Portland, Oregon: best indepdendent shops

Portlanders aren’t known for dressing up. That doesn’t mean we don’t love to shop. 

Sure, you can find clothes by high-fashion designers here, if that’s what you’re looking for. Yet shopping in Portland, Oregon is more about finding unique, locally made treasures and statement pieces passed down over generations. We love our thrift stores. We love our quirky crafts and our local artists. And we love local designers who aren’t afraid to be bold and different.

Shopping in Portland involves some wandering and a bit of luck: you might stumble into a few dreamy shops on your way to a hike in Forest Park or to dinner out. Yet there are some local favorites you should make plans to drop in on. 

Here are five of them.

Best place to buy a souvenir: Cargo 

An array of lanterns and streamers blows in the wind on an otherwise nondescript block of industrial Southeast Portland. But just wait: the inside of Cargo overflows with colors, texture and the most unique gifts – including stationery, clothing and housewares. Patty Merrill first opened her shop in 1996 with a vision to support artists locally and globally. Cargo has grown substantially since, even evolving into a marketplace that includes shops-within-shops like Altar and RxLetterpress. 

If you’re looking to commemorate a Portland trip, you’re sure to find something special here that’s far from a cheap and quickly forgotten souvenir. For example: prints by Portland artist Lisa Congdon, whose illustrations are cheerful and bold with uplifting and fun messages. A small risograph print is just $14, and can be framed to add a little splash of Portland to your home. 

Best local design store: Wildfang 

This iconic Portland brand rejects binaries and gives back to the community, with over $1 million donated to such causes as the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the Tegan & Sara Foundation. If that’s not reason enough for a shopping spree, bold prints and classic silhouettes might convince you. Wildfang makes standout gender-neutral clothing, specializing in classic pieces that make it easy and comfortable to feel stylish. The brand is best known for its coveralls ($178) and blazers ($198), which you’re sure to see all over town. 

The queer- and female-founded shop is located in Downtown Portland on a strip of great local shops that includes Woonwinkel and Tender Loving Empire. 

Best food market: Kachka Lavka 

If you’re not sure if you like Russian cuisine, you’ve never been to Kachka. And if you haven’t been to Kachka, you’re in for a treat. The restaurant has been serving traditional Russian fare in Southeast Portland for over a decade. It’s a special place that feels at once kitsch and endearing, formal and welcoming.

You’ll probably need reservations to enjoy the decadent dumplings and artful cocktails in the downstairs dining room – yet here’s a fun little secret that many out-of-town visitors don’t know: you can also get many of their most popular menu items at the market upstairs. Kachka Lavka is a lofted space above the restaurant where you can buy sell frozen bags of dumplings, an intriguing assortment of pickled items, tinned fish, spreads, cheeses and old-fashioned Russian candies.

Enjoy a sit-down meal downstairs if you can, for sure – but if you’re in a hurry or swinging by at lunchtime, you can order from a smaller version of the restaurant’s menu upstairs, which includes the iconic dish Herring in a Fur Coat ($12), with its decadent layers of hard-boiled eggs, vegetables and herring. If you’re trying to recreate the restaurant experience at home, grab some infused vodkas ($15) and make your own cocktails to go with your dumplings and dips.

Best vintage/thrift store: Take It or Leave It 

Take It or Leave It is far from the biggest thrift store in town – yet its combination of size plus careful curation offers just the right balance of exciting possibilities and approachability. Here, the racks teem with treasures, but they’re not overwhelming to search through as at some of Portland’s bigger thrift and consignment shops. 

The Northeast Portland store not only has an inspired collection of vintage and secondhand clothing, housewares and art: there’s also a delightful array of brand-new local products, including candles, jewelry and other great gift ideas. 

At the start of this summer, I stopped in on a whim and found four shirts, each under $10, which formed the foundation of my wardrobe for the season. Whatever your budget, you’ll find something to take with you at Take It or Leave It, like a pair of fantastic purple Western boots at a splurge price of $225, or a scrumptious, locally made candle for $24. 

After you’ve shopped, grab a latte in the delightfully colorful and welcoming Queer Plants Cafe. You might also consider buying a plant to live in a newly thrifted pot. 

Best bookshop: Grand Gesture 

Love a good love story? You’ll be in luck at Grand Gesture, a romance-book store and the newest shop to land on Portland’s sprawling literary scene. Sure, you’ll probably want to go to Powell’s, too (Portland’s famous city-block-sized bookstore is just a few blocks away). Yet Grand Gesture specializes in romance literature, clearly curated by someone who knows and loves the genre. A couple of wingback chairs in the shop invite reading. And you’ll also find cute gifts for the hopeless romantic in your life, like tote bags and mugs. 

Consier snapping up a book by a Portland writer, such as We Were The Universe, by Kimberly King Parsons – which The New York Times calls a grief novel with “wildly entertaining horniness.” Curious yet?