Where to stay

Ace Hotel Portland

On the edge of the Pearl District, this is the original from the chic budget boutique chain that is turning heads the world over (now in London too). It offers a youthful, can-do exuberance and a notable restaurant, Clyde Common, next to the lobby. Doubles from £93. 1022 SW Stark Street, 00 1 503 228 2277, acehotel.com

Jupiter Hotel

Part kitsch motel, part cool designer pad, this former mid-century motor inn, minutes from downtown, offers 80 rooms and a suite, with murals ranging from forest scenes to Spider-Man. Doubles from £90. 800 E Burnside Street, 00 1 503 230 9200, jupiterhotel.com

The Heathman Hotel

Art deco interiors and dozens of Andy Warhol lithographs give this smart downtown hotel, attached to the concert hall, a quietly classical feel. Add to that a stellar restaurant, plus the city’s best chocolate shop, Cacao, and you’re sorted. Doubles from £155. 1001 SW Broadway at Salmon, 00 1 503 241 4100, heathmanhotel.com

The Nines

Occupying the top nine floors of the historic Meier & Frank Building, with Macy’s department store beneath, this luxury hotel boasts 318 rooms and 13 suites. Check out the 400-piece art collection, and the chic top-floor restaurant, Departure (see Where to Eat). Doubles from £127. 525 SW Morrison Street, 00 1 877 229 9995, thenines.com

Travel Information

Portland, Oregon, is situated near the coast (about an hour and a half’s drive away) in the Pacific Northwest region of the US. Time is eight hours behind the UK, and currency is the US dollar. The weather starts to warm up from May, reaching average highs of 20°C, and average lows of 9°C. Journey time from London Heathrow is about 19 hours.

GETTING THERE

American Airlines (aa.com) flies from London Heathrow to Portland via Chicago daily.
Delta (delta.com) flies from London Heathrow to Portland via Amsterdam daily (first leg of journey operated by KLM).

RESOURCES

Travel Portland (travelportland.com). The tourist board gives suggestions on shopping, events and sightseeing alongside practical advice and history.

Travel Oregon (traveloregon.com). Contact the state tourist board on 01326 250213 or oregon.uk@btinternet.com for information, free guides and maps.

FURTHER READING

Le Pigeon by Gabriel Rucker (Ten Speed Press, £30). If you’re going to buy just one cookbook from a top Portland chef, make it this one. It charts the seat-of-its-pants history of Rucker’s landmark restaurant, Le Pigeon, and includes recipes of menu hits such as Elk tongue stroganoff, pork tacos and the popular lamb belly BLT from his second opening, Little Bird.

CARBON COUNTING

If you are conscious about your carbon footprint when flying to Portland, then visit ClimateCare (climatecare.org), where you can make a donation to support environmental projects all over the world, from rainforest restoration to bio-energy schemes. Return flights from London produce 2.24 tonnes CO2, meaning a cost to offset of £16.80.

Where to eat

Ava Gene’s

Stumptown coffee founder turned restaurateur Duane Sorenson opened his second Portland restaurant two winters ago, focusing on Italian food and wine, but with a Pacific Northwest twist. Little tip: the vegetable dishes shine. Book well ahead. From £35. 3377 SE Division Street, 00 1 971 229 0571, avagenes.com

Departure

Elegant Asian fusion is chef Gregory Gourdet’s oeuvre at this super-slick (and oddly very un-Portland) dining spot on the top floor of The Nines hotel. New York-born, marathon-obsessed Gourdet is passionate about Oregon produce, particularly that found in Netarts Bay, including oysters, salt and sea beans. From £35. 525 SW Morrison Street, 00 1 503 802 5370, departureportland.com

Ned Ludd

Owner Jason French relies almost exclusively on a wood-fired hearth to serve up locally raised and locally grown ingredients at his northeast restaurant, which he proudly refers to as an ‘American craft kitchen’. Imaginative Sunday brunch menu options include biscuits and smoked salmon gravy. From £32. 3925 NE Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, 00 1 503 288 6900, nedluddpdx.com

