Food/Drink
Photo by Karen Z on Unsplash
Kann
Portland's hottest restaurant right now is Kann, led by chef Gregory Gourdet. If you can manage to snag a reservation, you can enjoy both incredible Haitian cuisine and a beautiful interior space, designed by Portland's Fieldwork.
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Takibi
Japanese-inspired food adjacent to Snow Peak—an outdoor brand from Japan that chose Portland for its U.S. headquarters. The beautiful space was designed by Snow Peak in collaboration with Portland's Skylab Architecture and is inspired by camping and cooking over fire.
Tusk
Middle-eastern inspired food with a focus on in-season produce from Portland's excellent local farms. The bright, modern design of this space was completed by Portland and Paris-based Jessica Helgerson Interior Design—whose work often bridges traditional architecture and Modernism.
The Ocean
The Ocean and the Shore are a couple of former auto dealerships that were turned into micro-restaurants, a grocery market and a live-work restaurant with a secret courtyard. The project was completed by Guerrilla Development—an unusually creative and "fun" developer led by Kevin Cavenaugh, who has a background in architecture. Check out the google maps link below for the current roster of restaurants that are tucked into these unique spaces.
Upper Left Roasters
Portland has many great coffee roasters and shops. This is one of my favorites because of the design of the space. Fieldwork turned an old service station into this cozy shop. Transforming old single-story warehouse structures into vibrant spaces is increasingly common in Portland (see the Ocean above).Â
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Wine Country
The Willamette Valley has an international reputation for its Pinot Noir. There are many vineyards and wineries located outside of Portland—many of them about an hour south of the city. These three feature beautiful, modern tasting rooms by some of Portland's best architects—and are located very close to each other. Sokol Blosser's original tasting room was designed by Northwest Modern architect John Storrs. A new, adjacent tasting room was designed recently by Allied Works, whose founder actually grew up nearby. Two other beautiful tasting rooms can be found at L'Angolo Estate Winery, designed by Lever Architecture and Furioso Vineyards, designed by Waechter Architecture. Both Lever and Waechter were founded by Allied Works alums—making it fun to look for relationships across all three of these projects.
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Locations: Sokol Blosser, L'Angolo, Furioso
Note that some of these tasting rooms require and/or recommend reservations.
Photos: Sokol Blosser, L'Angolo Estate, Furioso Vineyards