Neighborhood:
Northwest 21st & 23rd Wedged between Nob Hill and the Pearl District are Northwest 21st and 23rd avenues. Predating most of Portland’s other hip strips, these twin thoroughfares of the west side host an eclectic mix of upscale chain stores and local ((read more)google.com/?q=but still mostly upscale) boutiques, cafes and bookshops that keep Portland more chic than weird. The two streets complement each other nicely. While 23rd hosts some of the best clothing and accessory shops in town, 21st is where you’ll find fresh produce, tasty brunches and bargain happy hours. On 23rd, Oh Baby (722 NW 23rd Ave.,Portland,OR">but still mostly upscale) boutiques, cafes and bookshops that keep Portland more chic than weird. The two streets complement each other nicely. While 23rd hosts some of the best clothing and accessory shops in town, 21st is where you’ll find fresh produce, tasty brunches and bargain happy hours. On 23rd, Oh Baby (722 NW 23rd Ave., 274-4190) specializes in gorgeous, indulgent lingerie with just a hint of naughty. Great gift ideas come from shops like Hello! (525 NW 23rd Ave., 274-0771), where you’ll find sassy stationery and hilarious photo frames. Ether (600 NW 23rd Ave., 295-7959) is a treasure chest for shoppers looking for a clever scarf or a great pair of heels. For more practical shopping, head down to 21st’s gourmet grocery stores, pharmacies and brunch hot spots. Pick up artisanal cheeses, cured meats and freshly dried fruit at City Market (735 NW 21st Ave., 221-3007). Equipped with espresso and free wi-fi, Coffee Time (712 NW 21st Ave., 497-1090) brings in night-owl college students and kids too young for the bars. For a more highbrow experience, dine at Wildwood (1221 NW 21st Ave., 248-9663); it was a pioneer of Portland “sustainable” cuisine, and its standards aren’t slipping 13 years after it opened. —Shefali Kulkarni.
Featured in Restaurant Guide 2006
Tear open the perfect croissant and you are rewarded with innumerable buttery layers and crackles of pastry thin as spun glass fluttering onto your shirt. Saint Honoré, the closest Portland comes to a traditional boulangerie, does not bake this croissant, but it comes close. It does serve a magnificent lunch: a tian, or casserole, of squash and tomato; a mixed-greens salad with fat slabs of smoked duck rimmed with lovely fat; gorgeous sandwiches on just-baked breads formed by a passel of young bakers in the open kitchen. With a glass of vin de pays or café au lait, one could not ask for a sweeter spot. Until it is time for dessert, when, quel dommage, the filling inside an éclair chocolat tastes not like pastry cream but packaged pudding; a canelet is burnt outside, gummy within. And the Opera—at its best, sponge cake layered with espresso buttercream and ganache and so tender it surrenders to the fork—is here stiff as Sara Lee brownies, of which it also tastes. Which is to say, pretty fine, if more freezer case than France. (NR)
Nancy Rommelmann
