Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Half a block up NE Sandy Blvd. from Clyde's is the interestingly re-
vamped Fire Station 28, originally built in 1913 as a barn, and renov-
ated in 2005. The spiky, glowing sculpture in front of the building is
called
Araminta: Carrying People to Safety,
by Portland artist James M.
Harrison; its title refers to the abolitionist Harriet Tubman (Araminta is
the name she was given at birth).
Continue up Sandy, stopping whenever the craving hits you at any of
the great ethnic restaurants (mostly Thai and Vietnamese) along this
stretch. Save room, though, for at least a couple of the truly excellent
doughnuts at Annie's, just past SE 71st Ave., where Sandy meets NE
Fremont St. There's no atmosphere to speak of here, but you won't need
it: the doughnuts take care of everything. Get an apple fritter—for
starters.
Just across Fremont in a wedge-shaped building is Fairley's Pharmacy,
which is cool not just for its geometrical architecture but also because it
still has an old-fashioned soda fountain, with the counter and barstools
and everything. Fairley's also appeared in Gus Van Sant's 1989 movie
Drugstore Cowboy.
Speaking of movies, just across the street is the single-screen Roseway
Theater, one of the best of many excellent places to see a first-run movie
in Portland. It has a killer sound system and a huge screen, plus loads of
retro charm and popcorn that everyone says is the best in all of Port-
land. (Research on this last topic is still being conducted, but we have no
real reason to doubt the claim.)
A couple of blocks up Sandy, you'll come to a funny-looking bottle-
shaped building painted a disconcertingly murderous shade of red. This
is the Sandy Jug, known these days as Pirate's Cove, and it's an ex-
ample of the mimetic architecture that once made this street so much
fun to cruise up and down. Basically, there used to be a lot of buildings
on Sandy that were shaped like the thing they were selling. Originally
built in 1928-29, the Jug has been an auto mechanic's shop, a café, a
soda shop, a pool hall, and—for the past decade or so—a strip club. For
years it was known both informally and officially as the Sandy Jug, but
it seems to have embraced its new incarnation as Pirate's Cove with sev-
eral nods to swashbuckler decor inside (and, it must be said, abundant
booty).
