I live close to Alberta, so I have a lot of recommendations, mostly around there.
Salt & Straw, if you can get there without a line. Maybe in the morning? A morning ice cream? After brunch actually is a pretty good time to go, though.
Pine State Biscuits on Alberta is also not a bad wait. There’s a cute little smoothie truck next to Pine State Biscuits that has a garden store next to it, and you can wander through the store with your smoothie while you wait. And Podnah’s Pit is a great place for brunch. And it’s unknown, so there’s no line. It’s more like Texas-style barbecue.
Go down to 30th and Killingsworth for dinner. DOC for a fancy Italian dinner—for us, it’s like an anniversary dinner-type thing. Expatriate is a newer bar that is also right there. It’s really dark. I think it’s moody and romantic, I love it. Yakuza is also there--go for their happy hour burger.
Another thing! A nice bike ride is to go to the Grotto. It’s a Catholic sanctuary with a great garden—a very calm and serene place. It’s beautiful. Not a lot of Portlanders go there, though. I remember seeing the signs for it off the highway and being like, What is the Grotto? And Peninsula Park is a lesser known rose garden, in the months where the roses are out. It’s next to Sweedeedee.
The Ned Ludd Wu Tang-themed PREAM nights have spun off into a new pizza restaurant in Southeast--also called PREAM. Look out for the delicious cocktails and the Tupac portrait on the wall.
My absolute favorite pizza is at Lovely's Fifty Fifty. And Ned Ludd does a pizza hip hop night which is great. It’s called PREAM—Pizza Rules Everything Around Me.