DOWNTOWN PORTLAND OREGON ON A FAMILY SATURDAY NIGHT

Traveling to downtown Portland for a visit, for a look-around?

But you’ve seen the news, the tents, the drugs, the crime.

So have I. It’s a red flag, but not this time.

We took a chance to claim, or reclaim, the Rose City as our own.

When I moved to Portland from Brooklyn, NY in 1979 the good times were already over.

According to the locals where I lived in NW Portland, things were changing and not for the better.

By then my city experience was living in downtown Philadelphia two blocks from city hall, and Brooklyn where I lived a block away from the RR subway station on 33rd and 4th, Sunset Park.

Philadelphia was hardcore urban, Brooklyn even harder. Portland?

Portland was a walk in the park.

Single, unattached, cheap rent, it was a writer’s dream.

I had a restaurant to impress visitors with the best soup and salad combo ever, a grocery store with characters working check-out, and a bar.

The Wheel of Fortune, Paola’s, Valerie’s, and my apartment were my four compass points.

Doesn’t Lovejoy sound like the perfect place to be single and unattached.

It reminded me of Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan which was a fun place to walk around.

All the trees and low brick buildings were a relief from steel and glass towers.

I walked and rode my bike all over town since I didn’t have a car and had no plans for a car.

If I needed to go further, there was a Tri-Met bus up the street.

But walking around was the best way to see my new city.

Neil Lomax and the Portland State Vikings were lighting up Civic Stadium during football season; the Triple A Portland Beavers had it going during baseball season.

But the locals said it was all passed, the good times were gone and never to return.

What a bunch of losers.

 

The Portland Walk 

I’d get up early and walk from NW21st down to the Willamette.

My route cut a diagonal path down every alley and oneway street along the way because why not?

It wasn’t some unknown territory like Brooklyn or Philly where you needed to identify with the locals to pass through.

There was a different feel to the place in the early eighties before the big buildings started going up. 

Sometimes my walk took me past Jakes Famous Crawfish.

It looked nice enough, but I was a young guy looking in at older people looking out.

And then?

The story is if you live long enough you play many roles.

I’ve seen Jakes from both sides now, from in and out, and still somehow it’s a great night out.

Considered one of the top ten seafood restaurants in the nation, Jake’s Famous Crawfish has been a downtown Portland landmark for more than 127 years.

What makes it so special?

 

JAKE’S FAMOUS ÉTOUFFÉE

Crawfish Tails, Chicken & Shrimp in a Spicy Nut Brown Sauce with Rice

The crawfish dance at the table.

It was famous.

 

The Meaning Of Downtown Portland

Earlier this month the wife and I walked out of Hyde Park in London and stopped for dinner at a place with outside tables near a busy street.

Five years ago we sat at a crowded outdoor dinner place in Paris.

There’s something about sitting outside and watching the world pass by on a busy street. It’s a people watching paradise.

But why go so far for outdoor dining in a famous place?

Jake’s Famous Crawfish has outside tables near Burnside, another busy street.

I like to say that even the simplest times can be a great memory, but they pass by in neutral because they don’t happen in France, or Spain, Italy, or England.

And you’ve heard things.

Social media can run places into the ground and ruin your sense of balance if you go too hard and believe you’re one of the victims-in-waiting.

People come to Portland expecting lifelong memories, but they stay home for fear of the unknown, the lurking stranger, the bad man in the doorway.

Or they go to Beaverton.

Those same people stay home for fear of a plane crash going to Spain, France, or England; fear of a lurking stranger or bad man speaking a foreign language.

But, if you’ve got kick-ass loved ones willing to go along, downtown Portland is the place to level up on civic pride and family time without getting on a plane.

Put Jakes on your schedule for a welcomed sense of well being.

If you can’t feel happy after a couple of hours there, you may not know what happy means.

Jakes has put in the time, kept up standards, and rewards those daring enough to park a car in downtown Portland with a lifelong memory to share.

My kids have put in the time with me from Tigard to Eugene to Seville, Spain where we got caught up during their extended visit to learn Spanish.

And Jake’s in downtown Portland.

 

Kid: The last time I was here was when I graduated from college.

Me: Your mother used to come here, then she married me and had you.

Kid: How’s the nut brown sauce.

Me: Spicy.

 

I always get the biggest kick out of them and it’s grown as they’ve grown with wives and kids.

Three men and four women walked into Jakes for a combination belated Christmas Dinner, and birthday dinner X3.

One of them unleashed the attack crawfish.

Not everyone was happy with attach crawfish, but they got over it.

Getting over the fear of downtown Portland?

Not everyone will, but they should.

Yesterday I stood on a street corner taking long shots for this blog post, looking for harmless, generic, urban shots.

Later on my kid asked for my phone and showed me the picture at the top.

He’s in the car with his wife just before he rolled down the window and yelled.

We’d planned on meeting and just like a movie, there they were.

Call it a Portland vibe. Catch it, feel it.

Mud-bug got your tongue?

We finished the night dragging Broadway with the windows down, “WOO-HOO-ING,” all the way.

(Special thanks to K, M, T, D, E, and L.)