, or the dive by the side of the road that served a side of cigarette butts with your stack of pancakes. The places have lots of novelty murals. They've since matured and are a bit more early 1900's/circus/Art Nouveau themed, but it's a schtick. They really do have some decent bands come through from time to time as they have a lot of venues now. The food and the beer is the same as it was in the 90's. They have expanded exponentially.

[Hyphen Nation]

You guys should hook this dude up with the house shows or oddball venues.
How could I forget to talk about beer .....

We could create a whole thread on Portland beer: more breweries per capita than any place in the world…

Baerlic Brewing: new and delicious
Gigantic Brewing: also a new favorite
Hopworks Urban Brewing, so good/good pizza
Apex Brewing: my favorite Tap Room: pliny the elder on tap.
there's just too many to list…seriously...

[Mudfuzz]

Unfortunately, I am too old for the house show scene I have a 6 year old son.
A lot of musical adventures ceased in 2008 for me.

Still, there's so many venues that have good stuff: Hawthorne Theater, Ash Street Saloon, Branx, White Eagle, Ron Toms, Doug Fir, Tonic, Mississippi Studios, Holocene, Dantes [leaving Dante's late is the only reason to eat a voodoo donut.]

Explainging McMinnemans:

A few brothers bought a few dilapidating buildings in the mid 90's, and brewed a passable batch of beers. They renovated the buildings in the style of dead head college fantasy. They serve passable pub food to go with said beer. The buildings are often in outposts on the edge of wilderness, like driving back into town after a long hike, and this was far and away your best option versus the inedible mountain pizza shop, or the dive by the side of the road that served a side of cigarette butts with your stack of pancakes. The places have lots of novelty murals. They've since matured and are a bit more early 1900's/circus/Art Nouveau themed, but it's a schtick. They really do have some decent bands come through from time to time as they have a lot of venues now. The food and the beer is the same as it was in the 90's. They have expanded exponentially.

Yep, in the 90's they were a ok place to get a beer and a garden burger, now they are like a indie fridays… but hey if it is your favorite dive you can go there in Portland and Seattle and Olympia and Centralia and Tacoma and how many are there again...

[Hyphen Nation]

they are completely a dead head's dream of an indie fridays…

[doommeow]

Star Trek in the park!

[sergiomunoz74]

Haha that's fucking great, I can't believe someone basically made an indie friday's for the northwestern deadhead. I'm probably gonna steer clear of there unless they have a show I'd really like to go see at that time. I'm gonna check out what's playing at those venues mentioned on the week I go there, and I can't wait to try some of the beer out there as I'm pretty jaded with my love for chicago based beer company Revolution brewery.

Either way even if no house shows, I'll find something but if not I'll probably be having fun anyway.

[ryan summit]

my fathers place
chicken fried steak and pancakes
dont leave portland without eatin there