A Perfect, Day-Long Pub Crawl in North Portland
Years ago, I led a merry band on a mission to ride the happy hour wave as long as we could, not settling for some mere two- or three-hour window. We survived, wallets and bellies pleasantly full. This marathon-not-sprint approach is a great way to explore a neighborhood while ticking restaurants off of your growing “to-visit” list. This year, we headed to North Portland in search of burgers, Corpse Reviver Jell-O shots, and vegan tiki. Follow our itinerary, or patch together your own crawl. Tips: pick a weekday (weekend happy hours are less common), and maybe send an advance scout ahead to get an order in before your next destination’s happy hour ends.
Homey Surprises Abound at Northern-Meets-Southern Chinese Spot Master Kong
There are few spaces left in Portland that sound and feel like home, to me at least.
On a recent Saturday, at two month-old Master Kong (8435 SE Division Street), I sat in a sparsely decorated dining room with two dozen families chatting loudly in a swelling symphony of both Mandarin and Cantonese. The food and atmosphere felt more like the busy, family-filled restaurants—often just glorified lunch counters—that I left behind in Chicago’s Chinatown.