Market of Surprise

Moving to a new neighborhood isn't always easy. Well, the moving part sucks, of course, but sometime you don't feel like you connect to the neighborhood. Such is the case with me.

Don't get me wrong. I love our new apartment (maybe not as much as our old rickety duplex) and I love how relatively quiet it is. Oh, and how it only takes me 4 minutes to get to school. But now, if we want to go out, we can't just step outside of our door. There's no produce market across the street or a coffee place down the block. It's been a tough transition. I was incredibly spoiled in SE Portland.

To relieve boredom and feelings of isolation, this morning Jeff and I went on an early morning photo adventure and decided we would find a cafe in our new neighborhood for breakfast. A friend of mine had told me Marco's Cafe had a tofu scramble, so we headed that way. The options for the scramble were sparse - tofu with either Tandoori veggies or BBQ veggies. I wasn't feeling BBQ that early, so I went with Tandoori and hazelnut toast.


The tofu was bland, but the veggies were quite delicious. That pile of potatoes? Apparently they're roasted reds. They tasted like boiled, slightly mashed reds. I think Marco's is taking a step in the right direction, but there is so much room for improvement!

Little did we know, something magic was to be found across the street....


Originally we only went in for a Sunday paper. Jeff started to wander to the back and that's where we discovered what is now our favorite place in SW Portland.

How often do you see this many beers from Norway?!

Beer as far as the eye can see! Local beer (including Upright Brewing, who don't even have a storefront!!), international beer, small beers, big beers....it was amazing. I managed to find the beer I've been searching out since I first had it at The Horse Brass, Anderson Valley's Winter Solstice. Jeffrey chose some Irish reds and then we decided it was time to leave, NOW. I mean, it was still 9am on a Sunday!

Oh, John's Marketplace, we WILL be back.