On Portland

One of Portland's top industries is travel. It's no wonder – our food, lifestyle, transportation system and sights are frequently covered in The New York Times, Travel Channel, FoodTV and other national media outlets. From late May through September, Portland sees a surge of visitors from around the world.

Living in Portland, it's easy to overlook some of the amazing things that the city has to offer. With busy lives, it's hard to carve out time to get away, so we decided to do a mini staycation – one evening after work through mid-morning the next day – something most people could do time-wise and within a modest budget.

The cornerstone to our mini staycation was the Garden Spa room at the Hotel Vintage Plaza [422 Southwest Broadway, (503) 228-1212].  Situated right in the heart of downtown, this hotel was a perfect base camp for our quick break.

We signed up for the 'romance package', which was just a little more expensive than the standard rate but well worth it. Mid-week room availability was really good and so were the rates.

Hotel Vintage Plaza Rose Petal Covered Bed

The Garden Spa room at the Hotel Vintage Plaza was perfect – quiet, clean with every detail taken care of. As part of the romance package, the bed was sprinkled with rose petals, we had a complimentary bottle of champagne, and a $30 credit to Pazzo Ristorante or for room service.

Champagne - part of the romance package

The real star of the Garden Spa Room is an outdoor hot tub.

Garden Spa Hot Tub

While the Hotel Vintage Plaza is surrounded by tall buildings (which means the office across the way  and hotel next door have  views of the tub), it does have a fantastic view. Sitting in the hot tub looking out over the city was a fantastic experience. You literally get a fresh view of the city. The hot tub was extremely well maintained, clean and already set to a good temperature (there's nothing like having to wait for a hot tub to heat up to ruin a romantic evening). The hotel provides nice thick bathrobes so you can sit on the veranda and enjoy the city in between dips in the hot tub.

View from The Garden Spa Hot Tub

Once we were ready to get our evening underway (and it was hard to leave the absolute comfort of the Garden Spa Room) , we took an eight or nine block stroll to Bluehour [250 Northwest 13th Avenue, (503) 226-3394].

Bluehour

While the restaurant is very well known in Portland for its food, many people are unaware that the bar serves some of the best cocktails in town.

Juan Collins at Bluehour

Bar Manager Tommy "Tweed" Klus has assembled a fantastic team of bartenders (including Alan Akwai) and an ever-changing list of cocktails, both classic and new. We had Tommy's Juan Collins ($10), a fantastic mix of tequila, lime, strawberry, mezcal and mexican coca cola. It's the kind of cocktail you can sip on a warm evening and a perfect cocktail to whet your appetite before dinner.

From Bluehour we moved on to Ten01 [1001 Northwest Couch Street, (503) 226-3463].

Ten01

Ten01 may have had one of the roughest openings of any Portland restaurant, but several years later (and several chefs later), it's found its stride and is one of the better restaurants in the area. Chef Michael Hanaghan is doing fantastic Northwest cuisine with local ingredients.

Lamb at Ten01

The absolute highlight at Ten01 was the Cattail Creek leg of lamb with crispy polenta, medjool dates, glazed turnips, spring onions and sorrel corriander jus ($29).

Powell's Books

From Ten01 we walked across the street to Powell's Books (1005 W Burnside). Portlanders tend to be pretty cavalier about Powells, but an ENTIRE city block worth of books is something to be appreciated. If you ever want to truly appreciate Powell's, stop at a Borders or Barnes and Noble and check out their cook book selection and then go to Powell's and compare. The difference is literally five times the books, and this holds true for most sections.

Tanner Springs Park in The Pearl

The Pearl gets a pretty bad rap, but it's really undeserved. An after dinner stroll through The Pearl is extraordinary and mid-week you've got most of it to yourself. We walked from Powell's through The Pearl, past Jamison Square Park to Tanner Springs Park (NW 10th Ave & Marshall St).  Tanner Springs is a unique urban park that fuses industrial with wild wetland. It's a perfect spot to sit and watch the sun set over the Fremont bridge in the background. Since we already had a bottle of champagne back at the room, we only browsed at Pearl Specialty Market and Spirits [900 Northwest Lovejoy Street, (503) 477-8604], which has the best selection of spirits in Portland.

