candidanimal

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Portland Cafe Guide: Southwest

UPDATED 2018:

As soon as I started typing up my first post on Portland’s many wonderful cafes, I knew it wouldn’t be my last. It took me over a year to visit all the cafes on that first post, and I knew I had barely scratched the surface. Most of the additional cafes on this list have actually only opened in the time between my last post and now, so I’ve had a lot of catching up to do. I realize this is still not a complete list of all Portland cafes, so I will have to provide a disclaimer again that these are just the ones I find worth mentioning. Onward…

As a recap:

I compiled this list based on a few factors:

1) lattes

2) seating

3) atmosphere

4) decor.

I am also dividing these posts into 4, because there are almost 90 cafes I am documenting and that’s too much for any one post. To break it down, I am focusing on one quadrant of the city at a time. I used to post them in order of favorites, but my tastes are fickle and new cafes are always popping up, so they are in alphabetical order instead.

Neighborhoods:
SE
SW
NE
NW

Southwest Portland

The Southwest (SW) in this case means downtown Portland. There is a entire residential area in the city that is within the SW quadrant, but there's are not any notable cafes there. All of these are exclusively in downtown and walking distance from each other.

40lbs
A large and intricately decorated café in downtown Portland. Great drinks, lots of seating made from pipes and grinds, making you feel like you are inside an old-fashioned clock.

Barista downtown
A small Barista outpost on SW 2nd Avenue with 180 degree marble bar counter seating.

Brass Bar by Barista
Barista's experimental liquor-coffee bar at the Pine Street Market features Spanish coffees, and White Russians. I settled for the milder pear brandy butter latte, which had pear-infused brandy, butter, condensed milk, and cinnamon.

Café Ponte
Quaint little café by the river in downtown.

Café Umbria - downtown
Beautiful new branch of café Umbria is exquisitely designed. Too bad I don't like their coffee more.

Case Study downtown
Always busy Case Study is a landmark at the 10th Street MAX Station Downtown. Great for working solo and for meetings.

Coava - downtown
My favorite new branch of Coava with two floors and abundant seating. If I'm in downtown, this is where I tend to set up meetings.

Courier
A small and simple outpost for Courier Roasters, which does have excellent coffee. A popular recommendation in most Japanese travel guides, this place is constantly filled with tourists.

Floyd's
Chinatown doesn't have a lot going on these days, but Floyd's in a gem in a coal mine. This inconspicuous cafe has a great vibe, ample seating, and pretty darn good lattes.

Good Coffee downtown
A staple of the East side, Good Coffee finally opens a branch in SW, in the swanky lobby of the Woodlark Hotel. I always wondered why more hotel lobby's didn't have cafes. It seems like a great built-in audience of hotel guests.

Heart in downtown (old location - now NEVER)
Heart definitely won't disappoint even the biggest coffee snob. The images here are taken from the location on SW 12th in downtown, though I most often go to their Eastside shop. The atmosphere is always very conducive to working.

Heart in downtown (new location)

Heart in downtown moved one block away to a much large and more atmospheric place. Definitely feels more like a office lobby or coworking space than a cafe, but clearly its the place to get work done around here.

In J
This small cafe on the PSU campus serves a decent matcha latte.

Kiosko
Beautiful little "kiosk" in a park serving all plant-based drinks with handcrafted speciality.

Never
Never's new foray into downtown is a huge success. Opening in the old Heart location, they offer more seating than SE and a few unique drink options, such as the Lime Cherry Matcha and Yuzu Salt Honey latte.

Oracle
Vegan cafes in at the OHSU waterfront.

Public Domain
One of my other go-to spots in downtown off Broadway. They use Loretta Jean's caramel sauce so their caramel lattes are extra good.

Ristretto in downtown
Fantastic Ristretto outpost within an office lobby with a very chic vibe.

Simple.Local.Coffee
A much needed addition to often-forgotten Skidmore Fountain area. This cafe may look small and sweet, but boasts ample seating upstairs and downstairs. Great work or meeting vibe and I enjoyed my Maple Cinnamon Latte.

Spella
Tiny coffee stand with no seating, but still a popular place among morning commuters.

Stumptown at Ace Hotel
The most iconic Stumptown location in the lobby of the Ace Hotel, frequently photographed by travel magazines worldwide.

Upper Left downtown

Upper Left from the eastside also cashes in on the downtown foot traffic and built-in audience of condo residents with its newest location inside an office and residential building near Pioneer Square.

Water Ave in downtown
Tiny outpost of Water Ave Coffee with room for about two seats. Good if you are craving Water Ave Coffee downtown, otherwise head to SouthEast for their original location.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Tijuana: Expectations and Reality

No doubt I am so mystified by Tijuana because it is one of those places that defies expectations. I did absolutely no research before I walked across the border. I knew someone who lived there and I trusted him completely. The “expectations” came when I began talking to my Lyft drivers in San Diego, telling them I was heading across the border in a few days. Some of the responses:

“Oh I never go there anymore. It’s way too dangerous.”
“I hope you know someone there. That’s no place for a girl to go alone.”
“Just stay out of trouble. Don’t try to buy any drugs. And don’t start any fights. Everyone is carrying a gun.”

