Via - May/June 2014 - California - (Page 50)

long Hawthorne Boulevard, you can find Jackpot Records, a branch of Powell's Books, and the old Bagdad Theater, all hunkered down on the same block since the mid-1990s. But of late, a fresher, more intimate artisan scene has emerged just a few blocks north on Southeast Belmont Street. At Twill, a women's boutique purveying a large selection of local clothes, everything is alive with a gossamer whimsy, be it the small starshaped earrings fashioned out of rattlesnake bones or the wrap dresses printed with birds or roses. Shop clerk Tylar Avery says, "This is a place where clothes makers will actually bring in a dress and say, 'What do you think of this? I'm still working it out.' " Next door to Twill is arguably Portland's prettiest nightspot, Circa 33. High shelves of bottles, accessible only by ladder, tower above the dark wooden bar and glimmer beside a silver mirror in a lustrous amber light. In the next storefront, Blythe & Bennett Records takes it old school, selling a vast range of vinyl LPs, everything from Foreigner to Billie Holiday. Nearby is the divine Suzette creperie, where pastry visionary Jehnee Rains exercises her wry taste for miscellany. There's an ancient typewriter and an adding machine in the front window, and seating includes both redleather theater chairs and church pews. The exquisite crepes, meanwhile, are at once curious and cosmopolitan. One called Goat Fig Pig combines goat cheese, marsala-soaked figs, and prosciutto. An African take on smoked salmon comes topped with a roasted garlic-chickpea spread and harissa. Further along, ﬁnd tranquillity at the Tao of Tea, a teahouse that feels like a Chinese garden. Buddha statues abound and a small, trickling water fountain babbles away. The infusions come in ceramic pots warm to the touch, and just smelling them gives you visions of the places the tea leaves grew-Sri Lanka, Japan, China, and India. 50 VIA I MAY +JUNE 2014 TOP TO BOTTOM, plentiful treasures on a Belmont Street block; Craig Montgomery serves a La Louisiane cocktail at Circa 33; Suzette's marzipanﬁlled pear crepe with honey ice cream.

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Via - May/June 2014 - California