by Paul Heney
Last updated: 7:00 AM ET, Sat August 28, 2021
While Portland is known as one of the progressive hubs on the west coast, it doesn't share the same aura as its siblings like Seattle or San Francisco. Instead, it feels like a Cleveland, Pittsburgh or Milwaukee transplanted a couple thousand miles away. There's a gritty Midwestern vibe here, with dozens of architecturally interesting bridges spanning the Willamette River, as well as new, modern buildings to go with the more classical early century stock.
We found the Kimpton Hotel Vintage Portland ideally situated between the center of downtown and the hip Pearl District. Oregon has become a major wine producer, thanks to its fertile Willamette Valley. Kimpton builds off the local wine theme with fun, playful wine motifs everywhere. Each of the 117 rooms is named for an Oregon winery. Our spacious double queen room on the 6th floor was the Willakenzie Estate, which (thanks, Google!) I discovered was about 30 miles to the southeast, near Yamhill, Oregon.
Wine runs throughout the rest of the hotel, too. Meeting rooms are named after wine varietals; you'll see lights made out of wine bottles, corkscrew images on the elevator doors, quotes about wine on each floor ("Wine is the most civilized thing in the world. -Ernest Hemingway") and a brilliant "spectrum of wine" artwork on the second floor that I absorbed for more than a few minutes.
The city still maintains a healthy collection of gay bars, including CC Slaughters, known for dancing and drag shows, as well as Scandals, The Eagle, Local Lounge and Crush. Silverado and Stag PDX are popular for their stripper shows, and Steam Portland is a local bathhouse. We stopped in Stag on a Tuesday evening to check it out. The club, while a bit quiet on a weeknight, featured good drinks, gorgeous bartenders and hot dancers. We chatted with Reyce, a recent import from Chicago, who highly recommended the city for LGBTQ tourists, for its open attitudes.
Beyond the bars, Portland has plenty of other fun things to do. Powell's City of Books is the world's largest independent bookstore, featuring more than a million books. The flagship store downtown is divided into nine color-coded rooms, with LGBTQ tomes in the Red Room. The city's Washington Park area, situated in the hills just west of downtown, features two great attractions: The International Rose Test Garden and the Portland Japanese Garden. Outdoor lovers will enjoy both of these slices of heaven (there's a small fee for the Japanese Garden, but the Rose Garden is free), and you should plan to spend at least an hour exploring each.
A fun and healthy option for queer visitors is to meet up with the PDX Front Runners, an LGBTQ+ running and walking club that meets every Tuesday at 6 p.m., with options including 2.5, 5 and 6 miles. Afterward, they all gather at Suki's Bar for dinner and drinks. The group also hosts trail runs and a monthly happy hour.
Portland has an excellent food scene, and we had a little bit of everything. For breakfast, Cheryl's on 12th is a great choice, or you can always visit the city's famed Voodoo Doughnuts. Bae's Fried Chicken did not disappoint, and we loved the funky, international selection of food carts around the city, such as Hua Li House, part of the Cart Blocks at SW Park Ave. and West Burnside St.
For those sightseers with a rental car, more pleasures abound nearby. The Columbia River Gorge is a must-see, and it's easy to get to, starting where the city's eastern suburbs end. You can drive along either the Oregon or Washington side of the river, and there are multiple places to stop with iconic waterfalls, stunning vistas and plenty of hiking options. You can make this a half-day trip or venture further upriver and spend a few days exploring.
Plus, Pinot Noir fans have the splendid Willamette Valley at their disposal on a Portland vacation. This fertile valley stretches roughly 100 miles southward toward Eugene and gives queer travelers numerous opportunities to attend wine tastings, shop for favorite bottles, sample the local cuisine and stay in quaint bed and breakfasts or Airbnbs.
McMinnville, about an hour southwest of Portland, is a welcoming city with a lot of restaurant options, and it makes for a great Willamette Valley home base. Check out the funky tasting room for Flaneur Wines in a converted grain elevator in little Carlton, Oregon. Or get the farm/vineyard experience at nearby Lemelson Vineyards or Coeur de Terre Vineyards, which was my personal favorite, with delicious wines and the owners' dogs resting at our feet!
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