Cellar Door, Sellwood, Portland Bottle Shop, Sock Dreams, 24th and Meatballs, and Pie Spot

Alright, making time for another installment of Geekonomic Stimulus, this time day three of my trip to Portland. Here’s day one and day two.

So after waking up from the splendid foldout couch in the basement, after tooling around a bit at Tristan’s house, I had the pleasure of joining her and her husband for a trip to get some coffee at Cellar Door.

I can say this with complete honesty, this was the best latte I had ever had in my life. I would not say I’m exactly a connoisseur of lattes, or even a frequent drinker of one, but I’ve had my share, and this one stands out on top.

It is now the latte that I have and will judge all future lattes against.

Coffee #5 by the way.

There were many other items on offer and were I a local, I’d try everything. And definitely the booze.

As it is, if you’re just passing through, I recommend the latte!

Requisite shot of weird art at Cellar Door. I guess it’s not really requisite, but just look at it.

Went back home, and was greeted by Leelu.

Tristan then shared her tiny melon with me.

Lime for comparison. After sorting out my day and chatting with Tristan, I decided to make my way to the Sellwood neighborhood.

Actually, backers of Tristan’s A Fistful of Lunars, I’m right with you. Before I left, I made sure to crack the whip on Tristan to make sure they were hard at work with fulfillment! It was at this point I revealed that the secret long play of my trip was to browbeat her and her husband to get to work!

Here’s Tristan, flailing away to get the job done once I gave her the proper “motivation.”

I figured before I threw myself into ritualistic gorging that I should at least attempt to earn my calories with a bit of exploration. I first drove to the Sellwood Riverfront Park, and it was a good place to check out.

First bit of tagging I’ve noticed in Portland. What does that even say?

I’m going to guess: RA8E “JROWSE”

I keep finding these neat little docks in Portland.

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at the river.

Look at it!

Just gorgeous.

Now with more ducks!

And illegal fire pits!

A great place for dogs too.

Another dog sighting.

And a bit of a wooded walk in too.

After this brief exploration of the park, I made my way to Sellwood proper and found ample. The neighborhood area was very charming. The spacing of houses reminds me a bit of some parts of Sacramento except with much wider streets.

But something about the feel of the houses was evocative of Santa Cruz. Or maybe Scotts Valley, CA.

Lots of neat things were found in Portland. One of the small neat stores I found was Tilde.

I took a picture of this map for reference

I also found some clever little cards there. I particularly like the one on the right.

A small selection of the local beers available at the New Seasons Market, a chain, which according to Tristan is a huge draw for any neighborhood that has one.

There was a nice looking if somewhat barren food cart collection.

I’m somewhat tempted by the “cart for sale” sign.

After some meandering I opted to go to Zenbu for lunch.

I forgot what I got exactly, but it was some roll topped with barely seared fish sliced gorgeously with fried shrimp in the middle. It was a very well balanced dish.

After taking a quick peek at the FLGS and not really thinking I needed a new game to try at the moment, I put up my feet at the Blue Kangaroo Coffee Roasters and ordered, yep, another latte. And a bit of something to eat too. A cheese pastry I think.

It was a nice spot. Tables were a bit cramped in some places so I sat on the couch.

I liked the for display purposes grinder. There appeared to be a more functional one in the back.

It was a good latte. I was very confused why it was served to me in a glass. Such things need a handle. Minus points for that unfortunately but it was pretty good.

Not as good as Cellar Door, but it’s a good place if you’re Sellwood. The pastry was satisfying I will say.

Coffee count 6.

More wildlife sightings.

And more wildlife sightings.

Suitably refreshed I continued my trek around Sellwood to take in the view. Downtown Portland seemed to just sprout out of the woods.

Very charming if somewhat straight laced looking houses.

I was a bit disappointed by the “lake” I have to admit.

I should have checked out that carnival thing.

Attempted artistic shot.

After venturing to the edges I moved back to downtown to check out the other shops.

The Portland Bottle Shop takes a confident step in such an encompassing title for a city so well known for beer.

I had an Occidental Brewing Co. Kolsch to relax, and read the local rag to consider plans for later, and perused one of the local brewing papers, then explored the space in earnest.

By the way, I actually have notes on this beer from my Untappd app.

“Solid Kolsch. Clear, slightly sweet and fruit notes. Fairly Refreshing.”

4 stars.

It was impressive looking inside.

Beers and wines galore.

The rafters looked a bit out of place.

But a very nice space overall. Travis, the owner, was very courteous and knowledgeable, and helped me select some brews to take with me as prizes back home. All proved great, and I look forward to stopping by again someday.

After dropping off my box of brew in my car I went to one of my target destinations, Sock Dreams.

A very charming looking building.

And a historic site to boot!

Holy socks.

What.

So many socks!

Socks for kids!

I will say I had a hard time finding socks I liked that were made not in China, but I managed. A lot of the great designs seemed to be made in China, but I’m trying to support other countries if not America when I can.

Economic concerns aside, I love my fox socks. I got the cat socks for my cousin.

After the rigorous searching for the socks of my dreams I decided to get a pick me up.

I tried to go here because it looked cool.

But the staff seemed to be working at a snails pace and the line was going nowhere for several minutes so I gave up. Sorry Tea Chai Te, nothing good to say here really. And the ordering process seemed really confusing.

So instead I gave my business to Ugly Mug Coffeehouse.

Coffee count 7.

I forgot what I got, it was something that tried to be exotic. No latte on offer on the menu that I could see, but I wasn’t trying that hard to ask truthfully.

A solid drink I suppose, and good for what I wanted to do, a sip and a nice long read of the book I bought from Powell’s, The Queen of the Tearling.

A coffee cup dangled from the string to the Open sign, I thought it was a nice touch.

A few hours later and it was time to rendezvous with some of the folks I met my first night here, organized graciously by my friend Brian Newman.

Go team Brian!

It was a neat little area with lots of restaurants conveniently located by one another.

I opted for 24th & Meatballs.

I love the sheer glee that the restaurant seems to take in having its clienteles say “balls.”

Polenta & Balls with Classic Italian and Pesto sauce was probably too heavy a combination. Well executed individually, but this was my error. If you want pesto go with the chicken, but I think the heavier Italian meatball would have paired very well with the tomato basil sauce. 

Throwing myself fully into the gluttony of my trip by now, I joined some of the more stalwart stomachs in dessert a building away, Pie Spot.

Tiny pies! I hope this trend takes off around the country. I mean cupcakes are great and all but…. pies!

I love toasted marshmallows, so I had to go for the s’mores pie.

Oh man, I’m salivating just thinking of this again.

Did not go here. Maybe next time Portland.

Well, that’s basically my day 3. After dinner I went back to Tristan’s and opened a few of my brews to share with them and we shot the breeze until it was time for bed.