Happy Thursday! Brice and I are currently gallivanting through the Pacific NW on our way to Victoria, B.C. to celebrate our 6th (!!) anniversary.
We had a nice stopover in Seattle last night then are visiting some cideries in Port Angeles before hopping on the ferry to cross the border. I’m excited to spend a long weekend in some cooler weather, exploring the beautiful city and of course eating and drinking through Victoria. If you have any recommendations of things to do or places to check out, please send recommendations my way!
As I’ve written before, I have small love affair with Forktown Food Tours. I’ve been on a few tours as a guest and even gotten to co-host a bakery tour with them! {We are currently trying to figure out timing of a second bakery tour in the early fall – so more on that coming your way soon.} Whether you are a local or a tourist, their tours are an awesome way to explore a neighborhood, try A LOT of delicious food and meet interesting people along the way. The owner Heidi is fabulous and the tour guides are all knowledgeable, fun and entertaining.
Vada Pav from Bollywood Theater
Forktown just kicked off a new food tour on SE Division Street. If you have been in the Portland area for more than a day, I’m sure you know how crazy this mile-long stretch of road is, with nearly any big name restaurant you can think of. Ava Gene’s, Pok Pok, Bollywood Theater, American Local, Little T Bakers, Roman Candle, Salt & Straw, Woodsman Tavern, the list goes on. If you’ve read about a new restaurant, chances are, it’s on Division. You could just eat and drink your way down the street. And that’s exactly what Forktown is offering up.
The stops may change from time to time if there are specific events but the current lineup is fantastic:
Sen Yai: the food tour starts at Sen Yai, brought to you by Andy Ricker of the Pok Pok fame, which pretty much started the Division craze. You’ll get to try traditional Thai noodles, plus a really incredible cocktail using their house made drinking vinegars. This is one of those drinks I would never think to order on my own, so having a food tour expand my horizons a bit was perfect, especially as it was real good.
SE Wine Collective: this is the quintessential urban winery. A beautiful space, gorgeous outdoor patio, great wine, and excellent service. You can view the wine making in action and learn more about the whole process, as you sip on various wines. With 9 wineries making up the collective, the space offers local producers a way to produce and cultivate their growing business, while offering a fun experience for customers.
Xico: this is seriously one of the best Mexican restaurants in town and so very underrated in my opinion (though they did just get name Cuisine of the Year by the Oregonian). Their margaritas, which you’ll get are perfectly crafted, and their Oaxacan-inspired food is exquisite. The totopos sound simple with their house made chips tossed in salsa, then topped with queso cotija, crema and cilantro. But when you have a restaurant making the masa by hand to make the tortillas which are then fried for the chips, simple will be nowhere in your vocabulary. “Perfection” would be more fitting.
Koi Fusion: I’m not 100% sure, but Koi Fusion to me definitely helped kick off the food cart scene in Portland. Known for their fusion of Korean flavors in Mexican dishes, they have become really popular, finally opening up a storefront on SE Division to add to their mobile carts. Now they have tons of permanent locations and a few roaming mobile carts that you still can search out via Twitter or their website. Their storefront offers similar signatures, like their bulgogi beef taco topped with house made kimchi.
Tidbit Food Cart Pod: I absolutely love this food cart pod. Although it is a little drive from my house, I will often make the trek to hang out in their beer garden area complete with picnic benches, a fire pit, and tons of food cart options. One of my favorite options there is Ingrid’s, a Scandinavian cart that makes handmade lefse, a Norwegian flatbread made with potatoes. I got a veggie wrap filled with pear, arugula, hard boiled egg, feta, walnuts and a creamy cranberry sauce. It was light, flavorful, unique and I’ve been wanting another since I was there four weeks ago.
Lauretta Jean’s: A food tour wouldn’t be complete without some dessert at the end. A natural choice is Lauretta Jean’s, one of the very best pie bakeries in town. Their crusts are amazingly flaky and buttery, with seasonal fillings. Strawberry Rhubarb, Blackberry Raspberry with a Streusel topping, Banana Cream. You name it, they do a phenomenal job of making it delicious. And for future reference, their brunch? Top notch. Split a slice of savory pie, a biscuit and egg sandwich and a sweet pie, and you’ll be in heaven.
