Craft your own unique, handmade ice cream and cookie sandwich at Ruby Jewel.
Credit: Catalina Gaitán
Downtown’s West End
Downtown's West End comes into its own.
1 min readDowntown
Portland’s historic West End has emerged as a center of creativity, fashion and nightlife. Tucked between Powell’s City of Books and the downtown retail core, the area is home to a growing number of local and international design shops, fashion boutiques, restaurants, cafés and hotels. Newest on the block is Union Way, a galleria that opened in summer 2013. Portland’s Danner Boots, Bridge & Burn and denim clothier Self Edge have high-profile spaces, and eateries include Wailua Shave Ice, a traditional Hawaiian shave ice shop, and Boxer Ramen, a noodle bar.
Evoking Paris’ intimate passageways and Scandinavian architecture, this shop-filled alley connects downtown Portland’s West End with the Pearl District.
The West End’s redevelopment was spurred by the arrival of the Ace Hotel, Stumptown Coffee and Clyde Common (home of the world’s first barrel-aged cocktails).
Dayna Pinkham, an internationally recognized couture hatmaker, has moved her Pinkham Millinery into the neighborhood. To further sweeten the location, sister-owned local favorite Ruby Jewel Scoop Shop opened its second location at Southwest 12th Avenue and Stark Street, offering decadent handcrafted flavors, ice cream sandwiches and a vintage soda fountain.
Since 2013, Union Way has been connecting West Burnside Street with Southwest Harvey Milk Street via an indoor shopping arcade full of hip local retailers and eateries.
Bridge & Burn specializes in classic, functional and distinctively Northwest apparel for men and women. Since 2010 they’ve been creating well-crafted clothes that can go straight from dinner to the woods.
Self Edge carries the world’s finest denim and leather accessories, all with a distinct aesthetic and details that are second to none. Selvedge lines made of metallic red silk, rivets of sterling silver, and poisonous python skin tags from Okinawa.
A stylish business-class boutique hotel that features vintage furniture, original art and eco-friendly elements. The Ace Hotel’s 79 rooms are modern, bohemian and pet friendly.
In 1999, Stumptown Coffee Roasters took Portland caffeine lovers by storm. What started as a single roastery on Southeast Division Street quickly expanded to the rest of Portland — and now, to the rest of the country.
Clyde Common is a lively and acclaimed European-style tavern in the Ace Hotel that offers a regional take on classic dining. The daily menu emphasizes meats butchered and cured in house, along with local produce and seafood.
A historic hotel with 51 comfortable guestrooms, each inspired by a song or performance from the past 100 years at the nearby Crystal Ballroom, the McMenamins Crystal Hotel also features an on-site cafe, bar and subterranean saltwater soaking pool.
Ruby Jewel uses fresh, all-natural, all-Northwest ingredients in their handmade ice cream. The menu consists of five permanent flavors, two vegan options and five frequently changing flavors.