The warnings were not encouraging.

The other comments came from my friend himself. An ardent Tijuana enthusiast, he finds himself either constantly explaining or defending the city from it’s critics:

“Unfortunately, I often feel I have to explain to people why I love Tijuana. I have a good friend who I told about the city and she came to visit San Diego and popped down for a day visit only to complain that the city was so dirty and that the folks were so abjectly poor that she couldn't relax and enjoy herself. Another friend told me after I'd mentioned going to Mexico that he'd just returned from a Europe tour and that he wouldn't need to see Mexico because he's seen the original...”

Hearing this, I was worried Tijuana would be a slum of San Diego. Just a place where the poorest residents live and commute daily over the border for work.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, given the town proximity to the border, I was worried Tijuana would feel no different than San Diego. That crossing the border would be a mere formality, and that the two cities would feel utterly the same, that there would be no foreignness to the Mexican side.

Needless to say, both of these ideas were wrong. Tijuana is distinctly different from San Diego in every imaginable way. But it is not a slum. Not merely a place to sleep for the tens of thousands of workers for migrate to the US side for jobs every day. It hasn’t its own culture and vices, it’s own unique atmosphere and identity.

It is also not a vapid and soulless entertainment destination, like Las Vegas or Macau. Though it is often exploited by Americans as a place to party, drink, and find cheap sex and drugs, it is not merely a wasteland catering to these desires.

Here are a few things that surprised me about Tijuana. Some are good, other disappointing, and some without any judgement.

Not much English
Most of the Mexicans I encountered, including ones working at major restaurants and shops, did not speak English. I am not an entitled traveler and I do not expect people to accommodate my language, but having been to remote corners of the world I am surprised by the people I find who speak English when I expect them not to. Tijuana was different. I expected English to be a lingua franca and it was nowhere to be found. This surprised me because it is a border town, English is so close, and also because many Americans come over to dine and shop and usually those in the tourist industry will be bilingual to accommodate them. The only people in Tijuana who seemed to speak English were the hawkers at the souvenir shops on Revolucion, who would beckon me to their stores. Everyone else in cafes, restaurants, stores, and clubs was friendly and patient, but struggled to understand.

Fluid Queer culture
I knew there would be gay bars in Tijuana. There are gay bars all over the world even in countries where being gay is illegal. Of course Tijuana would have gay bars, but I didn’t expect so many, and with such an open and welcoming array of identities in their patrons. I went to a lot of gay bars in TJ and met a lot of amazing people who were living all kinds of lives. I cannot say any one definitive thing about the lives of queer people in Tijuana and that is what surprised me, that unlike Japan and other countries there are no prescriptive identities for queer people.

The streets and roads are so bad
This shouldn’t be surprising, given Tijuana’s other infrastructure woes, but it has not occurred to me that I would find so many pothole and scary high curbs in Tijuana as I did. Maybe I thought the roads would be well-maintained since it is the gateway to Baja Mexico, where many many people pass through. But potholes were so deep that when you see drivers swerve it is probably to avoid a pothole and not because they are intoxicated or wild.

typical sidewalk

gaps int he pavement

urban hiking on steep curbs

walking through a construction site

a makeshift bridge on a busy pedestrian street

Cars stop for pedestrians
This was truly shocking. Given the bad roads and unruly driving, I expected to get run over any minute. But drivers in Tijuana are actually quite considerate of pedestrians. I never felt unsafe crossing a street and cars always stopped for me the moment I put my foot out. So different from Thailand, Vietnam, or even Boston.

Uber English app
Almost most people did not speak English, I was pleasantly surprised to find an Uber English option on the Uber app in Tijuana. I’ve used Uber in many other countries and not seen this option appear. Basically, if you select Uber English instead of just UberX, your driver will speak English. I used this a few times and found all the drivers to be quite friendly and fluent.

The danger is hidden
Most everyone associates Tijauan with drug violence and kidnapping, but there are few traces of that in everyday life in the Zona Centro. This tiny pocket of the larger city is very well policed and protected. That doesn’t mean anyone is completely safe – the first weekend I was there one American was shot at a café, with a bullet that was intended for someone else, and three people were killed in a club on Revolucion when a gunman open fired into the crowd. I was naïve during the first trip, but afterward I learned that for people in some parts of the city, shooting are a part of daily life. Over 1,744 people were murdered in Tijuana 2017. In July of 2018, the most violent month in the city’s history, there were 251 murders. That’s 8 murders a day. Given this bloody statistic, one would think you would see more violence on the streets but in the central area, it’s business as usual.

