Best Restaurants 2019

Asian culinary love notes, foodie bars, vegan swagger, Italian treats, and epic Thai-tiki-barbecue feasts! Also in this issue: our annual Light a Fire awards, a biplane odyssey, and a gang of Old Portland poets

In this issue:

Arts & Culture

The Shakedown

What's the Deal with Reading?

We size up our bookish habits.

10/23/2019 By Marty Patail

The Essentials

13 Things to See and Do in Portland: November 2019

Carla Rossi clowns around, Sleater-Kinney shreds at the Crystal, and national treasure Nicole Byer hits Helium.

10/23/2019 By Conner Reed, Fiona McCann, and Rebecca Jacobson

Feature

Meet the Poets Who Defined a Portland Era—and Are Still at It

“Poets value relationships. They value falling in love. They value things that don’t have money attached.”

10/23/2019 By Leanne Grabel

Books

How Tin House Changed the Game for Portland Writers

20 years in, we take a look at the Portland lit mag-slash-publishing house.

10/23/2019 By Conner Reed

Music

One of Portland’s Best Musicians Is Dropping Her First Album in 6 Years

Amenta Abioto’s latest examines what it means “to not take pain so seriously.”

10/23/2019 By Brendan Nagle

Eat & Drink

Old Joy

A Pair of Portlanders Wrote the New Joy of Cooking

Nearly century-old recipes and a fresh global pantry make this classic kitchen tome a holiday go-to for all. Plus: a go-to recipe for fig and brown butter spice cake.

10/23/2019 By Heather Arndt Anderson

Best New Restaurants 2019: Trends

Seven Spots Expanding Portland’s Food Map

In 2019, Guam, Burma, the Philippines, and other nations got more room at the table.

10/18/2019 By Karen Brooks, Kelly Clarke, and Marty Patail

Best New Restaurants 2019

Portland Monthly’s Best New Restaurants 2019

Asian flavors—wild to traditional—ruled the day, a scotch destination was born, vegan fine dining got serious, and two bakeries cracked our list. And that’s just a taster of 2019. Pull up a seat.

10/18/2019 By Karen Brooks, Kelly Clarke, Benjamin Tepler, and Ramona DeNies Photography by Stuart Mullenberg

Best New Restaurants 2019

Best New Restaurants 2019: Keep Your Eye on These Runners-Up

Yonder and Erizo just missed the cut for our list of the year’s Best New Restaurants, but we’ll be back to see what happens at these high-profile spots.

10/18/2019 By Karen Brooks and Ramona DeNies

Best New Restaurants 2019

2019’s Cart Standouts Were All About the Meat and Potatoes

The year belonged to Austin barbecue, Tex-Mex tacos, and chicken n’ jojos.

10/18/2019 By Kelly Clarke, Benjamin Tepler, and Ramona DeNies

Best New Restaurants 2019

Berlu Serves the Most Unpretentious Pretentious Tasting Menu in Town

Chef Vince Nguyen’s Zen-modernist menus find beauty in everyday things.

10/18/2019 By Karen Brooks

Best New Restaurants 2019

Bullard’s Doug Adams Is More Than Fried Chicken

The celeb chef finds his own brand of Lone Star–meets–Beaver State cooking at his meaty hotel restaurant.

10/18/2019 By Benjamin Tepler

Best New Restaurants 2019

Scotch Lodge Is Portland Monthly’s Bar of the Year 2019

At Tommy Klus’s whiskey den, a daring menu lives up to the (rare, illuminating, transcendent) booze.

10/18/2019 By Ramona DeNies

Best New Restaurants 2019

Bella’s Italian Bakery and Market Is a Stealth Red Sauce Haven

The Lents bakery—a destination for killer cannoli and sfogliatelle—also does weekly pizza and lasagna nights.

10/18/2019 By Benjamin Tepler

Best New Restaurants 2019

At JinJu Patisserie, a Pair of Korean-Born Vegas Expats Find Portland’s Sweet Spot

Butter-bomb croissants to lime yuzu bonbons, this place is a keeper.

10/18/2019 By Karen Brooks

Best New Restaurants 2019

Portland Monthly’s Restaurateur of the Year 2019 is Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom

How the man behind Eem, Hat Yai, and Langbaan rocketed from a rookie Thai cook to Portland’s most influential food player.

10/18/2019 By Karen Brooks

Best New Restaurants 2019

Radical Thinking, Southeast Asian Rarities, and Heart Make Gado Gado Our Rising Star Restaurant 2019

Come for the salty-funky smoked pork shank, stay for the Capt’n Crunch–covered pandan waffle puffs.

10/18/2019 By Benjamin Tepler

Best New Restaurants 2019

Locavore Upstart Farm Spirit Has Evolved into a Legit Vegan Fine Dining Destination

There’s nothing else quite like it in America.

