Introducing: Mini Itinis!

An afternoon picnic on the Central Eastside.

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In the Central Eastside Industrial District, in between the railroad tracks and a handful of loading docks, you’ll find Portland’s newest pop-up club. It’s a beach club, complete with sand, thatched roof cabanas, and lounge chairs overlooking the Hawthorne Bridge.

I will not be tanning and sipping piña coladas here anytime soon (partly because the pop-up ends this weekend), but I believe the beach club tells a bigger story about how the Central Eastside continues to be a testing ground for new ideas. It’s Portland’s cultural crystal ball, telling us what our youngest and hippest want from our growing city.

It’s no coincidence that Soho House, Portland’s most talked about new addition, is housed half a mile away. It’s billed as a place for artists and “creatives” to convene, and its opening reflects an appetite for relevance and a new brand of cool.

By planting roots on the inner Eastside, Soho House sidesteps the discourse of downtown and gets to attach itself to the rugged, industrial roots established by the canneries, meatpackers, and food mills that popped up following the construction of the railroad that still cuts through the city.

Back in the early 1900s, immigrants came to this bustling riverside neighborhood in order to establish wholesale fruit and vegetable businesses. This strip of cobblestoned streets became known as “Produce Row,” which it’s still fondly referred to as today.

Despite the pop-up beach clubs and trendy new hotspots, the Central Eastside remains committed to its food roots. It’s here where you’ll find grocery stores like Sheridan Foods, iconic restaurants like Clark Lewis, and cool new wine bars like Grape Ape. This is also where the McMenamins brothers opened their first restaurant (appropriately named Produce Row). The Central Eastside may have new tenants and new ideas, but it will always be the heart of our food-centered city.

In this Mini Itini, we’ll explore some of my favorite establishments that call this little triangle carved out by the Hawthorne, Morrison, and Burnside bridges home. We’ll go to a vermouth and cheese shop before taking our new picnic goodies down the road to Sellwood Riverfront Park.

But don’t feel limited to what I suggest. From Smith Teamakers to Cargo to 20th Century Interiors, there is no shortage of shops and businesses to explore.

Have fun!