Gourmet food culture
I knew I would be in for some amazing street food in Tijuana, but had no idea such a gastronomic revolution was taking place. In addition to the tacos and huevos rancheros I had night after night, I also dined at 5-star gourmet restaurants like Mision 19 and had great fusions takes on Mexican food at Oryx Capital and Telefonica Gastro Park. There is so much delicious food to be found on the street and in upscale restaurants.

eating sea urchin at Mision 19

Hipster culture
There are actually a lot of hipsters in Tijauna. What can you expect? Where there are young middle class people, there are hipsters. The fashion trends were most noticeable to me at night, where they were also most difficult to photograph. The hipsters like to hang out at bars like LaMezcalera and Moustache and drink beers from Teorema Tasting Room.

hipsters love Instagram-able neon signs

Halloween is actually kind of a thing here

No, I don’t mean Day of the Dead / Dia de los Muertos, I mean American Halloween. I am surprised to find how this American tradition has taken off in other countries like Japan. With Mexico’s own important holiday happening at the same time, I wouldn’t have thought Mexican’s would be interested in Halloween. Evidence of the new tradition can be found in shop décor and bakeries.

Halloween decor on a shop

Halloween decor in a bakery

Reminds me so much of Athens
This is a person observation that would occur to no one but me. Tijuana, as a city, gave me such a nostalgia for Athens, Greece. It might be the heat, the sun, the crumbling roads and buildings, the graffiti and trash, the food smells or the plants that grow in people gardens, but every time I walk through the Colonia Cacho of Tijuana, I feel like I'm in Athens again.

Colonia Cacho - not as hilly as Athens but still nostalgic

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Beginning a new NaNoWriMo

Day 1 at Starbucks

NanoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) has been productive for me in the past.

In 2013, while living in Shimane, Japan, I completed 50,000 words for my first novel.

In 2014, while traveling through Myanmar and Thailand, I completed another 35,000 words for my novel, and 15,000 more inother stories.

In 2015, I took the Nano principal but instead of creating new content, I spent 50 hours editing my novel from my home base in Portland, OR.

And in 2017, I further interpreted the Nano principal to spend 100 hours soul-searching on my month-long sabbatical.

I didn’t write about it at the time, but the 2017 Soul-Search was a very productive time for me indeed. To get my hour-count in, I included any time spent reading relevant books, journaling, having informational interviews, applying for jobs, and basically anything that was related to professional development. And it paid off. By December, I knew my next move in life. I wrote a bit more about that here, but essentially this time of self-study and self-reflection was what prompted my move to quit my job and start my own business.

This year, I plan to revisit Nano in a more traditional way: a return to writing. Given that I’ve been spending 40+ hours a week on professional development (i.e. running my own business), I don't need to designate special time for that. I also don’t really have any other major initiatives in my life that need devoted attention. So this year I plan to work on my second novel.

I have long since had the basic premise or it in my head, possible for 5-6 years now, but the actual story came to me while I was jogging in the May of 2017, and then an outline quickly followed. At the Tijuana Writers Retreat of October 2017, I hashed this story out with my friend at a bar, made a tiny amount of progress, and then promptly got consumed with my life transition. This November I will attempt to actually write this novel.

Why now?

I still haven’t attempted to publish my first novel, but I take some satisfaction in knowing it is complete. But still, why work on number 2, when number 1 isn’t even on the shelves? Well, I am expecting my first baby in January, and I have no idea when I will have time to write once she comes. Between managing a business and caring for a newborn, I think I will have very little time to pursue my creative writing. Perhaps I’ll be wrong, but just in case, it will be nice to have this novel in a good shape before that time.

What do I want to learn this year?

My new challenges will be that I work from home now, so I need to find a way to vary my environment, so I don’t get fatigued working from my office.

Also, because I know set my own schedule and work when I want, I'm going to designate specific time for Nano writing. After all, I don't confirm my business to M-F 9-5 so I can really write whenever. This gives me the opportunity to experiment with writing at different times of the day and balancing those hours with my other other – what a rare treat I have not had since I’ve spent the last 10 years working M-F 9-5.

Scheduling set hours for writing will set up some guardrails so that I don’t carried away with business and slack on writing, but also so that writing won’t overtake my business needs.

My current projected schedule follows previous years in which I write minimally in the evenings M-F and more on weekends and holidays. I have no idea if I will stick to this schedule but within the first few weeks I should know.

Weekday Experiments, Monday-Friday:

Week 1: 1.5 hours in the morning 7:30am-9:00am

Week 2: 1.5 hours in the evening 7:00pm-8:30pm

Week 3: 1.5 hours in the midday 1:00pm-2:30pm

Week 4: 1.5 hour during whichever I liked best

Weekend Experiments:

Week 1: Writing Retreat in Astoria, OR

Week 2: 2 hours in the morning 9:00am-11:00am

2 hours in the evening 6:00pm-8:00pm

Week 3: 2 hours in the morning 9:00am-11:00am

2 hours in the midday 1:00pm-3:00pm

Week 4: 2 hours in the midday 1:00pm-3:00pm