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Supermercado Mexico
17420 SE Division St., 503-477-5947.
The two Supermercados Mexico bookending Portland—one in Gresham, one in Hillsboro—offer a vision of grocery shopping that's a lot like a child's birthday party. There's impossibly sunny music, a wealth of piñatas and balloons, and a taco feed with a kickass salsa bar. The eastside location is the newest, most expansive, and most wonderful—making it the most wonderful grocery store in all of Portland, at any price point. It even has a little frutas stand in the back serving fresh fruits in a cup doused in lime and chili. Pick up some meat from a splendid case of cuts, stripped out for tacos if need be. Then order pollo al carbon, followed by a delicious tres leches cake straight out of the deli case. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
Europa PDX
14643 SE Stark St.
This brand-new, Albanian-owned market has its roots in Vancouver, where owner Sutko Gojak opened his first store. But the goods lean east all the way to Russia and the Middle East, with perhaps the most lovely selection of imported Eastern European sausages, pressmeats and liver-based foods in Portland, whether refrigerated or frozen. In the deli case, there's an even rarer thing: fresh halva available by the gram, cake-high and quivering under the lights. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
All American Magic Shop
9994 SE Washington St., 503-995-7379, magicpdx.com.
A combination all-purpose magic shop, magic theater and emporium of esoterica, Mark Benthimer's little store is the most dedicated purveyor of all things magical in Portland. It's also the only dedicated magic shop in Portland. Benthimer is a nationally touring practitioner of the sleight-of-handed arts—his next magic show is June 18 at the next-door theater, with ventriloquist and shop partner Scott Davis—which means if you're lucky, he'll let you in on some secrets. But if not, there are plenty of books and kits, and fart jokes from whoopee cushions to fake poop. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
The Barn Produce Market
5211 NE 148th Ave., 503-253-5103, thebarnproduce.com.
Just south of Grant's Philly Cheesesteaks' hall of beef—near the airport, medical laboratories and the Multnomah County Republican office—is one of the region's best seasonal produce markets. The Barn was established in the 1940s, and the riverside industry and residential district both later sprung up around it; the food still comes mostly from Sauvie Island fields and Hood River growers, or maybe the strawberry farms just to the north. Get the sweet white corn, cucumbers (or pickled cucumbers) and kraut cabbage (or pickled kraut)—and, oh Lord, the rhubarb. During the months it's open, the Barn is perhaps the most reliable source of fresh-picked local produce. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
A Bead Source
15831 SE Division St., 503-760-8964.
In a little house painted neon yellow, with a tattoo parlor out back, A Bead Source is a hidden treasure box. Inside, endless tables of tiny beads will make your eyes cross, and strands in every color line the walls. Agate stones hang next to Swarovski crystals, pyramid beads from the Czech Republic, and rows of metal charms. This is no average bead shop: It is Portland's best gem depository, where one room houses chains on huge spools, one displays a perplexing assortment of Native American tchotchkes like a leather-handled stone ax, and a house cat named Violet wanders around shoppers' ankles. If you want your jewelry ready-made, go to the attached gift shop, opened last February, where beaded bracelets, pendants and sterling rings are spared the markup of Hawthorne's shops. ENID SPITZ.
Fabric Depot
700 SE 122nd Ave., 503-252-9530, fabricdepot.com.
When the dusty Fabric Depot on North Lombard Street shut down, packing up its mothy upholstery fabrics and sun-faded circle skirts, few mourned. But this wondrous outer-eastside location is a world apart, easily eclipsing most Portland-area fabric stores in size and activity. Think of it as a Costco for crafters. The industrial warehouse-sized shop attracts everyone from bespectacled quilters who quibble over thread weights to 20-something moms in Kate Spade flats, and art school students. Suspended from the ceiling are prize-winning quilts and arrows to direct you between the massive sales and well-staffed cutting tables. On weekends, pristine sedans pack the lot, and women fill the attached classrooms for tutorials on "demystifying knits," T-shirt pattern-making and DIY espadrilles. The Depot is Portland-famous for its "Fancy Forest" quilt workshops, which feature Elizabeth Hartman's minimalist design with twee foxes, owls and hedgehogs that look like Kinfolk Jr. ENID SPITZ.
Everyday Deals
600 SE 146th Ave., 503-477-8031.
Want a literal gallon jug of A.1. steak sauce for $4.79? A huge box of granola or a pint of Greek yogurt for a dollar? More Butterfinger mini-cups than you could ever hope to eat for under $5? You come to Portland grocery liquidator Everyday Deals—which also has stores in Gresham and Vancouver—amid Russians and Latin American immigrants and a weirdly large number of bargain-hunting burners, where food that is almost out of date comes to be sold in ridiculous bulk, at prices that actually make you laugh out loud. A little taqueria called Lupita's Deli serves excellent taco recipes alongside hot-plate burritos for the gringos. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
2410 SE 121st Ave., No. 214, 503-771-9900, discgolfdepot.com.
Inside a "business complex" that looks more like a 1970s apartment complex—inside a shop the size of a garage, but no longer an actual garage—you can find more Frisbees, in more types and colors, than anywhere else you could reach without an airplane. Its somewhat taciturn owner, Jerry Miller, has spent 30 years building the sport of disc golf—and his son and daughter are also pro disc golfers. Which means if you need a disc, he'll not only know which one, but he probably also stocks it in a color that matches your shirt. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
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