Live Oregon

Aesthete teas sprung from a family tradition of leveraging its folk healing properties.

Aesthete Tea

written by Lauren Sharp The product of a mother daughter partnership, Aesthete is a brand defined by the appreciation of art, nature and beauty with the goal of bringing people together through carefully crafted herbal teas. Owner Briana Thornton and their mother, herbalist Maggie Cassidy, have formed a collaboration that keeps the traditions of folk healing alive in southwest Portland and beyond. The inspiration for Aesthete, a loose-leaf tea purveyor and teahouse, is deep in Thorton’s roots. Growing up, their mother Maggie was constantly mixing her own herbal teas as part of her own studies in herbalism and natural healing. Thorton gained a new appreciation for her mother’s teas while working at a faced-paced advertising agency. Their mother often sent care packages with custom blends offering a range of physical and mental health benefits. Thornton’s friends and colleagues quickly noticed her unusual, aromatic teas and urged them to go into…

Tacos with fresh rockfish, plentiful year-round, offer a winter getaway for the palate.

A Rockfish by Any Other Name

written by Thor Ericksonphotography by Tambi Lane Order rockfish at a restaurant in New York, and you’ll likely get a striped bass. Place the same order in California, and you could end up with a vermilion rockfish. Here in Oregon, rockfish can be anything from quillback, pygmy, shortbelly, longspine, yellow-eye, to widow, canary, chilipepper, thornyhead and the old standby—red snapper. Oregon sport and commercial fishermen regularly catch more than twenty-five species of rockfish. Many of these rockfish have similar characteristics and are difficult to tell apart. According to the Food and Drug Administration, a single fish species can go by multiple names from the time it’s caught until the time it ends up on your plate, and many kinds of fish can legally be sold under a single name. The good news is that all these species of Oregon rockfish taste relatively the same. The flesh is versatile and can…

Put your palate in Chef Joel Lui-Kwan’s command at Lovely Rita with the “off menu” prix-fixe dinner, the chef’s selection of starters, main dishes and dessert.

Lovely Rita

written by Lauren Sharp Teeming with ’60s glam—bronze fixtures, velvet chairs, walnut dining tables— this spot at The Hoxton hotel is the place for an evening cocktail and small plates or prix-fixe dining. Adjacent to Portland’s Old Town Chinatown, it was scheduled to open in early 2020, Lovely Rita opened October 15. Just like the lovely meter maid of the song invoked by its name, the space will be devoted to work (and lounging) during the day, transforming into a sultry dining destination for dinner. Of course, the hyper-local rotating beer, spirits and wine menu will be available throughout the day. Chef Joel Lui-Kwan took the creative lead on the Pacific Northwest concept, overseeing the food throughout the hotel, which besides Lovely Rita, includes the breakfast and lunch cafe Little Rita and the rooftop bar, Tope. Lui-Kwan’s menu embraces smoked fish, oysters, pan-roasted meats, seasonal vegetables and artisan charcuterie sourced…

Pink Rabbit restaurant

Pink Rabbit

written by Lauren Sharp Take a trip down the rabbit hole in Portland’s Pearl District at Pink Rabbit cocktail lounge. Pull a seat up at the neon-lit bar in the revamped space with its pop-art mural paying homage to its namesake bunny for hopped-up cocktails served until midnight most weekdays and 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. At the helm is industry veteran Collin Nicholas who cut his teeth on mixology in late-night leaders New York City and the Bay Area, and is a two-time finalist of Bombay Sapphire’s “Most Imaginative Bartender Award.” He grew up immersed in the strong cocktail of cultures of the East Bay and Berkeley, which he’s been bringing to bar programs across Portland as the bar director of Submarine Hospitality Group (Tusk, Takibi, Ava Gene’s). Pink Rabbit is his first solo leap. “I’m excited to incorporate all the influences from past projects into the cocktails I’ve…

Pelican’s Father of All Tsunamis Imperial Stout is a tidal wave of flavor, aged in rye whiskey barrels.

