Whenever I’m on the road, breakfast is usually the restaurant meal I crave the most (and often at weird, non-breakfast times). And since diners are among my most beloved hangouts, that seems to fit. So this week I’ve put together a bit of a tribute to the humble diner, and will be posting sketches of a few of my favorites.
In the meantime…pass the hashbrowns!
Portland is absolutely chock-a-block with edible kitsch. This is the city that’s home to the neon pink doughnut shop filled with naughty puns, coffin-shaped party boxes and velvet Kenny Rogers paintings. The artisanal salumeria that made a tongue-in-cheek cameo on Portlandia. The coronary-inducing but oh-so-delicious pork-sandwich lunch counter, appropriately (or prophetically) named Lardo. The trouble is, there are so many places like this that even with our frequent trips and efforts to try a new restaurant on each visit (which is incredibly hard to do, since every place is so good)—well, there simply aren’t enough pages in my sketchbook.
The White Stag sign is the jewel in the Northwest’s neon crown. By day it frames patches of the Portland skyline; by night it’s a diamond-bright beacon of riotous flashing color. And in the holiday season, the stag masquerades as a certain reindeer we all know.
I think this just might be my favorite thing in all of Portland—and in a city bursting with my favorite things, that’s no mean feat.