Portland, on the United States’ Pacific Northwest coast, is shaping up as the new Seattle/Melbourne, with its passion for indie music, coffee and cycling. Oregon’s low-rise, river-bestriding capital has long taken a creative approach to city planning, ensuring its heritage architecture remains pristine and independent stores, arts spaces, bars and cafés flourish.

Nicknamed Stumptown for its lack of skyscrapers, it’s also handy for snowboarding and trekking in the surrounding wilderness or quaffing in the Willamette Valley vineyards. Check out This breezy city is best explored on two wheels, so hire a bike and pedal to the Pearl. Once a decaying warehouse district in downtown, it’s been transformed into a hub of galleries, boutiques, restaurants and performance venues.

For snowboarding at nearby Mount Hood, head for Timberline Lodge ski school or escape for some whale-watching, wine tours or wild times with Eco Tours of Oregon. Buy up Portland’s music scene has spawned hipster bands including The Dandy Warhols, The Gossip and The Decemberists; snap up old-school local vinyl or CDs at 2nd Avenue Records. Find covetable homewares at Canoe (www.canoeonline.net; 1136 SW Alder).

For savvy womenswear, try Una (922 SE Ankeny) or hit Hattie’s Vintage Store at 729 E Burnside Street. 

Dine out Chilled-out Euro-style tavern Clyde Common (1014 SW Stark Street) does a mean brunch (with cocktails!), with hearty peasant food for lunch or dinner, and a late-opening bar. Pop to Kenny & Zukes deli (1038 SW Stark Street) for pastrami on rye. Smart dining beckons at Le Pigeon (738 E Burnside Street) or you can’t beat Ken’s Artisan Pizza (304 SE 28th Avenue). 

Drink up Sample the local beans at Stumptown Coffee Roasters; there’s a branch at 1026 SW Stark Street off the Ace Hotel Portland’s lobby. Microbreweries rule here, so sip on craft beers at boho Lucky Labrador Brew Pub (915 SE Hawthorn Boulevard) or go on a breweries tour care of Distillery Row. For over 50 wines by the glass, try Navarre (10 NE 28th Street). Crash out Book into budget-boutique Jupiter Hotel in Portland,a funky mid-century motel built around one of the city’s best live music venues, with free coffee and WiFi, and guest bikes for rent. Hearty, seasonal meals are served in the Doug Fir Lounge and Cowboy Coffee cocktails in the futuristic-meets-Wild West bar.

Party with the bands after hours at the Lounge’s muso space; no need to worry about stumbling home. For more stylish getaways visit Mr & Mrs Smith’s collection of boutique hotels and holiday houses. Book through Smith for exclusive extras at all stays, including a bottle of prosecco and free parking at Jupiter Hotel.

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Self-deprecation and puns unite. Dull and Boring officially exist in the world. To be exact, the village of Dull exists in Perthshire, Scotland, while the town of Boring exists in Oregon, US. Makes me wonder what they do for fun there.  

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Noticed the uprise of bikes taking hold in your city? Cycling is the new modern transport option, but bike designs are feeling like yesterday. Enter the Oregon Manifest Constructor’s Design Challenge, a design/build competition challenging bespoke bike craftsmen, designers and students to develop the ultimate modern utility bike.

What’s a utility bike? A better bike designed for the everyday rider. Judging the entries will be a design/cycling panel that includes shoe designer Tinker Hatfield and Rob Forbes, founder of Design Within Reach and PUBLIC bikes. Oregon Manifest has also paired global design firms — Yves Behar/Fuseproject, IDEO, and Ziba Design — with bike craftsmen to develop three exhibition bikes aimed at pushing the parameters of what a modern transport bike can be. Ride on!

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It’s no secret that Portland, Oregon is food nerd heaven. Innovative restaurants, giant farmer’s markets, trendsetting chefs, and an engaged and voraciously hungry public all make this Pacific Northwest town sizzling hot. As you might imagine, speciality stores must be nothing short of spectacular to keep the attention of their particular clientele. And Cacao, a shop in the heart of Portland, exceeds chocolate lovers expectations.