Oregon Winter: Made for Brews

Barrel-agedier, boozier and sniftier, for Nordic hut-ing, hot tubbing or Blazer-fanning written by Beau Eastes There’s a lot to love about Oregon winters. The holiday lights at Peacock Lane, skiing the bowl at Mt. Bachelor, irrational Blazer championship hopes. But the best part of the colder months here in the Beaver State is the unofficial fancy beer season. In November and December, the beers in Oregon get bigger, funkier and more barrel-agedier. It’s fantastic. Here’s what we’ll be drinking this winter at Beerlandia while we try to convince ourselves that Dame and C.J. can actually be the cornerstones of a competent defense. (Hint: it’ll have to be something stronger than Deschutes’ excellent-but-light Rip City Lager.) Ecliptic Brewing’s Filament Winter IPA with Tangerine: If Oregon craft beer legend and Ecliptic founder John Harris wants to play around with his traditional winter beer and add tangerine, it’s best to just say thank…

After a stretch at sea fishing for rockfish, the trawler Ms. Julie arrives at port, where its catch is unloaded.

Rock On: The Oregon Rockfish

Rockfish rebound in Oregon’s waters, and one man’s catch is another one’s delight written by Sophia McDonaldphotography by Jon Christopher Meyers In 2000, the waters off the Oregon coast had been so severely overfished that it was declared a federal disaster zone. Scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service predicted that even if drastic action was taken, commercial fishing would not rebound in the area until at least 2030. It turned out they were sorely mistaken. In 2011, trawl fisherman catching rockfish and other species landed 3.5 million pounds of their scaly, slippery prey. In 2018, they netted 25.3 million pounds. In 2019, the number was closer to 25 million, according to Yelena Nowak, director of the Oregon Trawl Commission. Rex Leach of Coos Bay, who has been a commercial fisherman since 1978, was on the Oregon Trawl Commission when regulations to restore the fishery were enacted. He and many…

The Farmhouse overlooks the pastures of Tabula Rasa Farm in Carlton, a leader in the regenerative agriculture movement. Relax on the deck and watch cows graze.

Home Stay

What makes an Airbnb retreat feel special? Two popular Oregon hosts offer tips for your home or rental written by Melissa Dalton Tabula Rasa Farms: A Scandinavian-Influenced Farmhouse in Carlton The Airbnb reviews of The Farmhouse@Tabula Rasa Farms are effusive. “This home was beyond amazing,” reads one. “If you appreciate design, this is your spot,” goes another. One really makes their case: “Every single light has a dimmer in the entire house.” After all, when the farmhouse’s owner, Brenda Smola-Foti designed the farmhouse more than a decade ago, she paid careful attention to the details, especially lighting. “I did a lot of things to get north light, because that’s the steady light that a painter likes,” said Smola-Foti, who grew up working on her father’s cattle ranch in Oklahoma, and now describes herself as “an artist who made the jump to farmer.” In 2008, Smola-Foti bought twenty-three acres of farmland…

A covered deck lets you take in the bucolic scene from The Farmhouse at Tabula Rasa Farm.

DIY: Tips for a Successful Airbnb

MAINTAIN INVENTORY No guest wants to have to run to the store for a sponge or toilet paper on vacation. Higgins uses Amazon’s subscription service to stay on top of supplies for the River Cabaan. “A lot of the admin of an Airbnb is the stock and the cleaning,” said Higgins, so streamlining the process with regular deliveries is a time-saver. Have on hand things that visitors commonly forget to pack as well, such as extra toothbrushes and deodorant, said Smola-Foti. DON’T FORGET THE OUTDOORS While the Carlton farmhouse has a lot of dedicated outdoor space, including a deck and covered porch, Smola-Foti makes sure to populate it with ample seating so that guests can take advantage of finding a place in the sun. Likewise, at the River Cabaan, there’s a hammock, too. KEEP IT FRESH No one wants to dry off with a towel that’s lost its fluff, or…

Award-winning essayist Laurie Easter pens a rich memoir, All the Leavings.

Wild Terrain

A writer living off the grid navigates the wilds of nature and the human heart interview by Cathy Carroll Laurie Easter lives off the grid on twenty-eight forested acres in a funky little cabin on the edge of wilderness in southern Oregon. Her essays have been awarded fellowships by the prestigious Vermont Studio Center and Playa in Summer Lake, published in many literary journals and anthologies, nominated for a Pushcart Prize and listed as notable in The Best American Essays 2015. She holds degrees from Southern Oregon University and Vermont College of Fine Arts. All the Leavings, being released in October by OSU Press, is her first book. The memoir navigates the rugged terrain of an alternative lifestyle and the hazards of the human heart, from encounters with cougars and the dynamics of mother-child relationships, to the destructive power of wildfires, the home birth of her second child and community…