Hasta La Ideas

Where to find a flannel, eat a slaw burger and cheer on the home teams in the beautiful City of Roses

Nestled between the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Portland might be best known for its incredible number of rainy days. That hasn’t stopped creative types—Wieden & Kennedy and Nike employees to the many independent artists and entrepreneurs—from flocking. Even worthy of parody in the miniseries Portlandia, there’s perhaps no U.S. city that has embraced progressive “eco-chic” values, turning the challenges of sustainable living into opportunities to innovate, more than the City of Roses. To get the real Portland experience from an insider perspective, check out our all-new Portland installment of CH Local—highlights from the guide below.

The Woodlands

On a side street in Old Town, The Woodlands is the ultimate purveyor of Northwest style, a one-stop shop for the finest menswear and accessories from a number of companies such as Pendleton, Danner, Archival Clothing and Tanner Goods and Field Notes, all homegrown in Oregon. Even if shopping isn’t on your agenda, stop by for a free cup of Sisters Coffee (roasted in Central Oregon), best enjoyed while perusing the rotating gallery in the back.

Little Bird

New to the Portland landscape, the friendly French bistro Little Bird has caused a big stir amongst the city’s thriving foodie community. Under the guise of award-winning chef Gabriel Rucker, Little Bird offers a simple mix of classic and contemporary French cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere. Go for the famous Le Pigeon burger, a slaw-covered natural beef patty borrowed from their sister restaurant Le Pigeon, another local favorite.

Spirit of 77

Named for the one and only time the Trailblazers won an NBA championship title, Spirit of 77 is a great place to enjoy a local craft beer while cheering on the Oregon Ducks or checking out Portland’s new MLS team, The Timbers. Owners Jack Baron (co-owner of the Ace Hotel) and Nate Tilden (owner of the restaurant Clyde Common, as well as NYC’s The Beagle) have created another go-to locale with this retro-designed sports bar. Decorated with Northwest-centric athletic memorabilia, there’s also plenty of ways to have a friendly game of your own with their array of dartboards, foosball tables and basketball hoops. As an added bonus, the massive space is just a short walk from the Rose Garden, the Blazers’ home court, making it perfect for a pre- or post-game rendezvous.

Luxury living for the urban hen

The team at NYC’s multi-disciplinary studio RAAD have re-invented the urban chicken residence. The Chicken Co-Op is a multi-level living space for city dwelling poultry.

Designed from the bottom up to be at “the forefront of sustainability,” the Co-Ops are composed of acrylic sheets and exterior grade plywood, which separates the three floors—each catering to a specific lifestyle. The ground floor comprises the “Run Area,” a general living space where the tenants can exercise and interact. This is underneath an open mezzanine that leads up to the “Egg Lounge,” a perching area where the chickens can roost (and potentially romance) in the evenings before retiring to one of four private luxury spaces that also act as egg collection stations. All of these features are cleverly presented in a modern real estate style brochure

In addition to providing some happy hens with great views and loft-like living, the Co-Op is also designed for easy interaction. The main living space slides out for easy cleaning and each nesting area has a back panel that opens for convenient early morning egg collection. The space also includes a storage closet for feed and bedding supplies, and uses passive heating methods—including a solar powered fan for cooling down the coop during hotter months.

With floor plans better than some NYC apartments, the Chicken Co-Op provides a well-designed solution for intrepid urbanites who want farm fresh eggs. You can purchase your own feathered-friend highrise from the online store for $3,500.

Inside an Oregon clothing plant that’s reinventing “Made in the U.S.A.”

Just because a designer is local—whether in Austin, TX or Florence, Italy—doesn’t necessarily mean the garments were made there—or even in the same country. Thanks to fast fashion, there’s now a better-than-likely chance that even such smaller-batch production was outsourced to Asia. “Of course it’s deceptive, to say that clothes were made in the United States when they were really made in China,” said Britt Howard, founder and co-owner of the Portland Garment Factory. “Like clothes that say they’re made in Italy, when they’re only hand-finished there. Or they’ll sew the buttons on.”

Howard, a mother of two and sometime model, discovered this gap in the American indie production process in 2008 after trying and failing to find a local manufacturer for her line of baby clothing. She opened a tiny storefront to sew for Portland’s growing legion of independent designers (that includes three competitors and two winners of the reality show Project Runway) and two years, more than a few eighty-hour work weeks, and a business partner (Rosemary Robinson) later, PGF is now a booming enterprise. Today, the upstart completes orders for clients as far-flung as New York and Los Angeles in an airy new warehouse space in Portland’s bustling Montavilla neighborhood.

