PWM: The Other Portland

After a year off the road we have embarked on OTR 10.0! As we are headed north through Maine to the Atlantic maritime provinces of Canada we made Portland (PWM ) our first stop of the adventure.

PWM is a city of just over 68,000 but plays so much bigger! The food, coffee and art scene invariably provides something new and interesting to experience every time we visit.

Arriving in PWM mid-afternoon we made straight for Coffee By Design at their Diamond Street location in the East End. CBD is one of the oldest specialty roasters in the city dating back to 1994.

After our infusion of caffiene at CBD we worked our way up the hill for cocktails at Hardshore – a local distiller of gin and bourbon. Their gin is very reasonably priced and quite tasty! Our cocktails set us up perfectly to saunter across the street for dinner.

Izakaya Minato is located in the East End of PWM and is styled after traditional Japanese Izakaya. Izakaya (stay-drink-place) establishments are neighborhood bars that traditionally serve small plates and snacks to accompany alcoholic drinks and of course Sake.

Our meal and drinks were excellent. We tried oyster tempura, fish and chicken dishes with rice and a fabulous spinach salad with the tastiest mushrooms ever. We highly recommend Minato!

The next morning we ventured back to the East End for Fika but visited one of the other excellent coffee roasters and cafe operators in PWM – Tandem Coffee. Visitors tip — while the bakery is located at the East Congress Street location in the refurbished retro gas station location (very cool) it is always difficult to find parking and seating. The Anderson Street cafe located at the roastery is a low key neighborhood joint with super friendly folks and no problem finding parking or seating.

The Portland Sea Dogs Double A ball club was at home during our visit so we spent a lovely late afternoon at Hadlock Field. The home town club had their way with the visiting Hartford Yardgoats. Final score 7–4.

Portland has the three top prospects in the Red Sox system. Prospects SS Marcelo Mayer and CF Roman Anthony were in the line up but did not stand out during this contest. P.S. The Yardgoats are our home team in Connecticut and our record with them in person remains intact as we have never witnessed them winning a game!

After the ballgame we journeyed downtown for a stroll along the picturesque waterfront and a nightcap of gelato! Gorgeous Gelato is one of our favorite gelato spots in all of our travels. The husband and wife owners moved to Portland after graduating from the Gelato University in Milan. https://www.portlandoldport.com/listing/gorgeous-gelato/

The street art scene in PWM remains as vibrant as ever. The three murals pictured below are new finds for us since our last visit. They are all located in the East End where we obviously spent a lot of our time during this brief stop in PWM.

Well, that is it for our first post in a year! Our next stop will be in Penobscott for several days of camping and touring the beautiful Deer Isles.