Travel Journal: PDX Day 2

Day 2..... in Portland, Oregon


We had some coffee, went on a run along the Willamette and then headed to catch the streetcar again to check out the Saturday Farmer's Market at Portland State University. What a beautiful campus and they have a Rouge Hall restaurant on campus grounds (with pizza delivery via bike)! How cool and dangerous would that be as a college student with little money! The Farmer's Market was crazy good....delicious vegetables, surrounded by beautiful lush green trees, flowers, wine tasting! We bought some local plain and garlic seasoned hazelnuts from Freddy Guys. A homemade bagel with chive cream cheese, and a marionberry and cream hand held pie.

We walked around the city some more and then made our way to Deschutes Brewery Portland Public House. Here you get to choose which beers you want to try for your sampler. We definitely enjoyed the beer here. We were total tourists and each bought a t-shirt to take home! We thought about getting a growler too but we resisted. The food was soooooo good! The pasta and burger I need to try to re-create one of these days!

OBSIDIAN STOUT MAC & CHEESE

cavatappi pasta, Obsidian Stout Cream, Grilled Red Onion, Baby Spinach and Tillamook White cheddar. 

WALNUT BEET BURGER

Roasted beets and toasted walnuts formed into a burger topped with Briar Rose Creamery goat cheese, white balsamic vinaigrette dressed field greens on our wheat ciabatta

A quick stop at Cupcake Jones for an afternoon snack of mini-cupcakes!


Day 3

We headed to the Portland Market on Sunday morning. 

The market is huge and there are a ton of booths with food and crafts......some more high quality than others!

One of our favorite booths was Lonely Dinosaur where my husband picked up this fun T-shirt!



Next we headed over to the food booths where we shared a Rouge beer and ate delicious gyros! Yes, we both ate meat on our gyros but they were so good it was worth it!

One of the reasons we love Oregon is the wine! The only problem is there are so many to choose from.......

Our first stop was Ponzi Vineyards in Beaverton, Oregon.

We shared a tasting together and we liked their wines but decided not to buy any because we still wanted to check out one more winery.


Next we got lost before finally finding our new house.......

I wish right! This is the beautiful house next to the beautiful tasting room at Alloro Vineyard . This is a very young artisianal winery located in Sherwood, Oregon.

We loved the grounds here as they reminded us of Italy.

We bought a bottle of Pinot and a Chardonnay!


We went back to the hotel to rest up before heading to dinner. We went earlier enough to catch happy hour for a few drinks! Happy Hour! We get excited because we can't have happy hours in Utah :(.

We went to the Driftwood Room located in the Hotel deLuxe. I treated myself to two lovely cocktails:   Springtime in Paris: St. Germain elderflower liqueur, rhubarb bitters and champagne
Portland '85: Clear Creek Pear Brandy, Clear Creek Pear Liqueur and champagne.

The atmosphere here was awesome: 1950's swanky decor makes you feel like a movie star in Hollywood!

In fact the whole interior of Gracie's and the Hotel deLuxe exudes Hollywood glamour! They play old movies in the lobby....so cool!

Lucky for us we were there during Portland's Dining Month. This is where certain participating restaurants have prix-fixed 3 course meals for $25. We both chose to do this and each had delicious meals however, we probably could have split one 3 course meal!

Saffron Chickpea Fritters

Savory Gorgonzola Cheesecake

Pan Roasted Idaho Red Meat Trout

Summer Linguine

Desserts: Chocolate Guinness Torte with mascarpone creamCrispy Bread Pudding with warm hard whiskey sauce

I'm just glad I got a chance to wear my new Skunk Funk
dress I bought in France!






Question:
What are some or your favorite Portland area restaurants??