Saturday, June 16, 2007

10 Reasons I Love Portland (OR) - #4

Happy Hour
Portland has so many happy hours, and when they say happy, they mean happy. Serious deals abound on great food and drinks (there was even an acupuncture happy hour). Some of our favorites (and please take note, there is only so much two people can eat and drink ) were Manzana, Blue Hour and by far our favorite Vino Paradiso.

At Manzana three of us shared some appetizers (tasty, well presented and plentiful) and had fresh fruit margaritas and the bill came to less than $25. I don't know anywhere in Boston with deals like that. The drinks alone would have pushed the bill above that.

Blue Hour had small tables on an old loading dock in the Peal District and very cool happy hour menus, which came in the form of a notepad with checkboxes next to the items available (yes I should have taken a picture no, I didn't). Inside, the place was hopping (but a little too formal for my taste).

Vino Paradiso was the best, the best experience, the best food, the best staff. Vino Paradiso is owned by Pink Martini band member Timothy Nishimoto.

During happy hour, order any item off of the food menu and receive 1/2 off a bottle of wine. We went on a Tuesday and Timothy was there meeting with wine distributors. They came in at a steady stream through our whole visit but he still took the time to tell us all about the wine we had ordered, txakoli.
It went surprisingly well with the handmade asparagus and drunken goat cheese pizza we ordered. The pizza was amazing. We sat at the bar and watched the chef make it. It was really thin and crispy. Delicious.

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