When I arrived, it was raining. The driver who ferried me from the airport to the hotel looked up through the windshield and, raising his voice a little louder to be heard over the screech of the wipers and the pitter-patter of the rain, said: “Y’know, it was actually sunny before you arrived. Like, weeks of beautiful sunlight.”
Welcome to Portland, Oregon.
There’s a conventional wisdom in Portland in how to differentiate the tourists from the locals: when it rains, only the tourists are the ones who are carrying umbrellas. It is this sort of mindset that sets the city apart from the rest of America. It is that same sort of foolhardy disregard for conventions that led to a distillery boom in Portland.
Like the wine region in Willamette Valley and the still burgeoning craft brewery scene, 12 independent distilleries make up Distillery Row, which starts southeast of the Industrial District until the Northwest and Slabtown Districts across the Willamette River.
This story is from the December 2019 edition of Esquire Singapore.
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This story is from the December 2019 edition of Esquire Singapore.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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