Portland Streetcar Free Zone

From there we walked a few blocks and caught the Portland Streetcar. Like MAX, the Portland Streetcar has a free zone through the heart of the city.

Gruner

We decided to check out Gruner [527 SW 12th Avenue, (503) 241-7163], which is steps away from the Portland Streetcar stop. Gruner is part of Portland's "Golden Triangle of Cocktails" which also includes Bluehour, Clyde Common and Teardrop Lounge. You can easily barhop between these bars by foot and they represent the best cocktails in Portland.

Teardrop Lounge

We finally landed at Teardrop Lounge [1015 Northwest Everett Street, (503) 445-8109], the epicenter for cocktails in Portland. All the top Portland mixologists either work or have at some time spent time behind the bar at Teardrop. Currently, nationally renowned mixologists Ricky Gomez and David Shenaut work behind the bar.

Drinks at Teardrop Lounge

Teardrop currently has a menu of over 30 drinks, combining classic cocktails, creations from their house mixologists, and cocktails from notable bartenders across the country. Two of our favorite come from Erik Atkins out of San Francisco, including the Rhum Agricole Punch and Carter Beats The Devil (not pictured here but both amazing). Drinks at Teardrop run $8-$14 but they are some of the very best you'll find.

Vintage Plaza Hotel Hot Tub Night

The end of our evening found us back at the hotel enjoying the hot tub overlooking the empty streets of Portland at night.

Pazzo's Spendy Breakfast

The next morning we decided to use our $30 meal certificate at Pazzo which is connected to the Hotel Vintage Plaza. Pazzo for breakfast feels a lot like a hotel restaurant with prices to match. The breakfast special was a whopping $17, almost the price for two people to eat at most of Portland's great breakfast joints.

Public Domain Coffee

With a time short before we had to get back, we decided to walk across the street to Public Domain Coffee [603 SW Broadway, (503) 243-6374]. Our favorite (and arguably the best coffee in Portland) is Barista [539 Northwest 13th Avenue,  (503) 274-12110] but Public Domain does a very good job with their coffee with skilled and knowledgable baristas (and it was right across the street). Public Domain is also a great urban cafe, the perfect place to sip a cup of espresso in the city and go on about your day.

Our Portland mini staycation didn't include sights in Portland like the Chinese Gardens, Portland Tram or Rose Garden, as we've been to many of those MANY times with out of town friends and relatives, but we did get a nice slice of Portland and enjoyed it in a way we don't normally. Taking a break in the city you live in, when that city is Portland, is an exceptional experience, even with extremely limited time. A Portland staycation quickly shows you why so many people travel here to enjoy our fantastic city.

Legally Blonde The Musical

It's refreshing, from time to time, to treat yourself to a night of entertainment that is simply fun and lighthearted. This is what you can expect from Legally Blonde The Musical. The 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon has been adapted for the stage, infused with music and dance, and is touring February 16-21 here in Portland as part of the Broadway Across America series.

The premise is simple: college sorority president and blonde bombshell Elle Woods has everything going for her – perfect clothes, perfect friends, perfect boyfriend/future husband Warner Huntington III, until said boyfriend heads to Harvard Law and dumps Elle for someone more "serious", Vivienne Kensington. Determined to get her man, Elle manages to get herself into Harvard and sets a plan into action to get Warner back. It never occurs to her that she could fail, that no one will take her seriously, or that she might fall for someone else.

The role of Elle Woods is played, for the majority of the Portland run, by Becky Gulsvig. She keeps up with the high energy demands of the role and has a striking resemblance to Reese Witherspoon. For those of you planning to see the show later in the run, I would shoot for one of the performances on February 20 and 21 to see Portland native and Tigard High grad Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone in the role of Elle. I wish I could have seen a show with her to see some local talent.

