Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
to the back, but that's somehow less exciting.) The Over and Out is a
boxy, relaxed space with pool tables and pinball, an excellent cocktail
menu, and several of the same food items you can get in the restaurant
(plus a great happy-hour selection).
Continue to make your way along SE Stark St., which as you'll notice is
a small but recently expanding commercial stretch, with fancy new
cocktail lounges and bike shops mixed in among places that have been
here since before it was cool, like Portland Tub and Tan. (Hot tubs by
the hour? Nothing sketchy about that what-soever!) On the right, just
before SE 80th Ave., is Ya Hala Lebanese Restaurant, an excellent
choice if you're hungry; it's one of the longer-established restaurants
along this stretch. Next door to it, and owned by the same friendly fam-
ily, is a small international grocery and supplies store, where you can
get orange-flower water, gorgeous-smelling olive soap, Mediterranean
cooking supplies, cheese, tea and spices, baked goods, and many other
things.
In the next block of Stark is The Country Cat, one of the first restaur-
ants here to get attention from folks outside the neighborhood. The
family-owned place serves snazzed-up home-style American classics for
dinner nightly, but it's perhaps even more universally loved as a brunch
spot. At the end of the block is the Bipartisan Cafe, a stellar coffee shop
that also makes fantastic pies and pastries. Like pretty much all of the
businesses on this stretch, both of these places are noticeably kid-
friendly; The Country Cat has a children's menu, and the Bipartisan
has a play corner and is usually full of at least as many strollers as
laptops.
Diagonally across the street from the Bipartisan is another of Portland's
great beer-and-pizza second-run movie houses, the Academy Theater.
Built originally in 1948 as a single-screen theater, it had been closed and
languishing since the 1970s before it was bought, restored, and reopened
in 2006 as a multiscreen second-run theater and pub. (Along with 10
microbrews on tap, the theater serves pizza from the next-door Flying
Pie Pizzeria, an old-school favorite.) It's both kid- and parent-friendly:
before 8 p.m. the theater offers babysitting services, which means you
only have to watch that Disney-princess movie if you
really
want to.
Walk another block or so along SE Stark St. to return to the farmers'
market and the route's starting point.
