Where Should I Go While I'm In Portland For SCA 2023?

Mar 02, 2024

So you’ve decided to come to Portland for the 2023 SCA Expo. Let me be the first to welcome you! Chances are it’s been a few years since you visited, and that’s okay. Lots has changed here, but also not *that* much—Portland isn’t one of those cities, like LA or New York or London or Tokyo, that feel completely restocked with brand new stuff every six months. The pace of life here is a little slower, and I think that’s part of the charm. It also means you can see and do a lot with your short time in the city.

I’ve lived in Portland for more than a decade now, and have written about our fair city’s restaurant, bar, and cafe extensively, which means it’s been my pleasure over the last couple of months leading up to Expo to receive texts like: Where should I go for a four-top on Friday night? or What’s a chill bar far away from the convention where I can have a good conversation? There’s good answers for all these and more, so let’s structure this guide thusly, a cheeky Q&A on what to do while you’re in town, starting with but first, coffee.

I’m not going to jerk you around—like I would a friend, I’ll share basically one hopefully perfect suggestion for each answer, especially when it comes to food and drinks (with the exception of food carts, for which it would be impossible to choose just one). For getting around town we recommend Lyft, cars for which are plentiful around town.

Goodness there’s a lot. Portland’s had a thriving coffee scene for decades now, and it continues to grow in interesting ways. Our Portland tag is home to quite a bit coverage, and is always a good place to start. Also check out the recently published “indie cafe” guide from Portland Monthly Magazine (it was my pleasure to help contribute to this), which contains dozens of recommendations of differing styles and geographic locations across the city, including Abba Coffee Roasters, Carnelian Coffee, Ca Phe, Deadstock Coffee, Electrica, Prince Coffee, and many more. In addition to these, we always recommend visiting the original Stumptown cafe on (4525 SE Division), which has become something like a municipal landmark and is in a lovely, walkable neighborhood, as well as the still-beautiful original Coava cafe (1300 SE Grand). Going to new cafes is so much fun, and so is visiting some of the truly influential classics, but if you make it to just one cafe in Portland this trip—because you were otherwise incredibly busy—it should be Less and More Coffee (1003 SW Fifth Ave), a repurposed bus station cafe with a serious coffee program and inventive, high quality signature drinks.

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I’ll recommend one brewery to visit, and one bottle shop to acquire beers from all other breweries.

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More questions for Expo Weekend? Ask away!

Jordan Michelman (@suitcasewine) is a co-founder at Sprudge Media Network.