Most of the rest of the cast are what you would expect from a traveling show. The vocals vary, some performances are stronger than others, and they double and triple up on actors playing multiple roles (not my favorite). When it comes down to it, however, this is a musical based on a fairly silly romantic comedy, so you have to keep that in mind and just enjoy the spectacle. The show does have some very funny and cute moments, like the first time Elle's chihuahua, Bruiser, runs on stage and delivers "lines", the marching band and cheerleaders at Elle's admissions interview at Harvard, the "Take It Like a Man" number during which Elle's law school friend, Emmett Forrest (played by D.B. Bonds) changes clothes on stage behind a tiny changing room door, and the courtroom scene with the entire ensemble singing "Is He Gay or European".

An upbeat, spirited production, and dizzying number of pink costumes, Legally Blonde The Musical is entertainment that lets you just turn off your brain and enjoy.

Legally Blonde Runs at The Keller Auditorium 2/16-2/21. Get more info from the Legally Blonde The Musical National Tour Site.

- @PDXHeather

Travel Portland has put together a fantastic look at the city of Portland. I think it sums up some of the amazing things that makes Portland, Portland and why it's becoming one of the premiere travel and tour destinations in the US.

To keep up with the Best of Portland:

• Follow @OnPortland on Twitter
• Visit Travel Portland

Jed Unloads The Soup

I've seen a ton of great business ideas come and go.  Some of them were ahead of their time, others were great ideas poorly executed. Most often though, great ideas go down in burning flames because people aren't patient enough to let their ideas blossom and grow. They want to get from small to huge in a blink of an eye.

SoupCycle is a fantastic example of a great business, based on a fantastic idea that is getting the time and space it needs to really grow. The entire SoupCycle company is comprised of just three people. (Pretty mind blowing when you hear other local start ups like Forkfly have 16 employees!) Owners Jed and Shauna handle every aspect of the business from soup to nuts (quite literally) with some help from one other part time delivery person. The impact of this is a business whose owners are extremely in touch with the actual business and its customers. For example, as part of SoupCycle's regular weekly email to their customers,  there is a request for feedback on each week's soup. SoupCycle makes changes to their line-up based directly on that feedback.

SoupCyle - Soup Salad and Bread

The SoupCycle service is a pretty simple concept.  Every week SoupCycle delivers a container of soup, a box of salad and some bread. If you've got a bigger family they deliver two containers of soup, and two boxes of salad.  One of the things that sets them apart from other food delivery options is that they deliver this soup entirely by bicycle.  SoupCycle 's soup selections are entirely based on 'what's in season locally' and their bread is baked at a small local bakery (Little T American Baker).

For my first SoupCycle delivery I was greeted by owner Jed Lazar and handed two quarts of Potato Kale soup (the vegan option) along with four big slices of french baguette and two boxes of salad.  Jed rides a recumbent bike with an electric assist. By the time he delivered our soup he had already clocked an impressive sixteen miles.

The soup is delivered cold and SoupCycle recommends you put out a cooler if you expect to be away for more than three hours during their delivery days. Many people get the soup delivered to their office so they can take it home from there.

SoupCycle's Amazing Soup

The evening of our first delivery we heated up the Potato Kale soup and had dinner in moments.  The two quarts of soup easily fed my family of five (two adults and three children) with about one serving of soup left for leftovers. The Potato Kale soup was delicious, well spiced, perfectly cooked and brimming with flavor.

I had heard a lot about SoupCycle's salad dressing (which is also impressively vegan) and so was eager to see if it lived up to the hype. It does. The salad is a nice mix of fresh greens, shredded carrot and cranberries but elevates to something entirely amazing with the dressing. With SoupCycle's soup being so good it's hard to say that you should try their service out just for the salad dressing, but it is THAT good.  The bread from Little T was soft and flavorful and I recommend you try dipping it in the dressing!

SoupCycle offers three different options for their soups: vegan, vegetarian and an option with meat.  Jed indicated that their most popular selection is vegetarian even among people who eat meat.

Here's an example of two weeks of their selections:

The Cumin Chihuahua (vegan)
A flavorful cumin-infused tortilla and corn soup.

Cream of Spinach (veggie)
Your mouth will approve of this tasty soup that's full of nutrients. Made with coconut milk.

Chicken Noodle (meaty)
One of the best chicken noodle soups you'll ever taste. Savory chicken, wide noodles, plenty of celery and carrots and just the right spice.

