Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(The Bean was a cocktail lounge of the sort that practically guaranteed
your date would go well—it was one of the first cool, stylish places to get
masterfully crafted grown-up cocktails in Portland.) The Pope House
has a gorgeous outdoor garden for fair-weather seating, plus many
shelves of whiskey, hardwood floors, and a rifle behind the bar inside.
Go back up Glisan to NW 21st Ave. and take a right. Just past NW
Hoyt St. you'll come to Cinema 21, one of the best movie theaters left
standing (in Portland or anywhere). It's a single-screen theater from the
1960s that now shows top-notch art-house films, and whatever it has
booked is always worth checking out (with the possible exception of
The
Room,
the inexplicably popular
Rocky Horror
-like movie that screens
here once a month). Cinema 21 also frequently holds well-chosen reviv-
als, recently including a night of Bogart classics, several days of second-
tier but still great film-noir titles, and a week or so of Hitchcock
movies—in 35 mm, of course. And it's the headquarters for a number of
local and regional film festivals. Seats are supercomfy, and beer and
wine are now available.
Continuing along NW 21st Ave., you'll find an ever-shifting lineup of
restaurants and bars, some of which have been around forever (The
Gypsy; the 21st Avenue Bar & Grill, with the unlikeliest of secret gar-
dens on its lovely back patio) and many that will have vanished and re-
appeared in another incarnation by the time this topic hits shelves. One
of the better choices is Muu-Muu's, next door to Cinema 21, for good
food and drinks in a cozy, only slightly kitschy atmosphere.
Just past NW Johnson St., on the left, is the Laura Russo Gallery. Russo
died in 2010, but the gallery, established in 1986, continues to be an im-
portant fixture in the Portland art scene (after Russo died, her longtime
assistant took over running the gallery and has kept it pretty much the
same). Russo was a major player in bringing wider attention to some of
the most important artists of the Pacific Northwest, and the gallery
helped establish many of the region's big names, including Henk
Pander, Lucinda Parker, Tom Cramer, and Mary Josephson. Stop in for
an efficient lesson in the art of the region, past and present.
At NW Northrup St., turn left, then take a right onto NW 23rd Ave.
Just past NW Overton St. you'll see the huge, vividly pastel confection
that is the New Renaissance Bookshop, a new-age bookstore occupying
three storefronts. Pick up a meditation calendar or some wind chimes,
