Mississippi
Enjoy live music, local shops and popular restaurants and bars on this historic North Portland street.
North Mississippi Avenue features a long stretch of vibrant shops, unique bars, music venues and restaurants (and is only a half-mile away from even more acclaimed eateries and bars on North Williams Avenue). Read on for our favorite things to do and see in Mississippi.
Where to Eat and Drink on Mississippi
Fried egg sandwiches and fluffy biscuits headline at Gravy. The signature gravy, served veggie or “country-style” loaded with sausage crumbles, is almost a meal on its own.
Prost Marketplace provides a delicious introduction to Portland’s vaunted food cart scene, with mobile vendors serving inventive cuisine. You can enjoy your grub with a pint at on-site German pub Prost.
Local barbecue favorite, Miss Delta runs a hefty smoker behind their restaurant, smoking meats for hours before it gets served.
Lovely’s Fifty-Fifty serves some of the city’s best wood-fired pizzas and homemade ice cream — the salted caramel is addictive.
Blue Star Donuts, a Portland mainstay uses a traditional French brioche recipe as the base for classy pastries in creative flavors like blueberry bourbon basil and Cointreau crème brulee.
One of the district’s oldest businesses, Mississippi Pizza, serves its slices with generous sides of karaoke, trivia, bingo and live music — much of it geared toward kids.
Fans of Mee-Sen Thai can’t get enough of the Asian-market-in-a-warehouse vibe or the khao pad poo, a pungent combination of fried rice and sweet crabmeat.
Things to Do on Mississippi
Urban gardeners love wandering through verdant Pistils Nursery, where they can find plants, terrarium supplies, glassware, pottery and apothecary goods, gardening books and more. The nursery hosts “Living Art Workshops” on activities like staghorn fern mounting, terrarium building and houseplant care.
A great first stop for lesbian, gay and transgender (LGBTQ+) visitors is Mississippi’s Q Center, a community gathering place and resource center that hosts regular events.
At the homey Mississippi Studios, you’ll feel like you’re getting a private show — from major acts that could easily pack much larger venues. The attached BarBar rounds out the evening with a solid draft list and airy patio dining.
Sunlan Lighting the oldest business on bustling Mississippi Avenue, is a quirky specialty shop carrying light bulbs of all colors, shapes and sizes. Owner Kay Newell is also happy to share local lore and scrapbooks of vintage photographs and clippings with curious visitors.
Learn the basics of insect pinning at Paxton Gate, which includes materials and hands-on instruction on how to hydrate, preserve and display your beetle, grasshopper or butterfly. You can also shop for exotic plants, taxidermy, crystals, animal skulls, curios and mounted insects.
Shopping on Mississippi
Gourmet chocolate, wine, flowers — The Meadow stocks everything you need for a romantic picnic, along with specialty salts from around the world. Worn Path equips wilderness wanderers with sleeping bags, beanies, slingshots and other woodsy essentials.
The analog era is alive and well at Mississippi Records, specializing in international, blues and soul recordings. The shop has turntables, listening stations and even its own line of releases on vinyl and cassette.
The wide selection of comics and graphic novels at Rose City Comics attests to the number of comic book publishers and professionals in Portland — thought to be second only to New York City.
Even if you’re not in the market for a new door or bathtub, stop into the 40,000-square-foot ReBuilding Center to marvel at the array of recycled home materials, as well as the impressive tree sculpture surrounding the front entrance.
For the discriminating toddler, there’s Black Wagon, a boutique that stocks high-end clothes and gifts for babies and kids.
Chock-full of locally crafted wall prints, tees and vintage-themed jewelry, Land makes it easy to curate a Portland aesthetic. (You may also recognize it as the place where over-zealous crafters “put a bird on it” in the first season of Portlandia.) Meanwhile, Flutter offers a “delightful disarray” of home décor, jewelry and fragrances.
For local shopping and fun, every July you’ll find the Mississippi Street Fair with live music on multiple stages, more than 150 local vendors, kids’ activities, a beer garden and more.
Mississippi Events
Explore what Mississippi Neighborhood has to offer at these upcoming events.
