We visited Portland for the first time since the pandemic last week. We had three missions:
A visit to Powell’s Books, one of the P’s of Portland that I blogged about previously. Sadly, Pok Pok and Paley’s Place are no more, victims of the Covid-19 plague.
A visit to a couple Julian knew from Ithaca days who live west of Portland.
A trip to Clive Coffee for Julian. This is where he bought his espresso machine on our last trip south of the border.
We arrived in town Sunday evening and set up camp in a hotel on the northern end of the 23rd Avenue NW shopping strip. The next morning we set out for the Hawthorne Avenue branch of Powell’s. The store was larger than I remembered, and carried more general titles other than cookbooks. I bought Christmas presents for my sister’s grandkids (if you think I’m going to divulge what I bought them, forget about it) and only two cookbooks for me. Julian found two used books, one by Carl Sagan and a photography of Paris book.
We drove back to the hotel, stashed our purchases, and perused the 23rd Avenue strip. Kornblatt’s Deli has been replaced by another bagel shop. Kitchen Kaboodle is still alive and well. We also found Boulangerie St. Honoré. This place is an amazing ode to flour, sugar, yeast, and butter. We had breakfast there the next morning and got treats to take to our friends west of Portland.
We had a great time catching up with our friends. They moved to Silicon Valley after Ithaca, then moved north to be near their older daughter and her family. We had sandwiches for lunch, followed by pastries. Two of the pastries we brought are on the left of the middle and lowest shelves of the photo above. We also got a chocolate brioche and a blueberry danish. All were well received.
We stopped at Clive Coffee on our way out of town. Julian bought another frothing pitcher and ordered two accessories for his espresso machine. Installing those should keep him occupied for an hour or two, in addition to the tweaking required to re-optimize the espresso pull. Tea preparation is much more simple.
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