Details:
When: Fridays 2pm, usually lasting around 2.5-3 hours with 1 mile of walking
Price: $79 including all the food and a few drinks along the way
Tickets: Sign up on Forktown’s website
*Erin’s Note: This is not a paid post. I just really love Forktown 🙂
Have such a great trip!! These pictures have me so hungry – I might need to skip my outmeal and go straight for Bollywood. 🙂
Thank you! And I fully support Bollywood for breakfast!
My neighborhood! This is a great lineup, some of my favorite spots 🙂 I was just telling Cam how we need to go to Xico, we went when we first moved but it’s been way too long! And I really want to try out SE Wine Collective as well!
Yes! Xico is so great! You are lucky to have so many places in your new neighborhood! Saw you went to SE Wine Collective with Rachel. How was it?!
Happy Anniversary! You’ll have to tell me how those “Cideries” are (I didn’t know that’s what they were called lol). I’m assuming that’s like Hard Ciders? I’ve been liking those more and more so I’m interested if you found anything good. …I so need to try Bollywood already.
Ha yes, hard ciders 🙂 I didn’t really realize they were called cideries either until recently when we started getting into them. We went to FinnRiver in northern Washington and then Sea Cider up in Victoria. Both were great! Sea Cider was especially nice – a beautiful view and you could get a fabulous cheese plate with your cider flight, always a plus! And you need to get to Bollywood. It is the best!
SO many places on your list that I’ve been wanting to try!!! Especially Sen Yai, and SE Wine Collective and Xico… Well, basically ALL of them. Yum!
Division has so many good places, it’s hard to narrow it down! That is why this tour is nice, you can hit a lot in one afternoon! I bet you would love SE Wine Collective!
What an awesome tour! I still have to try Lauretta Jean’s and Sen Yai. I just love Division and am so glad to see the businesses thriving there!
Oh Marlynn, get yourself to Lauretta Jean’s. It is so good! Their biscuits? Amazing! You will love it.
Why have I never heard of these Forktown tours before now?? Evidently, I have been missing out BIG time. Thank you for sharing about this. I can’t wait to tell my husband and hopefully we can plan a tour soon. Congratulations on your 6th anniversary! That’s so awesome! Cheers 🙂
Thank you!!! Totally tell your husband about this. It’d be a great date!
Awesome tour! I haven’t been down to Division since before we left 2 years ago… Now that we’re back in town we’ve been hearing how it’s exploded. Looks like it’s time to make the trek down there!
I know, it is crazy how quickly Division has changed. It is definitely the place to be now!
I love Forktown Tours, they are such a great group of foodie women helping to share the Portland food love, yay! The Division Street tour looks like it gets some great highlights of Portland, and I’m glad they include food carts not just brick and mortar!
Yes Forktown is so great! Glad you love those women too! 🙂 And yes the food carts are so fun, especially for tour guests who don’t experience that part of Portland’s food scene often. I really love the Tidbit food cart pod too!
These tours all look so fun!!! I definitely want to try one asap!
They are a blast. Though definitely leave you full for like 2 days, ha!
Holy cow… .so much good food all at once. This looks like an amazing gift or date opportunity. I love all the variety on SE Division, just never thought of eating along the way like that. I hadn’t ever heard of Forktown so now I’m hooked. Thank you!
Yes these tours are such a fun gift or date! I took my mom for Mother’s Day and we had a great time! I highly recommend it (obviously 🙂 )!
Love this list! These fork town tours sound so fun,
Thanks Chloe!
So many wonderful places to eat on your tour! We love Victoria. Last time we were there, we saw the major sights – The Butchart Gardens, Craigdarroch Castle, and Miniatures Museum. True tourists! You probably know about all of those. We also just like walking the city and waterfront. Have a great time.
Thanks! We had such a great trip! I really loved just wandering around like you said, we found so many great parks, bars and cafes. I am bummed we didn’t actually go to the Craigdarroch Castle… but maybe next time! Overall it was really fun.