Lael Neale
Singer/songwriter Lael Neale started with a style that tangled together melancholic folk, sun-drenched country, and indie rock, putting her lilting voice at the forefront of gorgeous, sometimes twangy arrangements. After signing with Sub Pop and establishing a collaborative flow with producer and accompanist Guy Blakeslee, her subsequent albums embraced minimalism. 2021's Acquainted with Night stripped…
Live Standup Comedy: Hannah Jones & BK Sharad
You know him from his Don't Tell Special, and you know her from viral tiktoks and reels, come see them live in Portland at the Siren Theater.
Priya Ragu
Priya Ragu’s debut mixtape damnshestamil, was alight with music so vibrant, fluid and musically broad that it transcended the artist making it and took on a life of its own, finding love among a global community of fans and critics alike, who celebrated its “eruption of inventive, deftly executed ideas'' (NME) and “addictive pop energy”…
Delicate Steve
Written and recorded on a 1966 Fender Stratocaster that reignited his love for the instrument, Delicate Steve’s captivating new album, After Hours, marks a first for Marion, an earnest, easygoing collection that revels in the simple joys of plugging in and playing. The songs are sweet and breezy here, pairing vintage soul grooves with mesmerizing,…
CMAT
A self-described global pop star from Dublin, CMAT crafts sunny radio-friendly pop songs that have a pronounced country influence. Citing Dolly Parton and Katy Perry as equal influences, CMAT's songs examine everyday life through the lens of kitschy pop culture, finding room to comment on relationships, mental health, and self-image with serious intent and a…
Interrogation: True Crime Stories
Veteran on the force, Korey David and a special guest host, lead you on a wild storytelling journey that makes you the interrogator. Comics take turns telling their stories about crimes that they've committed, then sit down at the interrogation table for questioning. Audience members can even text in their own crimes during the show…
Mary Timony
For more than 30 years, singer-songwriter and guitar hero Mary Timony has cut a distinctive path through the world of independent music, most recently as vocalist and guitarist of acclaimed garage-pop power trio Ex Hex (Merge) but also as a member of seminal post-punk band Autoclave (Dischord), celebrated leader of the deeply influential Helium (Matador),…
Wild Party
After a multi-year hiatus, the indie pop maestros Wild Party are set to release a new full-length album in 2023. After releasing their debut record, Phantom Pop, in October 2014, the band toured extensively during the following year and a half before finally calling it quits at the end of 2015. While Phantom Pop’s infectious melodies and…
Remo Drive
Remo Drive returned to where it all began: their parents’ basement to find their muse again. It had been a long time coming for the Paulson brothers — Erik (vocals, guitar) and Stephen (bass) — who formed Remo Drive in Bloomington, Minnesota, in 2013 and have since captivated audiences around the world with an earnest,…
Torres
TORRES — aka Mackenzie Scott — presents “I got the fear,” her new single/video from her forthcoming album, What an Enormous Room, out January 26th on Merge. Produced by Scott and Sarah Jaffe, “I got the fear” begins with a sparse, programmed drum beat before the howl of a lone electric guitar dris in. A…
Novacane
Novacane is a product of its environment. Coming to you from Portland, OR in the Pacific Northwest, the band is a reflection of the diverse music scene it inhabits, melding together the current sounds of indie rock, alternative, post-punk, shoegaze, and dream pop, to name a few. The band has been making a name for themselves…
Lindsay Lou
“I saw a literal manifestation of the sacred feminine and had this profound sense that I was meant to embody it,” recalls celebrated singer-songwriter Lindsay Lou after journeying through a hallucinogenic ritual that would inform the way she processed waves of grief in the sea of change ahead of her. The loss of her grandmother,…
Never Come Down
Weaving together modern and traditional styles of bluegrass and americana, Never Come Down is a Portland, Oregon based 5-piece composed of Joe Suskind (guitar), Crystal Lariza (vocals), Brian Alley (banjo), Kaden Hurst (mandolin), and Ben Ticknor (bass). Their dedication to thoughtful songwriting and dynamic arrangements highlight polished technical skills and a commitment to listening to…
