PNW Trip Continued: Portland Day 2
We decided to take full advantage of everything Portland has to offer on PDXday2. We knew that our taste in donuts was more along the 'classic' side and not the Voodu donuts side of things so we headed to grab some coffee and a donut.
We of course didn't just have any old coffee, we waited in line for some pretty handsome baristas at the Ace Hotel location of STUMPTOWN coffee for what is likely to be the best americano I will ever have in my life.
With our incredible americanos in hand we walked a few blocks to Blue Star Donuts for some tastyness- I had a pistachio creme brule donut while lizzie tried a cinnamon sugar. They did not disappoint! You MUST stop here for some kick ass fried yumminess.
From there we walked up to a cute neighborhood that a friend had suggested us to walk to. I believe it was 23rd street to the Nob Hill area. We walked off our donuts and enjoyed the cute area. It was too early for the shops to be open, but I loved the area! We walked back on a few zig zags to enjoy the neighborhoods and back towards our hotel. We decided to stop to split a falafel, which was pretty darn kick-ass at Wolf and Bears. HIGHLY recommended food cart. We could tell by the sign that were going to love the place. Just lightly fried, and had some cilantro parsley hot sauce which was to die for as well as some grilled eggplant. {note: i am salivating remembering the deliciousness}. To top off the morning we stopped into Dechutes Brewery for a pint before a nice nap :)
We woke up hungry a little bit later in the afternoon and decided our lunch of a half of a falafel was NOT enough, so we headed BACK to Wolf and Bear and each had our own! It's vacation right? I will be needing to recreate this falafel in the near future.
From there we enjoyed the area, I had a nice refresher juice from GreenLeaf Juice Company (that i had become obsessed with) so many locations and good combos of juice. I had a few green ones and this refresher below.
The day continues! From there we decided to try some pinot noirs ... since we were in OREGON after all. The place of so many pinots. Supposedly one of the best places to try pinots is downtown near where we were walking around so we heading to Oregon Wines on Washington. Yes, it's Washington STREET, and Oregon wines. We actually saw a few wines from Winery tasting rooms in Woodinville. There were two different tasting menus, to tell you the truth, I didn't like a lot of the wines we tasted on the low end or high end pinot tasting flights, and would have probably preferred the sparkling wine one - but it was OREGON so we did pinots.
From here we walked to First Thursday in the Pearl District. The area is known for the vast amount of galleries and fun bars, so we walked around the little street fair they have on the first thursday of the month and enjoyed the people watching before we found the most clutch location to enjoy the beautiful evening. There is a nice bench outside of the River Pig Saloon. It must be pretty new because google street view does not show the correct place. There was a pretty good menu of beers on draught as well as a great food menu - kale salad, the fries looked pretty darn awesome and there's a nice outside area where families were enjoying. We sat on this bench enjoying the people watching for quite some time before heading to Andina for dinner.
My friend had spent a summer volunteering at a clinic in Peru so she had come to love Peruvian food and was excited to share some her favorites with me. The restaurant also came highly recommended by a local friend so we made reservations, which was a good idea. We went early and had a Pisco Sour at the upstairs bar (note: if you go and the bar is empty ask about upstairs! It was packed below but upstairs was quiet and perfect). Our dinner consisted of multiple small plates, asparagus with chimicurri, plus croquets, plus potatoes with three different sauces and a nice salad with hearts of palm (my favorite). We then had special churros with cardamon sauce for desert and headed back to the hotel after a very full day of Portland fun.