What’s missing downtown?
I’ve always preferred living and working in a city. And even though parking and commuting have always been challenges, I try to take advantage of mass transit options wherever possible. So I take MAX or the bus downtown each workday, and am grateful that I can do so.
But it also makes the multi-tasking that I try to accomplish on my lunch hour challenging at times. It’s easy on some levels - MAX is really close to my office, so I can get cross-town pretty quickly - but impossible in other ways, I’ve found.
The other day, for example, I wanted to grab some bread and a bottle of wine for dinner guests arriving right after work. The bread was easy - but the wine? A DexOnline search revealed only one wine store in downtown Portland - Martinotti’s - which didn’t quite fill the bill.
Sure, I could have gotten to Liner & Elsen, or someplace else in NW - if I’d had a car stashed in a downtown parking facility, that is. And had the time to spare, of course.
Which got me thinking. What else is missing from downtown PDX? What would you expect to find - yet can’t? And, of course, is there a wine store option that DexOnline has overlooked…?
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Buying wine intimidates me. I finally reached the point where I don’t like the 2 buck chuck at Trader Joe’s. I like port, and I like wine, but the pairing and the grapes and the regions… yikes.
If I were hunting wine and bread, I would have taken MAX to Galleria, then the Streetcar to Whole Foods.
But that’s not to say there aren’t things missing downtown. Where Ross is now was once a discount general merchandise store, where downtowners could buy everything from pots and pans to toilet paper, and not pay a fortune. It filled the gap briefly after the downtown Fred Meyer closed. I’d love to see a store like that open again.
Also, good Chinese food. But that’s probably another rant entirely.
Yes, good Chinese food is definitely worth a rant or two!
I thought about Whole Foods - but with only an hour for lunch, I just didn’t have time for that trek. Surely I’m not the only one looking for a bottle of wine during a quick lunch trip, am I?