Feast Portland: September 17th, 2015

This post is just over a month in the making and I couldn’t be more excited. Back in May I had the joy of visiting Portland, Oregon for the very first time. That trip was indeed life changing. It was the moment I fell in love with a state I’d never been to before and hardly knew anything about. I wrote about those experiences here, here, and here. The third and final post of my series, which was a recipe for Red Wine Caramel with Goat Cheese Mousse was an entry for a pretty spectacular prize (for both the first AND second place winner). Submissions were open to any of the bloggers that went on either of the conference tours held on Sunday May 31st. Submissions were open through June 30th with winners to be selected by July 31st by a collective panel of representatives from OXO and Travel Oregon.

Because I have a full time job outside of blogging I had to plan ahead. So after posting my contest entry I took the time off from work *just in case* I happened to be selected (secretly hoping with every fiber of my being that I would be chosen). At the end of the first week in August I got an email with the subject line reading: ‘Congratulations’! I immediately FLIPPED OUT right in my office cubicle. What I wouldn’t give for that moment to have been recorded. If you ask my friends that work in the same space I do, the excitement was beyond infectious! I was pretty much toast the rest of my workday because I was so excited. I couldn’t believe it. My trip included roundtrip airfare (for one, we purchased Steve’s ticket), three nights lodging at a premier downtown Portland hotel, and blogger media credentials for access to Feast Portland. The month in between flew by and before I knew it I was back in the state I had fallen in love with, this time to share the experience with my husband who I couldn’t wait to introduce to Portland!

I have THE most insane amount of pictures to share with you over the series of four posts. They are going to be really long posts, however I wouldn’t want it any other way because I want to remember these details for years and years to come. Steve and I flew out of Salt Lake City at 7:30 am Thursday the 17th. I wanted to utilize every possible second I could, so I chose the earliest flight possible. If you don’t know my husband, this was indeed a sacrifice from him to me. He’s not your typical early riser. With only an hour flight we made our way and in no time at all landed. I was expecting rain all day and came prepared with my jacket and rain boots. Instead it was the most beautiful weather we could have asked for.  We took the TriMet which dropped us off near our hotel, then walked the rest of the way. Because it was so early we knew our hotel room wouldn’t be ready, so we dropped off our bags and headed out to explore. I had a LONG list of places I wanted to hit up and since Thursday was our only open free day I wanted to cram in as much as possible. And we did. We stumbled upon:

The Energy Bar
1431 SW Park Ave, 
Portland, OR 97201
M-F 6:30 am – 5:00 PM Sat-Sun 7:00 am – 4:00 pm

Which was a match made in heaven for Steve. Not two hours in to the city and #operationmovetoportland was well underway. I just needed to find ways to make Steve fall in love. Fresh juice was an excellent start. He had the Verdi which is kale, spinach, parsley, celery, cucumber, carrot, and a shot of wheatgrass. A concoction identical to something he’d make at home. The owner of the shop was so kind and gave us his recommendation of things we must see during our visit. One of which was the farmers market. We added it to the list.  

From healthy to well, Blue Star Doughnuts. Don’t judge. From the moment I left Oregon in May I longed for the day that I could return and be reunited with Blur Star Doughnuts. Before this, we discovered the Feast Hospitality Lounge by Provenance Hotels at Sentinel. Which was located on the ground floor of the Sentinel Hotel at 614 Southwest 11th Avenue. I retrieved my festival pass and AH-MAZING Feast Portland gift bag.  The hospitality lounge was available throughout the festival weekend from 8am-7pm, Thursday, Sept. 17-Saturday, Sept. 19 to recharge ‘your body, mind, and electronic devices while enjoying beer, wine, and other refreshments from our sponsors’. I snagged my swag and we made our way to The Whole Bowl SW 9th and Alder. In addition to the doughnuts, I had also been dreaming of this bowl for four months. It was every bit as delicious as I remembered it to be. Steve loved it too [#operationmovetoportland]!

Blue Star Doughnuts
3549 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214
Every Day: 8am – 8pm or out

I was every bit as excited as I could have been to go to Blue Star. We started with.. yes, I said started with.. this was the first of several BSD trips during the weekend. We started with the Raspberry Rosemary Buttermilk {for me} which was divine as well as the Buttermilk Old Fashioned {for him} and it was equally divine. I knew I needed to really consider my portions as this day was all about #eatallthefood and I needed to have room for everything I wanted to devour. So I went with the bambino (small) Whole Bowl and one doughnut. 

Our hotel accommodations at the Hotel Modera were perfect. The location was within easy walking distance of all the public transit. We had the most gorgeous view of the courtyard and restaurant area. While we didn’t spend much time in the hotel each day, we did feel comfortable when we were there. After walking a good bit of the city, we got the call that we could check in around 11:30ish and so we headed over to recharge our phones, take off my ridiculous rainboots, unpack my SWAG and take quick power naps. 

Hotel Modera
515 SW Clay St.
Portland, OR 97201

Once rested up a bit with fully charged phones (you know, for all my snapchat needs) we headed back out to head to NW 23rd for a bit more sightseeing and of course, more food.

