Mississippi Street Fair

The coolest event of the year in Portland is definitely the Mississippi Street Fair located in the Historical Mississippi Ave in North Portland.  The street itself has a good collection of coffee shops, eats, local clothing store, and vintage stores.  The street fair expects around 30,000 people to come along this five block stretch of street.  All I can say is that this was a must for people who think Portland is boring.  Unfortunately the street fair is only a one time thing per year.  So don't miss it next year, it will probably be even bigger than this year's event.

There were many types of vendors in the Mississippi street fair.  Jewelry were among the most popular while there were also clothing vendors, handmade leather bag vendors, arts and craft vendors, you get the point.

Some store were nice enough to provide water, Keila was tired from all the excitement and from meeting new dog friends.  

Nana looking at some vintage clothing.

 Cool building.

Tasty n Sons

So far this summer, one of the coolest new restaurants I tried is called Tasty n Sons.  They are located in the Lincoln Building complex on Williams Ave in North Portland.  We went here for brunch because that is what they're know for and I knew it would be an awesome experience because wait time as of 10am when we got there was an hour and a half; but worth the wait.

What made this place really cool was definitely the decor and look of the place.  I love their wooden tables and seating, the walls was concrete with a huge bicycle painting on one side of the restaurant, and the garage door front that was opened.  Just an awesome combination of creating a cozy atmosphere.

My wife and sister ordered the Fried Egg & Cheddar Biscuit with fried chicken or smoked guanciale or sausage.  The fried chicken was really good.

I ordered the House Bacon Burger with beecher's cheddar or smoked bleu cheese which was pure awesomeness.  We ended up ordering two of this burger.

My dad ordered the Boudin Blanc Omelette with fava bean tapenade, truffle cheese & white sausage which was ok.

My mom ordered the Cast Iron Frittata with asparagus, snap peas, confit green beans, english peas, asparagus, caramelized onions, mint & feta which was really good.

Overall, I'm really happy with the food though their portions was a bit small but great if you're on a strict diet. The place and service were awesome and the whole experience was great. I would come back here.

North Williams Shops

One of the shops in the Lincoln building in Williams Ave in North Portland is called Ristretto Roasters.  This is probably one of many of the coolest coffee shops in Portland.  I've been waiting to find a cool coffee shop that has a garage door style front that opens up during nice weather and I've finally found it.  The coffee is good, the people were friendly though my ice mocha came out after five people behind me got their orders first.  Anyways, the atmosphere of the coffee shop is very relaxing.  Most of the people that came in the time I was there was waiting to go eat at Tasty n Sons which was at the other side of the building.  That's why we were there also, nice.

Other shops worth checking out in the area are:
- Ink&Peat - an awesome floral and home goods store.
- Lodekka - vintage clothing in a double decker bus.
- Tasty n Sons - great brunch place
- Eat: An Oyster Bar - cajun cuisine
- Lincoln - very cool restaurant and good too
- Pix Patisserie - awesome dessert place
- Spielwerks Toys - one of the coolest children's toy store I have been to.

I love their menu board.

Williams Ave Ops #2

 Down the Lincoln building hall.

 In the Williams Ave street, there was also this cool looking double decker bus which is actually a vintage clothing store. The bus is called Lodekka and yes, it is a British double decker bus.  This place was cool because there's nothing like this in Portland before.

Nana got a couple items including a scarf.

Lodekka is definitely awesome, but unfortunately it's not TPF (tall people friendly).  I felt like a giraffe in that bus.

Store front.

Williams Ave Ops

A while ago my family and I had a chance to check out a part of Portland that we've never been to.  Initially, my sister suggested we try a new restaurant in the area and I thought what a great opportunity to explore the area also.   The Williams avenue area is located in North Portland in the Boise Neighborhood.  I never even knew such a inter-urban development took place in a place like Williams ave.  The area I'm talking about is a good two and a half block stretch of restaurants, stores and coffee shops. 

Me and the woman in some cool looking brick wall.

I like the random red double-triangles shapes in this building front.

This place is called Eat: An Oyster Bar.  They have a pretty good size crowd in the weekends, I plan to try Eat pretty soon.  Below is another view of the restaurant.

A cool lighting display at Ink&Peat. There were many decor pieces that I really like at this store.

Pix Patisserie is an awesome dessert hang out place.  They are one of my favorite places to go to in Portland.  This is their second location, their original location is on Division.

Blues Festival

One of Portland's most exciting annual events is the Portland Blues Festival.  Every year, thousands of people gather in the open grass area or in their boats in the Waterfront area in downtown Portland.  You can hear the blues and jazz music fill the air when you walk in the city and you're automatically attracted to the event.  I came to the event after work and walked along the Hawthorne bridge from the east side of the river towards the Waterfront.  These were some of the interesting things I took pictures of as I walked on the bridge.

I thought food carts is the trend in Portland but I was wrong, now it's food boats.  This dude was selling weenies on the water, ice cream also.  I wonder if he could throw food up to me and I'll chuck some quarters to him.  Maybe I'll try next year. 

This is one of the few times where many boats gather out in the Willamette River.

Ohhh, good dog.  Enjoying the music.

Vintage Portland Issue#1

A while ago, Nana and I were driving around south east Portland randomly turning left and right every other block until a couple vintage stores caught our eyes.  We had to stop and check these places out because we're into a phase in our lives where we like old vintage pieces and items.  It's nice to find these kinds of places because it makes Portland more attractive, but bad because it makes us want to spend all our money on antique/vintage pieces.

The place above is called the White Rabbit Vintage Furniture.  We found this place on the historic Belmont Street.  The store isn't too big but they carry a lot of nice items that I was drooling over. 

The second vintage place we went to is called the House of Vintage in Hawthorne (below).  This place in my opinion is the biggest vintage store in Portland, I could be wrong but I say it's the biggest because we kept going into these small rooms that led to another room and so on...  It took us a good hour just to walk through the place with just skimming through the items.  To look at every single thing would probably take us closer to three hours to finish.  Anyways, both places are amazing, if you like these kind of places, please shop there and support them. 

The usual pieces that catch my eyes are bottles, vintage cameras and posters.