Olympic Provisions

Home to Oregon’s first USDA-approved salumeria, this warehouse-kitchen turns out hearty meat dishes and some seriously good homemade sausage. Come for Sunday brunch of hot ham in brioche with cheddar, eggs and aioli. Ham brioche £6. 107 SE Washington Street, 00 1 503 954 3663, olympicprovisions.com

Ox Restaurant

Argentina and Spain are the key inspirations behind husband and wife chef team Gregory and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton’s hugely popular, no-reservations restaurant. Come for the custom-made wood-fired grill cooking up homemade sausages and juicy cuts. From £30. 2225 NE Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, 00 1 503 284 3366, oxpdx.com

Pok Pok

What chef-owner Andy Ricker doesn’t know about Thai food isn’t worth knowing – winning plaudits for his landmark Portland restaurant. Such is his success that Ricker has since opened several more, scattered between two coasts. Reservations accepted for groups of five or more. From £25. 3226 SE Division Street, 00 1 503 232 1387, pokpokpdx.com

Tasty n Alder

The best breakfast in town can be found daily at this downtown eatery (served from 9am to 2pm). As the 80s hits play (The Cure and Tears for Fears are to the fore), nibble on chocolate potato doughnuts (£1) and tuck into patatas bravas with over-easy eggs and aioli (£4.50). 580 SW 12th Avenue, 00 1 503 621 9251,tastyntasty.com

The Parish

Oysters are the dish to try at this seafood-oriented restaurant in the Pearl District – best downed at the long bar. You could start lunch with an oyster shooter (£2.25), a fresh oyster with vodka and a spicy bloody Mary mix; followed by an oyster po’boy, coated in cornmeal and deep-fried (£7). 231 NW 11th Avenue, 00 1 503 227 2421, theparishpdx.com

Food Glossary

Food and Travel Review

Think bohemian theme park. Tucked away in the Pacific Northwest, Portland, Oregon, is a progressive, liberal, hipster enclave attracting residents and visitors for its alternative music scene, vintage clothing stores and zero sales tax. Many here sport trendy tattoos but what Portlanders put on the inside matters too. This is a place where artisan food is a religion, where craft beer is a cult and where the vegan cupcake rules.

But before you start thinking that perhaps they are taking themselves a tad too seriously, cue Portlandia. An exaggerated, dreamy version of the city is presented in the hit satirical comedy sketch show aired all over the US (and in the UK, courtesy of Netflix). Now in its fourth season, it’s a must watch for any visitor, not least because it’s all filmed in Portland. ‘It’s a city where young people go to retire. An alternative universe where cars don’t exist, and there are lots of bicycles,’ quips a character in the first episode.

There really are lots of young people here, and they really do cycle a lot – there are even grants available for businesses wanting to convert their precious parking spaces into bicycle racks. The city has plans to increase bike usage by 25 per cent by 2030. It’s certainly the place to buy stylish leather panniers for your bike back home (check out queenbee-creations.com on N Williams Avenue).

Five minutes in a cab and we arrive at our first dining destination, Ox Restaurant. Amid the hardcore veganism that thrives in the city there is an unapologetic meat fest going on. But we’re talking meat with provenance – they know the name of the beast, details of its feed, and the size of the field it grazed in. And we’re also talking meat grilled over an open flame – the latest kitchen trend here. The flames don’t get much bigger than at Ox. Ever since chef-owner Gregory Denton opened the restaurant in 2012 the place has been rammed. Though a little tip – they only accept reservations for groups of six or more, so get here early.

The rather intimidating grill, a focal point for the restaurant, is a complicated system of pulleys and gullies, and was made for them in Michigan by a craftsman who had spent time in the global grill capital of Argentina – and Greg loves it.

