Vegan Portlandia Restaurants With Available Fart Zone?

April 26, 2015 2:10 PM

Six days in Portland, OR, next week (May 3rd-9th). Interesting places to eat, sketch, or both?

The Fatbirds are coming to Portland for the first week of May, staying in a friend's place in The Pearl. We're open to doing cool touristy things, but generally we prefer to hang out where the locals do and just get a feel for daily living. Lately we've been doing sketching vacations where we'll park ourselves for a while and just draw what's around us (working in a sketchbook, not setting up a portable easel).

We're looking for recommendations on places to eat--veggie option is a must, but high or low end is fine since we'll be doing both. Specifically, food cart recommendations would be great. But we're also looking for recommendations on cool things to see and do, especially if they're the sort of thing where sitting for a while and drawing it is welcome (though certainly not required). Urban scenery, museums/galleries, coffee shops are all great--we're not much on sketching trees and fields, though if goats or chickens are present, we're totally into that.

We'll have a car, so distance isn't an issue. We'll definitely be hitting the gardens and donut shops mentioned in this earlier question.

posted by fatbird to Travel & Transportation around Portland, OR (9 answers total)

You'll want to go to the Portland Art Museum, which is on the Park Blocks, and which would be a fine place to sit and sketch too. I'd not drive, though. Plan to take public transportation (very easy from the Pearl) and not bother with your car for this particular trip. There's a large pod of food carts a few blocks away, at SW 10th and Stark, and you'll find plenty of vegan options there. Yelp is good for reviews.

I wouldn't worry too much about avoiding hoards of tourists. For example, lots of tourists rent bikes, but lots of locals ride bikes, too. So you might do some exploring that way, too.

NE Alberta and N Mississippi are also nice streets/neighborhoods to explore, and will certainly have vegan options.

You could pick a new neighborhood each day, and walk til you find a coffee shop that looks interesting. What you are looking for is quite easy to find here. Though I'm not sure how urban much of the city will feel. Outside of the Pearl and downtown, many close-in neighborhoods don't feel super urban.
posted by bluedaisy at 2:38 PM on April 26, 2015

Cathedral park is quite nice for urban scenery, sort of. More trees than not, but that bridge…Easily one of the top five bridges on the west coast. It's a really attractive bridge. It's a bit of a haul away from the center of town, but if you've got a car you'll be in great shape. Hanging out in St Johns isn't half bad, there are certainly treats to be had there.
posted by furnace.heart at 3:35 PM on April 26, 2015

We really enjoyed our meal at Natural Selection. We had reservations.
posted by anya32 at 5:01 PM on April 26, 2015

If you go to Cathedral Park, stop by Proper Eats. It's a great little vegan cafe-style restaurant.
posted by aniola at 8:36 PM on April 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

There's a couple of recommended vegan restaurants on the east-side-- the Sudra (NE 24/Glisan) has pretty great vegan Indian food, and has outdoor seating which might be nice for relaxing/drawing, and I've heard good things about Canteen (SE 28/Stark). Laurelhurst Park is pretty close from there and is great to go draw too.

Other fun places to sketch: the Park Blocks, Mt. Tabor, Thousand Acres Park, Union Station, the Arboretum, Japanese Garden/Rose Garden, the waterfront,etc.
posted by actionpact at 12:07 AM on April 27, 2015

My favorite always-gotta-eat-there Portland restaurant is Blossoming Lotus. Organic vegan fusion cuisine, and quite delicious. They have an outdoor seating area where you could probably sit and sketch for a while.
posted by isthmus at 11:27 AM on April 27, 2015

Wolf & Bear's is a vegetarian falafel cart. That labneh, dude. Multiple locations.

Potato Champion is a frite food truck. Veggie poutine or the PB&J fries are highly recommended.
posted by Juliet Banana at 12:08 PM on April 27, 2015

I present, Food Fight's Vegan Guide to PDX.

Also, yes, please visit Proper Eats in St. John's. Have the tempeh nachos with cashew cheese. They are amazing.
posted by ainsley at 4:47 PM on April 27, 2015

Check out the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in SE Portland. It's gorgeous there this time of year. Also, as others have mentioned Cathedral Park and Laurelhurt Park are really nice.
For vegan/vegeratian food, try Portobello Vegan Trattoria, also in SE. Sweetpea Baking Co, again also in SE, has some yummy vegan desserts.
posted by toska at 6:20 AM on April 29, 2015