Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Diagonally across Sandy is what used to be known as the 7-Up Building,
although these days its bottle-shaped tower has a Budweiser sign where
the 7-Up sign used to be. Before its decades-long run as the 7-Up Build-
ing (which lasted from the 1940s through 2002), this was the Steiger-
wald Dairy bottling plant, and the current cylindrical tower was actu-
ally milk-bottle-shaped. (The original bottle is still there, inside and un-
derneath the cylinder, like a huge Russian nesting doll, and allegedly it
can be glimpsed if you peek through the windows from the proper angle
in just the right light.) The dairy opened in 1926 and was one of the first
places to set up an automated bottling process. Its 75-foot-high tower
was the tallest building in Portland for a while. The dairy closed in
1936, and the tower took on its new shape shortly thereafter.
Backtrack up NE Sandy to NE 40th Ave., where you'll take a left over
to NE Hancock St. At the corner is a great refueling spot inside the old
public library building: Fleur de Lis, an artisan bakery run by Greg
Mistell, who used to manage the Hollywood Farmers Market and, more
to the point, once owned Pearl Bakery. It's very kid-friendly and is one
of the few coffee shops in town without Wi-Fi, in case you're looking for
a mini-vacation from technology. Try one of the enormous cinnamon
rolls—
The Oregonian
called them the best in Portland, and they're
surely the biggest—or a panini on rustic bread. The Fleur de Lis also
supplies its bread to several of the city's best sandwich shops. Keep in
mind that this is a popular neighborhood stop, so if you want the best
selection of pastries, get here early.
Keep going up NE 40th Ave. toward NE Tillamook St. On your left,
where there is now a McDonald's, was the late, lamented Yaw's Top
Notch Restaurant, a beloved drive-in burger joint that thrived during
the sudden boom of car culture along Sandy Blvd. in the 1950s and '60s.
Yaw's was one of the key stops for guys and dolls out cruisin' on a
Saturday night. As the story goes, a traffic cop used to keep the wild
youngsters in line by handing out Tootsie Rolls. Yaw's closed in 1982,
after 56 years, but the owner and some of the original staff are planning
to reopen it in another location, several blocks farther east in the Gate-
way neighborhood.
At NE Tillamook St., turn right to pass the new Multnomah County
Library; this branch is another example of the library's participation in
