MagoGuide : travel guide, restaurant guide

When You Grow Up, You Too Can Have a Recumbent Trike
If you're thinking about riding a recumbent trike in and around Portland, then read this post. We answer enduring questions such as is it safe? Is it convenient? And are people going to laugh? The answer to this last question is... mostly certainly. But don't let that keep you from having a blast. We'll also tell you about RecumbentPDX, the best place in Portland to buy and service these trikes.
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Featured Post Portland Triking
Accanto: The Next Act for Erik Van Kley
First, Tailor Railworks closed, then Accanto's brunch ended, and now for more bad news. Sad but true, we've heard that Accanto is closing. We'll let you know if we hear of Chef Erik Van Kley showing up to work his magic in any other Portland restaurants.
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Featured Post Restaurants Southeast
La Moule Has Brunch Devine
La Moule is now serving brunch on both Saturdays and Sundays... and this is a really good thing. Their brunch menu is interesting and delicious. Plus, there's no line right now either early or late. Go and eat one of the best brunches that Portland has to offer.
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Featured Post Restaurants Southeast
Artigiano: Pasta But Otherwise Basta
Chef Rachael Grossman's Artigiano's seasonally-driven menu changes rather frequently and most diners, particularly regulars, seem to opt for the "menu completo", which involves a large multi-dish antipasto, four bespoke pastas, and a meat course involving three proteins and veggies. The pasta dishes are exemplary, but Artigiano's other food is merely slightly above average.
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Featured Post Restaurants Southeast
pFriem Pairing Dinner at St. Jack: Belgian Inspired Brewskis Meet Bold Flavors
Regardless what you drank with it, Chef Aaron Barnett's pFriem Pairing Dinner at St. Jack was an excellent early fall dinner. But pFriem's beers took the food several notches higher, which Team Mago assumes was the plan all along. As they say (rather frequently) "Proudly Crafted, Humbly Offered", which could get a bit tiring if it were not so true.
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Featured Post Northwest Restaurants

The Canadian: Luxury with a Purpose

February 12, 2017 Morgan Hart 1

Unlike most luxury train voyages, which are essentially rail cruises for well-heeled tourists, Via Rail’s Canadian provides genuine luxury for travelers on a year-round scheduled route between Vancouver and Toronto. Team Mago was surprised and delighted to find that Via’s Prestige class lived up to the hype and then some.

Amtrak Can Suck, But Not Nearly as Bad as Flying

July 15, 2016 Morgan Hart 0

Night Trains I Have Known

August 30, 2014 Morgan Hart 1

A NOLA Dust-Up: MagoGuide vs. Saveur in the Big Easy

March 9, 2013 Morgan Hart 0

MagoGuide Map of NW Montana

February 2, 2018 Patti Hart 0

We’ve been in NW Montana for decades and have found all sorts of places that we want to share. Now all of our favorite restaurants, markets, and hikes from Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Kalispell, Bigfork, Missoula and the North Fork are listed on this map. They are also provided in an alphabetical list below map.

