Exploring Portland, North America’s food city

By Megan Cole

If you’re passionate about craft beer, a spirits enthusiast, food cart junkie and just overall food lover, you need to go to Portland, Oregon. It may be a bold statement, but Portland is North America’s food city. A lot of cities like Vancouver are now using the Rose City as their blueprint, but if you want to go to the place that reinvented craft beer, invited in a thriving distillery district, and took food carts to the next level, you need to go to Portland. Instead of going to all the places that you see written about in magazines and that appear on the Food Network, here is where Rice and Bread Magazine recommends drinking and dining in Portland, Oregon.

Swift Lounge

The best finds in unfamiliar cities are the ones you stumble upon and blow you away. Swift Lounge is that kind of place. A few days after skinning my face on a bike trip through Portland’s city streets, I was eager to kill the pain with some big, strong drinks. After coming across this place, I pulled up a stool at the bar and ordered a 32 oz. Mason. Swift Lounge has a list of signature drinks called “The Masons.” They are huge drinks mixed in Mason jars, which is so perfectly hipster for Portland. I loved Swift Lounge so much I had to go back twice in one day, and the nighttime crowd was lively and friendly. I strongly recommend ordering the Kentucky Blackbird Mason, or the Guilty Sparrow.