French Lentil (vegan)
Hearty lentil soup with flavorful vegetables, the distinctive taste of red wine vinegar and a touch of Dijon mustard.

Who Framed Ginger Rabbit (veggie)
Sweet and savory carrot soup with a strong punch of ginger.

Clam Chowda' (meaty)
A creamy clam chowder so tasty you'll think you’re dining in New England.

To order SoupCycle, you sign up for a SoupScription on SoupCycle's site which sets you up for a weekly delivery of the soup style of your choice.  SoupCycle bills you the Wednesday of your delivery and you can make changes to the following week's delivery (vacation hold, adding or dropping your level of soup or going a la cart without salad and bread) by Friday at midnight.  SoupCycle soupscriptions start at  $18 for 1 quart of soup + bread and salad (which serves 2 people) and goes all the way up to dinner for 6.

The soup, salad and bread for 4 at $30 ended up feeding 5 of us for a net cost of $6 per person for fresh, local and organic soup delivered.  A pretty affordable option for such a tasty meal.

I knew I liked the concept of SoupCycle but I'm frankly surprised by just how much I enjoyed the whole SoupCycle experience.  It's refreshing to deal with a company so committed to its customers with such a high quality product.  SoupCycle's soups are just plain fantastic and when you combine that with their truly exceptional salad dressing you've got a combination that just can't lose. I highly recommend SoupCycle!

For more information on SoupCycle:

• Visit SoupCycle's Web Site
• Read our Interview with SoupCycle
• Jed Lazar's Ten Lessons of a Bicycle Delivery Service from Interesting Portland
• Bike Portland's Business Booming for SoupCycle

Spring Arrives in Portland

As many of you may have noticed I've taken a short hiatus from On Portland. I felt like I needed to step back for a while and make sure I was moving the site in the right direction. There are so many great Portland sites that I don't want On Portland to just be another voice in the same chorus.

To me the definitive "What to do in Portland this weekend?" site is PDXPipeline. They cover more events and goings on than anyone. As much as I enjoy covering the occasional event I just don't see On Portland being an event site.

In terms of neighborhood coverage there is nothing that even comes close to neighborhood notes.  If it's happening in Portland, anywhere in Portland then neighborhood notes has it covered.

Beyond those there are great Portland news sites like Oregonlive (whose Oregon Reddit I use as a key source to keep my finger on the pulse of the city)  the Examiner and my topix feed which catches most news sources in the city.

So I keep asking myself, where does On Portland fit in?  The answer keeps coming back to the reason why I started this site. I think living, working and playing in the city of Portland is something really extraordinary. Having traveled through most of the states in the union and lived on both coasts I can say that Portland offers things that other cities simply don't. It's unique in the truest sense of the word.

So as I go forward with this site I intend to try to capture what is special about living in this city.  The people, places and experiences that make this a place that I call home.  It's a journey and I'm glad you're following me as I go on it.

Today was one of those true Portland moments for me – sitting up at one of the tables behind the Starbucks at Pioneer Courthouse Square, eating Indian food from The Real Taste of India, soaking up some of the first rays of spring and watching the world go by.

Find Out How Clean it Really Is

In the past month I've had the unfortunate luck of getting sick after eating at a local restaurant (Bangkok Restaurant).  As I was feeling quite under the weather I spent some time searching the Internet for some site or resource that could have clued me in to the less than clean kitchen that my meal must have come from.

I finally found the Multnomah County Health Department Establishment Inspection Database a fantastic resource that lets you peek into the kitchen and see just how clean everything is.

The results are pretty eyeopening.  On the good side some of my favorites Dove Vivi,Vita Cafe , Kuhn Pics Thai, La Bonita, Vegetarian House and Paradox Cafe all scoring in the high 90's or getting perfect 100.  On the bad side a number of places I eat didn't fair so well.  Nicholas Restaurant had a pretty long list of issues and a paltry 77 score, Pad Thai Kitchen 61,  and places like Laughing Planet and Opposable Thumb Gallery Cafe seemed to have the very common issue of employees NOT washing their hands when they should.

Of course this database is just a peek at one point in time in the life of a restaurant, but it's a good starting point to see just how clean the places you're eating at really are.