It's been awhile since I blogged so I thought it was time to write about the Portland neighborhood, Kerns.
For those that don't remember, Kerns is west of Laurelhurst & Hollywood, south of the Lloyd District & Sullivan's Gulch, and north of Buckman & Sunnyside. The only thing west of Kerns is the Willamette River. It's a weird neighborhood in that many of the streets carry the "NE" prefix but since it's south of 84, it could technically be in Southeast Portland.
Kerns claims "Restaurant Row" (NE-SE 28th) and possibly everything amazing on Burnside from the the river to Music Millennium. With that said, I thought I would share a little shop that brought several smiles to my face.
ZimZim is nested one blocked south of Burnside, at the corner of SE 28th and Ankeny. It's a little 750 square foot place that provides many things Portland, quirky, and mischievous. There probably is a cookie cutter store just like it on Mississippi but why go where all the tourists are?
If you feel the need to feed you current fascination with mustaches, this place has the fuel for your fire. Is your coffee table needing some Portland love? You will find coasters, books, and other trinkets. And without a doubt, you will find things with bicycles and birds painted on them.
But there's more - so much more. And that's why you need to check this place out. Why not? Saturday Market is officially closed till the spring and you'll probably need a pair of knee high socks that say PORTLAND on the side of them.
When you're done at ZimZim, I DO NOT recommend walking across the street to Esparza's for some Tex-Mex. I finally checked this place out last weekend and really liked the food. But for some reason Esparza's thinks Tex-Mex is expensive. My two soft tacos, rice and beans plate was somewhere around $12. In Texas, this runs for half that price. On top of that, the atmosphere of Esparza's is weird. They have puppets hanging from the ceiling, ultimately scaring any future date I bring in there. Thanks guys!
With that said, please donate to my fund called "Sarah's opening a Tex-Mex restaurant". It will be called "The Washateria" because any Texan will tell you that the best Mexican food restaurants are in places that might have been laundromats at one time. But my Grandma Bert calls them "wharshaterias" (like someone from Pennsylvania or Baltimore) so that's what I'll call it.
