Portland’s Foster-Powell neighborhood sits at the center of several southeast neighborhoods whose borders blend together and the people share parks, bars, bike lanes, and food carts. Affectionately dubbed FoPo, the area is rich in diversity and the variety of businesses in the community reflect this. As new venues crop up to complement neighborhood staples, a flux of new and old, youthful and aged, Vietnamese, Eastern European and American residents come together to shape a district in transformation.
EAT: Transcontinental Coalescence
Originally a commercial supplier, FoPo’s An Xuyen Bakery might be most popular for its $3.99 bánh mì and Vietnamese iced coffee special. Yet, the expert provider of fresh, daily, natural French bread still supplies loaves to bánh mì joints, restaurants and grocers all over town, as well as the next door Foster Burger with speciality brioche buns. Stop in for a to-go lunch, add a pork or veggie (cabbage, carrots, noodles) bao if you’re extra hungry, and top it off with a selection of fresh-baked sweets—choose from a variety of tropical cookies (like guava or pineapple), towering puff pastries, red velvet cupcakes, or sugar-covered, deep-fried Hawaiian doughnuts.
An Xuyen Bakery, 5345 SE Foster Road, 503.788.0866
SHOP: Multifariously Eastern European
Besides a handful of easily recognizable brand names, most of the products lining the shelves of Good Neighbor European Deli Market are utterly foreign—and that’s not just because many of the labels are written in Cyrillic. With an impressive selection of canned fish, herbal remedies, teas, and sunflower seeds, Good Neighbor offers more than 70 varieties of meat with a cold case dedicated to baloney, two for salami, one for smoked and dried fish, and another for Eastern European cheeses, as well as a freezer full of pelmeni and perogi dumplings. A rear corner features a wall of colorfully wrapped, assorted candies in bins, but owner Alex Shkurov, who runs the grocery with his brother Slava, says he’d “take a pickled cucumber over candy” any day. Pickled goods, like cucumbers, tomatoes and green beans, are amongst the in-house specialities made using old-fashioned recipes that don’t use vinegar, while other rarities include jars of pickled apples and watermelon. Other highly recommended and hard-to-find items include house-baked Georgian flat bread and German rye-based breads as well as cheesy puff pastries. And if anything starts to feel too unfamiliar, ask for a sample and the staff will gladly oblige.
Good Neighbor European Deli Market, 4107 SE 82nd Ave., 503.771.5171
DO: Argentine Improvisation
Tango is a lifestyle—it can take years to perfect your style so start embracing the romantic dance at Tango Berretin. The tango-only studio is run by multi-instrumentalist, dancer, teacher, and owner Alex Krebs, whose “entire adult life has been exclusively, 24/7, Argentine tango” after spending two months in Buenos Aires, where he practiced 10 hours a day for two months, as an 18 year old. Sharing the space with a few other independent instructors, you can regularly catch Krebs’ quartet playing an evening dance. But if you feel you first need to get up to speed, take an introductory course or drop in on a Wednesday afternoon during your lunch hour for guided practice. Then, continue your schooling at home using one of Krebs’ apps or instructional videos and his tango CDs, including the original compositions on his latest: Looking Ahead on the Shoulders of the Past.
Tango Berretin, 6305 SE Foster Road, 503.771.7470
DO: FoPo Garden Tour
Each June the gardening community in Foster-Powell comes together to celebrate and show off its neighborhood's gardens. The free, annual FoPo Garden Tour gives neighbors and visitors the chance to see some 40 gardens that showcase "the wondrous things that are possible on smaller, city-sized lots."
Learn more about the FoPo garden tour here. See photos from the 2010 garden tour here.
WORK IN PROGRESS: Sprucing Up the Quail’s Plume
The revival of an old cinema has quickly become the newest entertainment venue in FoPo. After being shuttered for almost 30 years, the one-man show of Nick Storie is putting “blood, sweat and tears” into the space and slowly reconstructing The Bobwhite Theatre—currently working on major building systems (like HVAC) while adding a fresh coat of paint, curtains, specialty lighting, a sound board and more—as it slowly but surely begins to host sporadic events like concerts, speakers and theater. Built in 1924, the real Bob White may have been a neighborhood theater owner but Storie has decided to condense the name in honor of a genus of quails, which the venue uses as its logo. As the renovations continue and the word spreads, so will the schedule grow—Storie says the venue is constantly booking more acts for the future.
The Bobwhite Theatre, 6423 SE Foster Road, 503.894.8672
Want to learn more about Portland's Foster-Powell neighborhood? Visit the Foster-Powell page on Neighborhood Notes for events, photos and a local business directory. If you live or work in Foster-Powell, helpful notifications like land use notices and liquor license applications are also included.
Have you recently checked out Foster-Powell? Share your stories, tips and fave destinations in the comment section.
I know you only get 5 . . . but how you can leave N.W.I.P.A. (new bottle shop specializing in NW IPAs), Slingshot Lounge, Foster Burger, Gemini, Bar Carlo, Devils Point, and Tortalandia ALL off the list.
Thanks for chiming in with some serious food and drink goodness in the Foster area!
Yes, it was really tough limiting the list to five. However, a short list gave us the opportunity to highlight five super unique things in Foster-Powell that are hard, if not impossible, to find in other Portland neighborhoods.
We rely on neighbors like you to recommend the neighborhood hot spots that continue to earn your business. Those are places we love to learn about. So thanks for that!
By the way, most of the businesses you mentioned are in the business directory.
DF- NWIPA and Gemini Lounge are in Mt. Scott Arleta, not Foster-Powell. The Slingshot is actually in Creston-Kenilworth. Foster-Powell only gets to lay claim to the businesses on the North side of Foster. So - you may very well see the businesses on the South side of Foster profiled in another article.
2 likesAbsolutely right, Cora! There will definitely be future articles about Mt. Scott-Arleta, Creston-Kenilworth, and the Foster business district, so there's more opportunity to showcase different businesses, history, and points of interest in these other areas.
Good choices and I like that you highlighted some of the unique spots. Gotta plug our Carts on Foster cart pod though. It now has 8 carts including the Pod Bar which has beer, cider, and wine. We have a tented area and the bar is enclosed and toasty warm. Any food at the pod can be eaten inside.
2 likesGood call. And good addition to the list!
Thanks, Sarah! The Egg Carton has been added to The Localist. Be sure to tell your colleagues at the pod to add their carts, too. We want the citywide and FoPo directories to rock!
Now I just need a "I Heart FoPo" t-shirt!
1 like