Mr & Mrs Smith

Right next door to Jupiter Hotel, Le Pigeon (www.lepigeon.com), where food-lovers cluster around the chef’s open bar or the communal tables to watch Gabriel Rucker turn local market produce into delectable and inventive dishes. Just around the corner, Navarre (www.navarreportland.blogspot.com), serving more than 50 wines by the glass, works with regional farmers to produce a menu based on what’s in season, along with the whims of the chef. Ken’s Artisan Pizza (www.kensartisan.com) on the corner of Pine Street is a Portland institution, so make a reservation or bring a book for the queue. The pizzas are wood-fired, chewy, thin-crusted and delicious.

With more breweries than Cologne, Portland is the ultimate microbrewery pub-crawl destination. A good place to start is the boho Hawthorne neighbourhood with its sidewalk seating; sit among the pub-going pooches at the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub (www.luckylab.com). Finish your crawl back on Burnside at Holman’s (+1 503 231 1093), one of the city’s oldest drinking dens, where the staff will wet your whistle with a generous measure.

For good old Stumptown coffee and home-baked cookies to dunk in it, SE Ankeny Street’s Crema (www.cremabakery.com) is the local pitstop. 

East Burnside is dotted with boutiques and vintage clothing stores; our favourite is Hattie’s Vintage (+1 503 238 1938) for its lovingly selected array of magpie-finds. This breezy city is best explored from two-wheels, so ask at reception about hiring a bike, and pedal to the Pearl. Once a decaying warehouse district in downtown Portland, it’s recently been transformed into a continually growing collection of galleries, boutiques, restaurants and performance venues.