Aviary is a toprated restaurant, but it offers a $40 four-course vegetarian meal. Carly Diaz BOOKS, TREES, RAIN, CULTURE —there are two missing pieces to complete your perfect cheap Portland visit. Food and beer, of course. The beer part is easy. There are more than eighty breweries in the Portland metro area, and lots of them offer free or cheap tours. Those tours often come with beer tastings. For example, Hopworks Urban Brewery offers free brewery tours at 3 p.m. each Saturday, and includes two free tasters. You can call to schedule a tour at Bridgeport Brewery, one of Portland’s earliest breweries. Or check out up-and-comer Ecliptic Brewing, which offers tours at 12 p.m. each Monday, Tuesday and Friday at its North Portland facility, provided you wear closedtoed shoes. Portland has a robust happy hour culture, with local favorites including Andina, a Pearl District favorite for Peruvian food. The happy hour, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. each day, features a variety of small plates like kebobs and empanadas. Or check out Jackrabbit in the heart of downtown, with a daily happy hour from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with bar snacks starting around $5 and $5 drafts. If you’re running really low, you can get a Miller High Life for $2. Many of the best food and drink deals happen on the east side of town. For example, Life of Pie, a pizza spot on North Williams Avenue, offers a slice of margherita pizza for $5 and beer or wine for $4. That’s a full meal for $9 before 6 p.m. Or head to Rose & Thistle, an oldschool taproom on Northeast Broadway that’s cheap all the time and cheaper during happy hour. The Knockback, on Alberta, takes a dollar off drinks from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., including its seasonal slushie. And of course, only in Portland would happy hour feature a roasted beet salad. Perhaps you seek something more fancy, but still don’t want to break the bank. Some of Portland’s best, hardestto-get-into restaurants offer chef’s tasting menus or prix fixe options. For $40, you can get a delicious meal at the venerable, old-school steakhouse Ringside, so long as you eat at the bar before 6 p.m. Or go new-Portland with a $55, 11-item tasting menu at Han Oak. Beast offers a $40 weekend prix fixe brunch, and Aviary’s $40 four-course meal is all vegetarian. 48 | SPRING <strong>2018</strong> ontrakmag.com
Aubrie LeGault FROM TOP Jackrabbit's happy hour is one of the best in the city. Pioneer Courthouse Square is the city's living room. Laura E. Partain ontrakmag.com SPRING <strong>2018</strong> | 49