Once we hit NW23rd we walked the streets to see what we could find. I showed him the Little Big Burger that I had eaten at before, the Salt & Straw (that we’d hit up a short while later) and we passed the Will Leather Goods shop where my fantastic SWAG tote was from. Steve and I love, love, LOVE kombucha and as we were walking around he’d mentioned how nice it would be to find some local kombucha. Not even five minutes later I spotted a sign on the street that read ‘House Brewed Kombucha’. It was a sign [#operationmovetoportland].

Tea Chai Te
724 NW 23rd Ave
Portland, OR 97210
Open Everyday 9am-10pm

‘Tea Chai Te is a peaceful tea shop in Portland, Oregon, specializing in handcrafted and organic tea blends and unique teaware.’ Which totally speaks to me because I love tea just as much (if not more) than kombucha. We tasted the flavors on tap for the day: lavender, ginger, dragonfruit & peach blossom. Steve ended up with Dragon Fruit. It was delicious! Just downstairs I had hit up a delicious cupcake shop, you know, because I needed more sweets.

Saint Cupcake
740 NW 23rd Ave
Portland, OR 97210
Mon – Wed  11-7, Thur – Sat 11-8, Sunday 11-5

I had the Toasted Coconut Cream which was a buttery vanilla cake with toffee bits baked right in, then topped with our classic vanilla cream cheese, and rolled in flakey toasted coconut and Carrot Cake which was moist spiced carrot cake with classic vanilla cream cheese icing. I saved them for later as I wanted to keep room for the ice cream I knew I was going to have. They were my bedtime snack and they were little bites of heaven. DELICIOUS!

Walking around everywhere really made us be able to take in the sights. If I lived here I would certainly buy fresh flowers often because they are everywhere and all of them are so gorgeous! Sammy’s Flowers was just about the cutest little shop I ever did see. It felt like something straight out of a movie. In the parking lot? An adorable little juice shack selling fresh juices. Thank you juice shack (for which I can’t remember the name of) you contributed to my cause[#operationmovetoportland]! Steve was very impressed!

Sammy’s Flowers
2280 NW Glisan Street
Portland, OR 97210
Monday-Saturday 8am-8pm, Sunday 9am-6pm

Sometime before or after this we stopped into the Kitchen Kaboodle to have a quick look around. You know. Because I need more things for our kitchen. Need them or not, I’ll always be up for window shopping anything kitchen related. We then hit up Salt and Straw where I got a split scoop of the Double Fold Vanilla… and one of their seasonal chocolate flavors (of which I can’t remember… boo!). 

Salt and Straw
838 NW 23rd Ave.
Portland, OR 97210
10:00 am – 11:00 pm daily 

I would have waited until after dinner to eat the ice cream but when we walked by there wasn’t a line at all so we seized the opportunity. Generally the line wraps around the building so we took advantage while we could. In true S&S fashion the folks behind the counter were just as sweet as pie.. er.. ice cream? They let us sample everything we wanted. We sampled all of the flavors of the month and a few of the others. Such great customer service.

We continued on our quest to #eatallthefood and made our way to Papa Haydn. I had seen this restaurant on Lauren’s Latest Portland Guide and was excited to check it out. While I wouldn’t say I was hungry per say I did have enough room for a bowl of soup. We ate outside and for a short time were serenaded by some beautiful street music by a very talented saxophone player. It was fun to watch the passers by and enjoy the fantastic weather. 

Papa Haydn
701 NW 23rd Ave
Portland, OR 97210
Mon – Thu 11:30 am – 10 pm, Fri – Sat 11:30 am – midnight, Sun 10 am – 10 pm

I had the French Onion Soup which had an herbed crouton cap, gratinee of parmesan, and gruyere cheeses. Steve had the Chicken Club which had warm pulled roasted chicken, bacon, avocado spread, romaine, tomato, and red onion on como bread. Both were delicious. I wished very much that I had room for dessert as their dessert case was calling my name, but alas, I finally knew where to draw the line for the day.

Just before heading back to the hotel to settle in for the evening we stopped in to the most amazing chocolate and salt shop. I was so baffled that there could be SO many different kinds of chocolate. It was the cutest little store called The Meadow, and the friendliest gal worked there. For most of the time we were looking around we were the only ones in there and got really great one-on-one service. The cute gal told us all about the different varieties, versions, and prices of all the various chocolates. I ended up buying a few of her recommendations: Woodblock Chocolate – Salt, Woodblock Chocolate – Matagascar (both manufactured in Portland) and a bar of XOCOLATL DE DAVID – brown butter. I cannot wait to use them in some recipes, I’ve just got to decide what I want to make exactly! I’ll definitely be sharing the recipes with you when I do.

The Meadow
805 NW 23rd Ave.
Portland, OR 97210
Sun-Thurs 10:00 am – 8:00 pm, Fri-Sat 10:00 am – 9:00 pm

All in all it was the most wonderful day and we saw just about everything I wanted to see and ate just about everything I wanted to eat (for that day anyway). It was the perfect introduction to the city for Steve and I couldn’t have been more pleased. We soaked up every moment and enjoyed the quality time together. For our first day I’d definitely say we #nailedit. 

A very special thank you to Feast Portland and Travel Oregon for providing travel and hotel accommodations as well as a blogger pass to the 2015 Feast Portland Event. Though flight, hotel and blogger pass were provided complimentary, I was not monetarily compensated for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.