Portland: a prelude

Last weekend we got to spend a few days in Portland before crossing the border for a wedding in Washington. We're still waiting for our photos to be developed at which point longer, more stimulating posts will be written. But for now I wanted to report on one of my favorite parts of the trip, our unexpected visit to Pastaworks in SE Portland. Like so many of my favorite travel moments, this one was a complete accident. We had walked in to the Powell's Books on Hawthorne in search of cookbooks but were soon distracted by the beautiful row of produce that was in the adjoining room. Intrigued, we quickly left the cookbooks to explore the market next door, which turned out to be one of the best gourmet markets I've been to in the states. It was like someone had hunted around for my most favorite items and kindly placed them all in one store for me. Most impressive was the range of products and services, which went far beyond your standard wine and cheese operation. There was a butcher cutting beautifully marbled dry-aged ribeyes the color of deep crimson (when I asked him how long they had been hanging he said, "oh, we don't sell anything that hasn't hung for at least 30 days") across from him there was a girl cutting fresh pasta for a customer, next to her someone was replenishing a pile of landjäger sausages (my favorite,) and to top it all off they had a wonderful organic produce section. It's definitely the kind of place you want to live down the street from, or above, or in. Which brings me to an important question: how is it that nothing like this exists in Los Angeles? We have access to all the components, someone just needs to put them all together in one place. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the village lifestyle-- I would love nothing more than to spend my days traipsing about town visiting each of my favorite shops, like Belle in the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast. But urban sprawl and rising fuel costs make traipsing hard in LA, which is why having a store like Pastaworks would make so much sense. Of course, I could also just move to Portland...

Pastaworks
3735 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, Oregan 97214
503.232.1010
www.pastaworks.com