‘See where all the fat drips away?’ he says, pointing at a channel down the side, where the fat runs. ‘That way we don’t get any flare- ups – but we don’t waste it either, everything gets utilised. We make a dressing with the fat.’ The Vermont-born chef says he has been inspired by the grill maestros of Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo, northern Spain. ‘A visit there blew me away. What I love about grilling over flame is the simplicity of it. The flavours are so familiar to us – everyone has a grill in the backyard. We’ve taken the primal thing and made it high-end,’ he says, as I tuck into a succulent maple-brined pork loin chop the size of my head.

Ava Gene’s is another landmark Portland restaurant that takes its flame-cooking seriously. And, like Ox, it is relatively new to the scene and has become an instant hit with both diners and critics. It’s the second restaurant from Stumptown Coffee Roasters founder Duane Sorenson and, while the wood-grilled proteins on the Roman-inspired menu are worth shouting about, it’s the fresh, crunchy vegetable sides and salads that are a revelation.

I’ve been making the carrot and beet slaw with pistachios and raisins ever since – one of many star vegetable dishes from chef Joshua McFadden, who used to work at the ground-breaking raw vegan restaurant Roxanne’s near San Francisco. McFadden is even credited with kick-starting the craze for raw kale salad that has spread across the US and beyond.

So it’s with vegetables in mind that we hit the Saturday morning farmers’ market the next day. This has to be one of the best farmers’ markets in the US (if not the best), and certainly rivals any in Europe. Skip breakfast and make tracks to one of the many street-food stalls that set up here, scenting the air with their satisfying aromas.

And the farmers really are local – the furthest they have travelled is two and a half hours – such as Winter Green Farm, in Noti, displaying baskets of shiny Padrón peppers. ‘The larger they get, the spicier they get,’ advises farmer Steve Knox. We spot dozens of different squashes from pale yellow in colour to green stripes, from Persephone Farm in Lebanon, Oregon, whose labelling goes that bit further: the tomatillos come with a recipe for salsa; the chard displays the nutritional benefits. We also find elk and yak meat on the Pine Mountain Ranch stand (yak jerky, anyone?), and chanterelles picked that morning in the woods around Seaside, while a stallholder from Greenwillow Grains extols the virtues of wheatberries, a popular ingredient in Portland’s kitchens. ‘It has lots more protein than rice,’ he explains, before tipping us off about the best farmers’ market breakfast – Verde Cocina’s butternut squash enchiladas made with fresh tortillas, washed down with strawberry juice.

But not before we get the lowdown on kale from Square Peg Farm, which sells four different types, and where shoppers are cramming their baskets with pickling cucumbers and beets (pickling is big around Portland). We leave the market somewhat reluctantly, after stashing gluten-free blueberry and lime curd pies from cake stall Queen of Hearts to snack on later.

Portlanders don’t have to wait until the farmers’ market sets up to fill their boots with freshly picked produce. There are plenty of urban farmers right here within the city limits. A 15-minute drive from downtown into the northern suburbs takes you to North Williams, where an influx of creative types have made their home, along with a fair number of funky boutiques and notable restaurants. Here, we find Amanda Morse pulling tomatoes from her vines in the middle of a city block, at Blue House Greenhouse Farm, sandwiched between a pizza takeaway and a barbecue joint.

The waist-high fence is easily jumpable yet, incredibly, there’s no issue with produce going missing at night, she tells us, pointing out the peppers, beans and cabbages, which sit side by side on her crowded allotment. Morse gave up her life as an environmental activist to grow vegetables. ‘I was tired of the fight and wanted to do something more proactive, and I love to eat,’ she shrugs.

Growing vegetables is not the only rural activity happening in the heart of the city. Cue the urban winemakers. Oregon’s latest wine country looks a little different – think gritty industrial spaces and not a vine in sight. In among the stylish boutiques and hipster coffee shops, you’ll find an increasing number of wineries.

Portland’s urban wineries aren’t just the talk of the town, they’re the talk of the country, as sommeliers around the US race to list their small-production wines. The Southeast Wine Collective is one such outfit, started by Kate and Tom Monroe, who decided early on that because winery equipment was the biggest expense, a shared space, with shared costs, was the way to go.