The serious chocolate hound will be floored by the variety and sheer amount of chocolate. It offers premium chocolate from 35+ producers from all over the world in the shape of bars, handmade confections, and even a line of signature drinking chocolate. The hushed atmosphere, perfectly curated displays, well informed staff, and brisk temperature (the store’s thermostat is set to cool to keep the chocolate happy) reminds us of a museum. A delicious museum…Just go and thank us later!

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If you think IKEA is the only company making its furniture in jail, then think again. Prison Blues clothing — ‘made on the inside to be worn on the outside’ — is manufactured right inside Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, Oregon, by volunteering inmates, who are paid industry wages.

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Think your pancake-flipping skills can rival those of the greatest line cooks? Head over to Slappy Cakes Restaurant — another killer concept born in foodie-friendly Portland, Oregon — and you can find everything you need to put your abilities to the test. Choose from a variety of batters and toppings, then get to work at one of the griddles that are built right into all of the restaurant’s tables. And you can get pretty creative. Think buckwheat pancakes with cheddar cheese and crumbled sausage, or ginger pancakes with apples and lavender honey. At Slappy Cakes, it’s all up to you.

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Like its name, Beast is straightforward and simple. This Portland-based restaurant offers up prix-fixe six-course menus of uncomplicated yet refined dishes. Each week the cuisine changes according to apparent inspiration from the fields, forests, and moods of the owner and her culinary team. Foie gras bons bons may share the menu with pork, pork liver, and sour cherry pate.

Maple mustard sauce with shaved Brussels sprouts sit side-by-side with baked warm truffled potato salad with goat cheese and watercress — last week at least. To up this mouth-watering, French-grandmother-esc menu, splurge for the wine pairing. The comforting food and wine are matched perfectly with the cozy space. Like its cuisine, Beast boasts an open kitchen, chalkboard walls, communal tables, and clear elements of Portland style. So, when it comes to edging ahead in the up-and-coming Portland food scene, chilled out Beast is the place to beat.

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YACHT founding members Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans live in Portland, Oregon and Marfa, Texas, and consider themselves ‘generalists’ in the fields of music, art, writing, and everything in between. Their new album, See Mystery Lights, has just been released, along with companion materials ranging from book and mixtapes to a limited-edition playable copper record of mantras. We checked in with Jona to get his thoughts on the music that inspired their own album and he started with the Radha Krishna Temple song, Hare Krishna Mantra: ‘A not-so-secret-thing about YACHT is that when we see Hare Krishna monks dancing down the street in their orange robes and shaved heads, it takes a great deal of self-control for us not to run after them. This is not to say that we want to stop them or join them. We just want to see what happens at the end of the chase’. Read the rest of Yacht’s Secret Playlist.
[audio:http://m.esotericteaching.org/CD_06-5__Hare_Krsna_Maha_Mantra.mp3]

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I wish I could remember where I first stumbled across the work of Oregon artist and illustrator Evan B Harris, but I’m glad I did. There’s an innate sweetness, a comforting whimsical quality in Harris’ work that, coupled with his rich narratives, makes me want to hunt for that old teddy bear I used to curl up with and wash down the nostalgia with strong mug of steaming hot chocolate.

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Oregon-based Michael Salter works in that strange nexus between art and design. ‘I am critically looking at visual culture, extracting information and synthesizing my own new language in response. My work is usually realized in art installations in galleries, project spaces and museums. Currently my giant Styrobot is in the San Jose Museum of Art for a show they have opening up on April 12th about the robot’s evolution as a cultural icon’. The work shown above, a slip cast ceramic sculpture called subzero, was shown at Salter’s first New York solo show last January at the Jeff Bailey Gallery.

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Leave it to perennially crunchy Portland, Oregon, to open the world’s first vegan strip club. Casa Diablo, opened by Johnny Diablo (the mastermind behind the pirate-themed family vegan restaurant), features a full menu of egg, dairy, and meat free bar food. The only flesh to be found at this establishment is, as Johnny puts it, ‘on the pole’.

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