"Welcome to Portland! Here's your beard!"

[sistawendy]

I'm at StartupCo's Portland office for a day of meetings.

I drove a minivan load of co-workers down. Moral: even newish cars need a 1/8" cable to plug an iPod into the stereo. One of my passengers took from Seattle to Olympia to get his phone to connect to the stereo, true to his prediction. He's a hero.

We're staying at the Ace Hotel, which has an exorbitant quantity of wood everywhere; painfully quirky decor; a view of a blank wall; tiny rooms without with hidden empty hangers but with fridges and, at least in my case, an enormous white-tiled bathroom. The last bathroom I saw that looked like that belonged to a drag queen in San Francisco's Potrero Hill. I can't help but wonder what the Ace expects its guests to get up to.

Much tasty beer at Bailey's Taproom, which has a big upstairs room that's usually empty with a separate entrance that virtually impossible to find from the street. Hard-to-find bars are apparently a thing down here. It's like Chuck's Hop Shop with way less attitude and way more class.

We then hit old sk00l video arcade Ground Kontrol: Centipede, Asteroids, Tempest, etc. Nostalgia heaven.

All of us had dinner together at Shigezo Izakaya: Japanese food & adult beverages, salaryman style. The food's good - mm, okonomiyaki - but what you really go for is the atmosphere. Yes, I told my co-workers Burning Man stories.

We hit a hard-to-find hipster whiskey joint that didn't have room for us all. No matter: the bar on the next block wasn't as hip, but it was much roomier and had just as much wood.

Much to my surprise, I was crippled only by lack of sleep and not a hangover this morning. Breakfast was a PB&J milkshake at Brunch Box. Yes, it's hipster, but it's a hipster hole in the wall with good food and a cute, charismatic young woman behind the counter.

StartupCo's Portland office is the victim of interior design hipsters.

In summation, Portlandia is a documentary. Portland is full of things that look really cool but don't quite work, and an incredible amount of reasonably priced choice food, beverages, and amusement.

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I love these descriptions and wish I were visiting.

[cupcake-goth.livejournal.com]

From things I have heard, the Ace Hotel is a favorite of mid-level fame touring bands. That might explain the bathroom?

In summation, Portlandia is a documentary.

Yes, yes it is. Everyone I know from Portland ruefully accepts that.

[ivy]

Hah, I tried to get reservations at the Ace on our anniversary trip down there, but they were all booked up. Maybe some future trip; you make it sound appealing!