10 January 2012

[pdx_liff] Seattle's Last Nerve

2747.Apparently, Portlandia's getting on it.

There are some people, Portlanders mostly, who claim the city to the south has now supplanted Seattle as the bastion of Pacific Northwest cool. They cite Stumptown Coffee, with its ridiculously precious tasting notes (Panama Duncan Estate: “A rose fragrance debuts flavors of pear, coconut and marshmallow with caramel throughout the cup”) gaining ascendance over Seattle’s java scene, but that only works if your idea of Seattle joe is corporate behemoth Starbucks rather than, say, Vivace or any of the other indie sources. Portland has a “beer scene,” they bleat. Who cares? Seattle is now all about craft distilleries.

Here's the whole thing, at Slatehttp://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/01/06/portlandia_premiere_has_portland_replaced_seattle_as_the_northwest_s_bastion_of_cool_.html

I was drinking espresso in Portland before it was cool, yo.

2 comments:

Benjamin Lukoff said...

I'm not sure Portland wants to replace Seattle as the cool spot in the Northwest. Do you really want everyone moving there like they did here in the 1990s? Remember, the reason people like Portland now is it reminds them of Seattle circa 1991 ;)

Samuel John Klein said...

You make a good point there. In its way, Portland is like the dog who endlessly chases cars and hasn't yet caught one. If it ever did, it wouldn't know what to do with it.

Actually, we Oregonians are very very good at craving the approbation other regions of the nation get but simultaneously (and, weirdly, sincerely) not wanting the popularity at all; a bit of Oregonian DNA that is nowhere more aptly demonstrated by Tom McCall's legendary encouragement to "Come visit us again and again. This is a State of excitement. But for heaven's sake, don't move here to live."