Meandering Through Southeast
On the itinerary for Wednesday was Southeast Portland. This quadrant is really large and split into many neighborhoods. Upon the recommendation of a few locals, we included Sellwood and West Moreland. These neighborhoods are far Southeast along the Williamette River and Clackamas County. We also visited a district from last year - Hawthorne. I was really excited for these visits. Like I said, most of the locals highly recommended these neighborhoods.
Sellwood and West Moreland are partitioned off by the river, a new county and a country club. These imaginary borders create a real sense of community inside a vibrant city. The community is centered around the attractions along SE Milwaukie and SE 13h Avenue. We completely walked this circle of streets. We ate our lunch at a Mekong Vietnamese Grill. The meal was unbelievably fresh and full of flavor. You couldn't ask for a better lunch. We really liked this neighborhood. It seemed to have restaurants, bars, shops, grocery stores, awesome houses and even a wildlife refuge! The trip was a great start to our visit of Southeast.
We turned north toward the Hawthorne District. Our first neighborhood in Hawthorne was Richmond or Raven's Wood. A few neat shops and houses line Clinton and Division. Teresa thought Portico was a great home store. At 39th street, we turned north to Hawthorne Blvd. Last year, we explored this street from the Hawthorne Bridge to the Bagdad. We did stop back by the Bagdad, but we only stayed for one drink. We were hungry, and I wanted pizza.
I had planned for our next stop since watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations on the Pacific Northwest. We walked east on Hawthorne into the Mt. Tabor neighborhood. Just over the border is Apizza Scholls. This famous tiny pizza shop features homemade dough. Unless they run out of dough, they are only open from 5pm until 930pm. The owners and chefs call themselves Pizzaiolos - "Pizzaiolos are craftsmen whom have dedicated their life to the perfection of pizza." Isn't that awesome? They focus on hand-crafted dough, oven management and quality ingredients. The combination creates a thin crust pizza next to none. To wash down our meal, we partook of Double Mountain Pale Ale. The subtle but snappy flavor might be one of the best pale ales of the trip! The entire meal was an experience.
To counteract the pounds gained from dinner, we walked through the Belmont district back to Burnside. The walk was beautiful because; we were passing through twilight. I wasn't too excited about the neighborhood. It had is rough spots, but was dotted with some nice shops and bars. We were so full, we didn't stop at one.
Back at the hotel, we promptly feel asleep. I think the day was a complete success. We loved Sellwood and West Moreland. Both lunch and dinner were out of this world! I think, food-wise, this was the best day of our trip. It will be hard to top all the fresh ingredients, amazing perpetration and tasty beer. I can't say enough about the joys of our walk through the Southeast.