‘It’s a brilliant business model. All of us live here in Portland and don’t want to move out to do this. There’s no reason why you can’t truck the grapes in when you are so near to wine country,’ says resident winemaker Vincent Fritzsche.

It’s surreal, to say the least, watching grapes being unloaded onto the busy sidewalk, tipped straight onto the sorting table before being crushed – nine different grape varieties, to be exact, from cabernet franc to chenin blanc, which you can enjoy in the busy wine bar on site. Seven winemakers share the space, buying up fruit from the nearby Willamette Valley, Oregon’s premier winemaking region, which nudges up to Portland’s city limits. All have a day job, though, whether working in the restaurant industry or for the city’s university, like Fritzsche, who spends 30 hours a week on his wines, now in their fifth year of production. This is hobby winemaking with knobs on. ‘I love it – it’s exciting as hell,’ he grins. ‘My goal eventually is to give up the day job and do this full-time.’

Wine isn’t the only beverage attracting column inches in Portland. The city claims to be the craft beer capital of the US. Today, the country as a whole boasts more than 2,500 breweries – up from barely 50 in 1980. It’s a remarkable turnaround for a nation whose beer was until quite recently derided by most drinkers as unspeakably naff (think Budweiser et al). Portland had 70 breweries at the last count, more than anywhere in the US, and locals are faithful to their product – 47 per cent of all draft beer consumed in Oregon is brewed in Oregon, Alex Kurnellar explains.

Kurnellar is the owner of Imperial Bottle Shop and Taproom on SE Division, a new bar-cum-beer-shop that sells a dizzying line-up of Portland and Oregon brews. We try a hoppy Salem beer, Gilgamesh Filbert Lager and one from Hood River, aromatic Double Mountain Lulu Pink Saison, before wobbling out onto the street (they average 7 per cent ABV) to find a food truck, the best match for craft beer.

You won’t find much in the way of fast food in Portland – it’s mostly about the food trucks. Dotted all around, ‘food carts’, as Americans call them, congregate on empty lots and car parks in semi-permanent ‘pods’ – there are six pods in downtown alone, with nearly 700 trucks across Portland. ‘It’s a good way to build a brand,’ says Brett Burmeister, who runs tours of his favourites.

‘Food carts have gone mainstream – they even have their own TV shows now,’ he adds. Indeed, nine vendors have already moved into bricks-and-mortar premises, such as sandwich operator Bunk – and there’s more on the way. Nong’s, with its red shutters and mustard yellow livery, is set to follow suit. It now has an outside catering kitchen plus two trucks, and is everyone’s favourite. Her khao man gai chicken and rice is a must for every visitor.

Among those we try is chef Jason Myers’ Sideshow. Myers has worked in some of the city’s top restaurants but he is now serving fancy £5.50 burgers from his window – Kobe beef cooked with duck fat, in a brioche bun with Gruyère cheese, rocket and a white- truffle mayonnaise. Then there’s ex-Alaska salmon fisherman Roger Mumm’s home-smoked salmon sliders with pineapple teriyaki sauce and baby spinach, prepared in his tiny truck, Salmon Fusion.

The city always looks forward to Feast, the annual food festival, the third edition arriving again this September (feastportland.com). It gathers together the great and the good for a Portland-and-beyond scoffing shindig, where chefs rub shoulders with winemakers, farmers with distillers. In addition to the live demos, sit-down dinners and hands-on classes, there are tasting stations galore, showcasing signature restaurant dishes, such as an eye-opening wheatberry chilli from Pendleton’s Plateau and an unctuous lamb belly BLT from Portland’s Little Bird. Charcuterie that would wow the French comes from city hotspot Olympic Provisions, while visiting New York star chef April Bloomfield serves up her seafood sausage. Yes, the city takes its food very seriously indeed – a gastronomic theme park, you could say. And one I would happily play in anytime.