Portland Spoke – The Official Blog of Travel Portland

Summer is high season for movies — it’s when studios release their tentpole flicks, timed to lure overheated customers indoors with the promise of air conditioning and cool stories. Portland’s Laurelhurst Theater keeps this tradition alive all summer long with a series of timeless films. Each month, they show classics from a different decade, and every week, a new old favorite splashes across their silver screen.

In June, timeless westerns like Clint Eastwood’s Hang ‘Em High and groovy surf flicks like The Endless Summer recall the turbulent 1960s. July’s flicks, like Coppola’s gritty murder mystery The Conversation and the Robert Redford spy thriller Three Days of the Condor, embody Hollywood’s penchant for darkness in the 1970s. August’s ’80s movies put America’s varied tastes on display with the fantastic story of Excalibur and the somber realism of Taps.

The fully-digital brew-and-view theater serves up local craft brews along with its $4 features, making the movies even more refreshing. Just outside, the movie house’s vintage-neon facade spills its soft glow across a collection of Portland’s best eateries. Between the theater’s stars and the restaurants’ specialties, this night at the movies will be one to remember.

In these evenings of early spring, when the air is cool and an occasional raindrop makes its way to our green earth, there’s nothing cozier than donning a fleece and dining on comfort food.

And dare I say that the single best plate of comfort food in the entire city is found in a barely-marked watering hole in northeast Portland known as The Bye and Bye.

There on any given night – and many a weekend afternoon – you’ll find a house full of hippies, hipsters, bike riders, barflys and assorted friends seeking good drinks and a hearty plate of reasonably priced food. Some enjoy the messy, tomatoey meatball sub, others the Frito-laden chili pie. My favorite: the BBQ platter, with its chewy cubes of smoky seasoned tofu alongside creamy black-eyed peas and a heap o’ greens sautéed in just enough spice to give ‘em kick, topped with a crusty baguette. There’s no more ideal cozy meal. (more…)