Getting a taste for America's super-hip city: A tour of Portland's parks, food trucks and MANY breweries
- The Mail on Sunday's David Whitley hit some of Portland's 71 beer breweries
- He also toured the mass of food trucks he found in a giant downtown car park
- Other highlights included the museum-like Oregon Historical Society
After getting off the train from the airport in the heart of downtown Portland, one thing immediately strikes you. It’s midweek, it’s the business district, yet not a single person is wearing a suit.
A couple of blocks away on Alder Street, a giant car park has been taken over by scores of food trucks.
And they are not content with doling out hot dogs or pretzels, either – everything from Hawaiian and Ethiopian to Iraqi and German dishes is being served. These trucks are taken just as seriously as top restaurants in Oregon’s largest city.
David explored the many sights of Portland, Oregon, pictured, a city which boasts huge parks, museums, and plenty of quirky places to eat and drink
In May, Portland will become the newest direct-flight destination in the US from the UK, with Delta launching a route from Heathrow.
And the unashamed nerdy enthusiasm that goes into the food trucks – as well as pretty much everything else – is what has helped Portland carve a niche. It’s an odd place to visit, as there are few conventional tourist attractions.
But the surrounding parks are huge and fantastic.
The museum-like Oregon Historical Society gives an insight into how enlightened policies in the 1970s preserved green spaces, curbed urban growth and ensured that one per cent of all highway funding went towards cycle paths.
And the World Forestry Center will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about trees.
But otherwise, Portland is very much about what you put in your mouth. In addition to the delicious food on offer, the city is famous for its microbreweries, which is something that every US city likes to brag about, but those boasts seem hollow next to Portland’s.
At Rolling River Spirits, Rick Rickard (left) was serving spicy habanero vodka - and (right) a landmark sign featuring a white stag to welcome visitors to Portland
At the last count, there were 71 breweries in the city, and the Brewvana beer tours aim to introduce visitors to just a few of them.
The tour bus is even licensed as a mobile tasting room, so visitors can keep drinking on board, and it heads out to some unusual breweries, including a former school. This has been converted into a remarkable hotel, restaurant, cinema and brewing complex.
And the DIY bug has spread well beyond beer. This is a city of coffee-roasters, winemakers, ice-cream experimentalists and home bakers turning their passions into a business.
Essentially, Portland is that one hip neighbourhood that other cities have, but spread out across a much wider area.
The newest trend for Portlanders to throw themselves into is distilling. Several have banded together to offer a Distillery Passport, where you can drop in for tastings and a chat with the guys rustling up gins, whiskeys and vodkas.
At Rolling River Spirits, Rick Rickard hands over a habanero (chilli pepper) vodka to suspicious looks.
‘It’s not about the fire – it’s about being able to taste the fruit in the peppers,’ he says.
Well, it wouldn’t be Portland if you weren’t prepared to give something a try, would it?
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