in towners

I had a very eventful last few days with visitors in town. My friend Pepper, visiting her family in Truckee, from the authentic outback of Australia and her best friend Rya, a former and future Portland resident, took a road trip to visit the city of roses among others. With home base being my place of residence and a bit removed of the ebb and flow of the city, we commuted to enjoy some absolutely AMAZING new restaurants and incorporated a lot of shopping and sightseeing. On Saturday, I had a sewing class with Sara and Jena and was promptly greeted by my new house guests before we all headed out for dinner and then a little dancing at Whiskey Bar in downtown to one of their favorites, Plump DJs, dawned locally and from the UK I think.

Although Jena and I are not heart-swooned dance music enthusiasts, we managed to shake it for what we thought was the best of the DJs, who to the present crowd were very well-known and loved. I will say that it is nice to see dancing to this type of music because it transcends the typical and often disgusting bump-n-grind you typically see at most clubs to top-40 muck. It was a fun night out, but I have to say that being dubbed the Whiskey Bar, you'd think the drinks, especially the whiskey mixed drinks, wouldn't be so damned weak. Yuck.

Sunday and Monday were a composite of eating and shopping. There is definitely nothing wrong with that, except when you have self-prohibited the purchase of anything outside of the necessary essentials, which does not include books, jewelry, clothes, purses, high end skin care products, shoes and well, I could go on but it just makes my shopping bone twitch. I was good, but my when-i-have-a-job-i-will-buy-this-that-and-the-other list is exponentially growing by the day. I better hop to it. Karma, do your thing. I am due. I got splashed in the face by a car with dirty, oily street water and was soaked.  My mouth was open; I think I'm done for a while.

I also fell in love with a really AWESOME bar off Hawthorne called Back Stage Bar which is also a pool hall. They have free pool every Tuesday and Sunday. Will anyone come play with me? The bartender rocked my world (don't get too excited, it was a girl...no really, don't get too excited) and the venue was amazing. For those not familiar, it was a McMenamins, which is a chain of pubs and restaurants of old restored hospitals, schools, theaters, barns etc. They convert historical landmarks to these venues and the Back Stage Bar was the actual backstage of the Bagdad Theatre at one time, which is now also an active movie theater and restaurant.

My new and most favorite of favorites was certainly the Tin Shed and Vita, both on Alberta (a place I had completely forgotten existed until Rya re-introduced me). And I am so thankful she did. I am not a huge bloody mary drinker, but Vita's Bloody Maria with pickled green beans was really really tasty. And I thought the twin cities was all about their bloodies. Biscuits and gravy are a big thing too, offering very specialized gravies: almond, rosemary, mushroom and so on. Really yummy with potato cakes that are baked with this delicious cream inside and out-of-this-world veggie sausage. K. I'm hungry.

I have a tea date with a new friend on Thursday which is also on Alberta at Townshend. This week, I will have visited that street four times. Although my very smart friend was probably right about how I should have moved to the NE where everything I have very quickly grown to love is, I am happy in my little hidden forest village that another very intuitive friend has dubbed a retirement community. I don't think I can bargain the yoga and the machine that so thoughtfully washes my clothes. I have grown very very attached.

more photos on my flickr as usual