MagoGuide Map of Portland

January 24, 2016 Patti Hart 0

MagoGuide Map of Rome

January 23, 2016 Patti Hart 0

MagoGuide Map for Hadrian’s Wall

January 23, 2016 Patti Hart 0

MagoGuide Map of Pantelleria

January 1, 2016 Patti Hart 0

MagoGuide Map for the UK

January 1, 2016 Patti Hart 0

The Bike Hub
Oct 21, 2018
One of the reasons we bought recumbent trikes was so that we could take them on shopping expeditions, especially to the PSU market in downtown Portland. There are greenways and dedicated bike lanes to get us to the market, but where to park? There is parking near the market on the sidewalks, of course, but […]
RecumbentPDX
Oct 21, 2018
When we decided that we wanted recumbent trikes, we found out how fortunate we were to live near to one of the best recumbent stores in the northwest. RecumbentPDX on SE Hawthorne seems to have it all. Our enjoyable buying experience began when we entered their spacious store and co-owner Janet Morgan gave us a […]
Zell’s Cafe
Oct 16, 2018
Zell’s is a nice, old school corner cafe with red linoleum floors, pendant globe lighting, and a semi-finished ceiling with some ductage just to fit in. The cream colored walls are pleasant, but the main attraction is a huge wood-framed antique mirror behind the pretty tiled bar (no backs for the bar stools, but there […]
Mt. Hood Brewing Co. Tilikum Station
Oct 13, 2018
What’s not to like about a cute railway themed tap room with wood-fired pizza? Well, for starters, the pizza. Tilikum Station, the new satellite location of Government Camp’s Mt. Hood Brewing Co. boasts an artisan pizza oven that operates between 750-850° Fahrenheit. The crust is slow fermented and the toppings restrained and traditional. R.L.K. and Company, […]
Artigiano
Oct 11, 2018
Chef Rachael Grossman has one of the highest end food carts in the City of Roses. In terms of dining ambience, entertainment, service, wine list, even rest rooms, her fire engine red “pasta wagon” is a culinary Lamborghini. It is thus passing strange that Chef Grossman, whose declared mission is to free a cuisine “that’s trapped inside […]
Güero
Oct 10, 2018
Güero is a food cart that has successfully made the leap to brick and mortar (pretty much every cart owner’s dream but often their nightmare when they try to matriculate). Güero keeps it simple by specializing in tortas (sandwiches), bowls, and sides. The dining space is cheerful and bright with lots of hanging plants, although […]
Ole Latte Coffee and Bagels
Oct 5, 2018
Todd Edwards owns and operates two food carts in downtown Portland. Ole Latte started as a coffee-centric endeavor with a small assortment of pastries but has branched out to bagels at the Portland State University podlette at SW 5th Ave and Harrison St. Todd is contagiously friendly and a fanatic concerning micro-roasted single origin coffee […]
Smokehouse Tavern
Sep 2, 2018
Chef BJ Smith likes to smoke Q. All four of his current restaurants are built around the concept of rubbing spice into meat and non-meat ingredients followed by exposure to the vapors of smoldering white oak, and then serving the results up with a choice of sauces, as well as a few judiciously chosen and […]
Smallwares
Sep 2, 2018
It is the pan-Asian post-modern fusion concept that just will not die. Acclaimed Chef Johanna Ware must be channeling Jodie Whittaker (she’s the latest Dr Who, Philistines!), and her latest regeneration is, in MagoGuide’s humble opinion, the best so far. But the new Smallwares is much more than a culinary three times lucky. Everyone is raving […]
Broder
Sep 1, 2018
Broder is a Portland-based nordic comfort food micro-chain with outposts in three Rip City quadrants and Hood River. All locations are popular with the original Broder Cafe on SE Clinton insanely so. The Broder business model consists of the three b’s: breakfast, brunch, and booze. Now all of those things are very close to the […]

MagoGuide Travel Guide

When You Grow Up, You Too Can Have a Recumbent Trike

Accanto: The Next Act for Erik Van Kley

La Moule Has Brunch Devine

Artigiano: Pasta But Otherwise Basta

pFriem Pairing Dinner at St. Jack: Belgian Inspired Brewskis Meet Bold Flavors

The MagoGuide Pantelleria Mobile App Is Now Available

The MagoGuide Barcelona Mobile App Is Now Available

MagoGuide Portland Has New Places!

MagoGuide Mobile Apps – We Just Keep Getting Better All The Time

MagoGuide UK iPhone/iPad App has been Released!

MagoGuide’s Travel Compatibility Quiz Actually Works!

Accanto: The Next Act for Erik Van Kley

La Moule Has Brunch Devine

Artigiano: Pasta But Otherwise Basta

pFriem Pairing Dinner at St. Jack: Belgian Inspired Brewskis Meet Bold Flavors

Broder: hygge or tråkig?

No More Brunch at Accanto – So Let’s Do Dinner

Battlesteads Hotel and Restaurant: Mine’s a Pint

Newport’s Cnapan Restaurant with Rooms: Sadly but Understandably Downshifting to a B&B

Hotel Le Bleu: Great Location but Otherwise Mediocre

The Archer Hotel: Superior Staff but a Small, Spendy Room

Hotel Gault: Luxury by Design

Our Worst B&B Experience Ever

Mago Tip: Plan ferries to and from Sicily carefully

Mago Tip: Weather experience on the Seabourn Quest

Traveling by freighter

Seabourn Quest: Crossing with Cruisers

Nanci Brooks – travel agent extraordinaire

Crystal Serenity