CITY GEMS ALBERTA ARTS DISTRICT

Located in Central NE Portland and anchored at the east end by Alberta Rose Theater, this lively, walkable street is home to dozens of shops, restaurants, food carts, and galleries. Creativity abounds with wall art, murals, and statues mingled up and down NE Alberta Street amid retro, vintage, and unique businesses.

Must Do

Alberta Rose Theater

3000 NE Alberta Street albertarosetheatre.com

With seating for 300, Alberta Rose Theater is a performance venue for acoustic acts in an intimate setting. Originally built in 1928 as a movie theater, it is now a popular destination for viewing live music and comedy and art house films. A calendar of events and tickets are available from their website.

Open since 2010, this shop carries new, used, and hard-to-find books on art, architecture, and design. They also have vintage prints, original art, and magazines in the store as well as on-line.

Parallel Worlds

2639 NE Alberta Street www.instagram.com/parallelworldsbookshop

Last Thursdays

For over 25 years, the district has hosted an ‘open house’ on the last Thursday of each month. Live music, street performances, and gallery receptions have attracted crowds coming to enjoy an evening in the neighborhood.

Guardino Gallery

2939 NE Alberta Street guardinogallery.com is the OG on the street having opened in 1996 and shares their building with ceramics, jewelry, and paper arts businesses as well as an Iraqi restaurant, DarSalam. They host three new installations a year and often feature local artists. Both their gallery and on-line shop carry items from past and current exhibitors. Other galleries on the street include: Antler Gallery antlerpdx.com, Talon Gallery talongallery.com, and Alberta Street Gallery albertastreetgallery.com

Independent Book Stores

Book lovers travel to the district to shop in the interesting collection of specialty bookstores.

Monograph Bookwerks

5005 NE 27th Avenue www.monographbookwerks.com www.greenbeanbookspdx. www.twinstarastrology.com

Specializing in the science fiction and fantasy genres, Parallel Worlds sells new and used books including rarer, early works (17th C.) to modern day and many by women authors. They host a monthly book club too.

Must Eat

Abyssinian Kitchen

2940 NE Alberta Street abyssiniankitchen.com made in small batches with natural ingredients. Besides the traditional favorites, they have elevated, innovated, and blended world cultures to create new flavors and toppings, many of them vegan. Mango Lassi is most popular but they also do seasonal collabs and mash-ups. Their bike cart is a fixture at farmers markets around the metro area during the summer.

Family-owned and operated, Abyssinian Kitchen first opened in SE Portland in 2015 and in 2021, relocated to their current light, bright corner location. Serving Ethiopian and Eritrean food, the friendly staff is happy to make suggestions and explain the dishes, many with locally-sourced vegetables, meat, fish, and poultry. The restaurant has a full bar menu including specialty cocktails with African ingredients. We tried Sambusa (pastry filled with lentils), Awaze Tibs (sautéed beef chunks in awaze sauce), and Atakilti Alicha (potato, cabbage, and carrot stew) and all were wonderful.

Must Shop Stumptown Kilts

2303 NE Alberta Street www.stumptownkilts.com this store and their on-line shop display and stock products year-round offering customers a great way to shop small and local.

This one-of-a-kind shop sells a modern version of the traditional kilt. After spending a year coming up with the perfect design, they began selling daily-wear, uber-durable kilts in 2010, and now have styles in three fabrics: poly-cotton, 100% cotton ripstop, and 100% organic cotton duck (the last one catering to welders, blacksmiths, and farriers.) All have built-in sporrans but they sell attachable pockets for extra storage and StumpTown Kilts has women’s styles too. In addition to the retail store, they can also be found on-line, and at regional highland games and beer festivals throughout the summer.

Ecovibe

1906 NE Alberta Street ecovibestyle.com

Two generations of family members own and run this store that is filled with lifestyle inspiration for an urban dweller. House plants are their big draw but they also have a well-curated selection of home décor, furniture, accessories, and gift items. A portion of their profits go towards local social and environmental non-profits. They have an on-line shop and a second location on SE Hawthorne Street.

Just Bob's Coffee

2403 NE Alberta Street www.justbobpdx.com

Housed in an old Rexall Drug Store, Just Bob’s is a self-professed “unicorn café”… hard to find these days. But this cozy, busy-with-neighbors coffee shop, has a full offering of coffee drinks and breakfast and lunch food items. They have an ‘adult beverages’ menu too, served all day and even fill beer growlers. We chose the wild, line-caught Alaskan Salmon lox on a bagel with cream cheese, red onion, and capers…yum!

Kulfi

5009 NE 15th Avenue www.kulfipdx.com

Opening in 2022 after beginning life as a bike cart, Kulfi sells a traditional, SW Asian street dessert similar to an ice cream bar

Crafty Wonderland

2022 NE Alberta Street craftywonderland.com

Crafty Wonderland’s brick and mortar stores (they also have a Downtown Portland location) grew out of their