“It’s been like, zero to sixty for us,” Robinson described. “We’re thinking about opening another location, maybe in San Francisco or Austin. But we’d want to keep it personal, to be able to keep that close relationship with the people we work with.”

And being a local manufacturer does enable PGF to have a more involved relationship with their clients. As their motto says, “We got your back.” Unlike overseas manufacturers, they’ll produce lots of as small as twenty units as well as in the thousands. Along with an army of eager interns, the plant also provides design consulting services, and Howard often finds herself serving as a de facto business counselor. “Sometimes I feel like I’m giving a seminar everyday,” Howard said with a laugh. “This is your retail price, and this is your wholesale price.”

For small designers, PGF’s prices are comparable to—and the timeframe infinitely friendlier than—sending garments halfway around the world. That’s in addition to higher-quality craftsmanship, as well as the assurance that it’s sewn with pride by workers who are treated well. Leanne Marshall’s graceful, ballet-inspired collections and Paloma Soledad’s sultry gowns are only two of the many lines that are turning to the Factory—proof that just maybe that “Made in the U.S.A.” label will stand for something once again.

Raw unfiltered honey produced in Seattle backyards

Corky Luster is a Seattle-based certified beekeeper. Two years ago he launched Ballard Bee, an enterprise he calls an “urban pollination company.” His fast-growing initiative includes 60 onsite beehives at his Northwest Seattle home, plans to expand to 100 in the coming year and hives placed throughout his neighborhood. Luster maintains the hives and compensates sponsors for their time and the use of their property with jars of Ballard honey—a deal so sweet that next season’s spots are already filled.

Each jar’s laboratory-inspired packaging lends a modern feel to the product, while the honey itself actually comes in a more natural state than most conventional brands. Whereas many mass producers heat their honey and press it through very fine filters which not only destroys natural enzymes but also alters the taste, Luster’s honey is raw and unfiltered.

Ballard honey sells in 22-ounce jars at vendors throughout the Northwest, as well as online from Blackbird for $21 per jar.

A Minneapolis production company by day and art gallery by night

Runner Runner Gallery, a new art space within a production studio, will open its second show, featuring the recent work of Minneapolis-based artists Brian Lesteberg and James Holmberg. In the heart of the warehouse district, the interdisciplinary venue is a welcomed gesture in the Minneapolis art scene. Next Thursday’s opening for the show, inviting likeminded students and professionals from the film, advertising, and music industries to come together, embodies the ethos of the project. “It’s sort of a party for art,” describes jMatt Keil, Runner Runner’s vice president of business development. “We’re really excited to show our support and to put on a night of great entertainment.”

The show itself positions Holmberg’s large-scale dreamy photographs against selections from Lesteberg’s most recent project, Raised To Hunt, a document of the journey of hunters through northern Minnesota. Many of the photographs show vast expanses of frozen landscape but after a closer look, an impression of either the killer or the killed— whether drops of blood or a silhouetted parka—emerges. Jarring, intentional violence brings with it a deep sense of natural validation for Lesteberg’s hunters. The extreme photographic detail brings to life even the most banal parts of the killing process, a startling honesty that has something in common with fellow Minnesotan Alec Soth’s 8 x 10 field format.

Like Lesterberg’s photographs, Holmberg’s massive canvases take up the entire field of vision, but that’s where the similarity ends. Holmberg’s paintings confront the viewer with a vast wash of minimal color textured with abstract blobs of pigment. Immediately recalling the softly-focus drive-by shots of “Taxi Driver,” Holmberg’s cinematic style makes the production company/gallery venue all the more appropriate. Runner Runner Gallery’s high ceilings and cement floors, don’t hurt either artists’ works either.

Runner Runner shares the space with affiliate companies Fischer Edit/FX and Modern Music. All three post-production companies thrive together within this collaborative workspace. “In some ways,” explains curator Luke Erickson, “Runner Runner seems like a healthier gallery space, not to mention a model for the business of exhibition, than many I’ve visited.”

“It’s not surprising that it would start here,” says Ian Bearce, executive producer at Runner Runner. “When we’re not in the office, we’re deejaying, playing in touring bands, painting, making films. We’re thrilled to find another way to participate in the local scene.”

The show opens this Thursday, November 18 from 6-9pm and runs through the next few months.