Neighborhood:
Northwest 21st & 23rd If you assigned the outer reaches of Northwest Portland human body parts, Northwest Vaughn Street would get a penis, and just two blocks away, Thurman would earn a vagina. (read more) If that sounds crass, read on. Although Northwest Vaughn has a couple of upscale outlets—including a garden of incredible eating called Meriwether’s Restaurant (2601 NW Vaughn St., 228-1250, meriwethersnw.com) and the classy Clear Creek Distillery (2389 NW Wilson St., 248-9470, clearcreekdistillery.com), home to the “how’d they do that?” pear-in-the-bottle brandy—this balls-to-the-wall boulevard keeps things macho with Fetzer sausage carts and rooms that go zoom, including a Vespa dealership (2318 NW Vaughn St., 222-3779, vespaportland.com) and MotoCorsa (2170 NW Wilson St., 292-7488, motocorsa.com), which sells Ducati motorcycles. Not to mention nearby vegan strip joint Casa Diablo Gentlemen’s Club (2839 St. Helens Road, 222-6600, casadiablo.com). The more feminine Thurman Street is all about being seen and being green. A co-op grocery outlet, Food Front (2375 NW Thurman St., 222-5658, foodfront.coop) sits across the street from French-ified (girlie) St. Honoré Boulangerie (2335 NW Thurman St., 445-4342, sthonorebakery.com), a great place to spend too much on a sandwich. Reuben gurus Kenny and Zuke recently opened a new deli, SandwichWorks (2376 NW Thurman St., 954-1737), on this street; it’s a perfect complement to bustling Big Dan’s West Coast Bento (2368-A NW Thurman St., 227-1779, westcoastbento.com), fromage-filled Steve’s Cheese (2321 NW Thurman St., inside Square Deal Wines, 222-6014), and Trilogy Video’s (2325 NW Thurman St., 229-1884, trilogy-video.com) racks of Die Hard sequels and chick flicks alike. —Byron Beck