10/18/2019 By Karen Brooks

Best New Restaurants 2019

Eem is Portland Monthly’s 2019 Restaurant of the Year

Meaty, spicy-sweet, and ridiculously fun, Thai tiki barbecue is what we need in 2019.

10/18/2019 By Karen Brooks

News & City Life

Long Story Short

Meet Sara Boone, Portland’s New Fire Chief

“As kids, you let joy lead where you want to go.”

10/24/2019 By Fiona McCann

Inspiring Creativity

Bringing Music Education Back to Oregon Schools

Through her nonprofit Music Workshop, Portlander Amy Richter harnesses the power of technology to lighten the load for strapped educators.

10/23/2019 By Brendan Nagle

Leveling the Field

This Nonprofit Brings Women Together to Invest in Women

The Women's Foundation of Oregon lifts women and girls throughout the state.

10/23/2019 By Fiona McCann

Do Gooders

The 15th Annual Light a Fire Winners Are Here

Honoring the people making our city and state better for all

10/23/2019 Edited by Fiona McCann

Lifetime Achievement

This Portland Illustrator and Activist Has Been Working for LGBTQ Rights Since... Well, Forever

Rupert Kinnard joined the Portland Town Council, the first LGBTQ-rights umbrella group in Oregon, in the early ‘80s as its first black member.

10/23/2019 By Fiona McCann

Extraordinary Volunteer

This Volunteer Has Fostered 18 Guide Dogs for the Blind Just Since 2016

Says Debi Hays: “They give me the dogs that are a ‘challenge.' I call them misunderstood.”

10/23/2019 By Kelly Clarke

Most with the Least

This Tiny Group Makes Oregon Schools Safer for LGBTQ Students

Oregon Safe Schools is advocating for the city's LGBTQ students.

10/23/2019 By Margaret Seiler

Exceptional Community Contribution

This Portland Charter School Is Closing the Achievement Gap for Black and Brown Kids

KairosPDX is already seeing results.

10/23/2019 By Conner Reed

Best New Nonprofit 2019

How One New Portland Nonprofit Amplifies Immigrant Voices

The Immigrant Story shares the stories of some of the area’s new (or not so new) arrivals from afar.

10/23/2019 By Tiara Darnell

Game Changing Project

Meals on Wheels People Made a Hip, Midcentury-Mod Diner for Seniors

The nonprofit café serves community connection along with Reubens and house marionberry pie.

10/23/2019 By Kiva Hanson

Extraordinary Board Member

Becky Blumer Delivers Groceries and Kindness to Seniors and People with Disabilities

“I grew up in a small community where it felt like a given that people took care of each other.”

10/23/2019 By Conner Reed

People

Two Oregon Pilots Are Preparing for a 9,000-Mile Flight from Patagonia to Florida—On Vintage Airplanes

An airplane mechanic and a filbert farmer team up for a 9,000-mile journey.

10/23/2019 By Rich Reece Photography by Rick A. Brown

Editor's Note

We’ve Honored More than 200 Nonprofits with Light a Fire Awards Since 2005

The real winners in this annual nonprofit and volunteer spotlight? All of us.

10/23/2019 By Fiona McCann

News

Prepare to Pay for the New Prestige Apple, the Cosmic Crisp

Is this big-budget branded apple the Honeycrisp killer of which prophecy foretold?

10/23/2019 By Jennifer Krazit

Transportation

These Super-Fast Future Trains Could Get You from Portland to Vancouver, Canada, in Under Three Hours

New stats suggest that high-speed rail could transform the Northwest.

10/23/2019 By Zach Dundas

Education

Is Reed College’s New President Too Cool to Be a University Administrator?

Audrey Bilger is a gay trailblazer and pop culture pundit with an absolutely baller vinyl collection.

10/23/2019 By Jason Cohen

Sports

Portland’s Winningest Team Isn’t Just About, Well, Winning

Junior hockey’s Winterhawks aim to develop pro talent. The league trophies are cool, too.

10/23/2019 By Brendan Nagle

Earthquake

How Ready Are You for the Big One Really? Let’s Find Out.

The Portland Monthly Earthquake Preparedness Personality Test can help.

10/23/2019 By Stephanie Gehring Illustrations by Hawk Krall

Style & Shopping

Retail

How She Bop Changed the Sex Shop Game

You know we had to call it an “oral history.” Hey, it is one!

10/23/2019 By Kiva Hanson

Sports

Old Portland Had Its Own Super-Cool All-Japanese Baseball Teams

Fuji Athletic Club is now a retro-hipster design find—with eerie historical echoes.

10/23/2019 By Zach Dundas