Jay Jurden
Jay is a comedian, actor and Emmy nominated writer. He is currently a staff writer for The Problem With Jon Stewart on Apple TV + and his standup has been featured everywhere from Comedy Central to NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, CBS’ The Late Late Show with James Corden and The Drew Barrymore…
Mike Doughty
Mike Doughty, is taking his new band Ghost of Vroom on the road for the first time this fall. The group, consisting of Doughty, Andrew “Scrap” Livingston and drummer Madden Klass released their latest album Ghost of Vroom 3 September 2023. The aptly titled full-length is their third release from acclaimed producer Mario Caldato Jr (Beastie…
Bernhoft
Jarle Bernhoft had a new album come out in 2023, a fact that surprises the man himself. The Norwegian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist intended to have a break from recording this year. Now, he finds himself reaching out to the world with new music and a new outlook, propelling himself back to a global stage with…
Brutus
When times are tough, or you’re feeling worn down, you start longing for a life of total peace. A life where there are no fights, arguments or lies; where there is no such thing as disappointment and your actions have no consequences. Some might call it a fantasy world. Genre-jumping Belgian trio Brutus call it…
Pretty Kitty Glitter Party
Come party with the Pretty Kitties in their brand-new, delightfully bizarre sketch comedy show. Directed by Morgan Lee, Pretty Kitty Glitter Party takes you on a journey through a heartwarmingly dark parade of can’t-miss characters, daring music, surreal worlds, and yes — glitter. Running only three nights, come see the hottest, pinkest show of 2024….
Hans Williams
Born and raised in Vermont, independent singer-songwriter Hans Williams grew up listening to the likes of Al Green, Tracy Chapman, Steely Dan and James Brown — all favorites of his parents. After moving to New Orleans for school, he calls the city home, continually finding inspiration from its deep-rooted musical scene. Crafting music as a…
bar italia
London's bar italia craft woozy, moody indie rock equally informed by post-punk, shoegaze, and lo-fi without ever sounding too indebted to any of these styles. Early on, the London trio were affiliated with Dean Blunt's World Music, and releases such as 2020's Quarrel and 2021's Bedhead were of a piece with the label's sludgy, hallucinatory…
StumpFest
StumpFest is an annual, three-day festival of metal music. 4/11 Pallbearer, Helms Alee, Young Widows, Simple Forms, Eagle Claw, 4/12 YOB, Drunk Horse, Aequorea, Black Math Horseman, Desslok, 4/13 Trans AM, Danny Carey Trio, Daniel Romano's Outfit, Terry Gross , Glowing Brain, Low Plateau,
Cindy Lee| Freak Heat Waves
For Patrick Flegel, Cindy Lee is more than just a recording music project. "Singers like Patsy Cline and The Supremes carried me through the hardest times of my life," explains Flegel, "and also provided the soundtrack to the best times." Following the dissolution of Canadian experimental indie band Women, Flegel would delve deeper into songwriting…
A. Savage
Born in 1986 in Denton, Texas and raised around the newspaper where his parents both worked, by 2012 A. Savage became a headline of his own as the co-frontman of Parquet Courts. After more than a decade in New York, Savage has left the city and the United States, marking his exit with a masterpiece…
Jesse Daniel
Jesse Daniel has been a well respected name within traditional country music fans for years. Known for his relentless work ethic, roaring live shows and true to life songwriting, he has earned his place among the heavy hitters of today’s industry. The California native is blazing the trail for a new wave of traditional artists,…
Conan
Conan are as heavy as interplanetary thunder amplified through the roaring black hole anus of Azathoth. Remember that sentence, for it is writ large in virgin blood on the walls of the forgotten temple of Bol-Krastor, deep in the steaming forests of forgotten Lemuria. Conan, a monumentally brutal three piece(in the grand tradition of all…
The Talbott Brothers
Blood is thicker than water and there’s nothing like family creating music together to prove it. With contrasting blood-harmonies and left-handed/right-handed guitar playing, singer-songwriter duo The Talbott Brothers combine rock, blues and pop with honest storytelling. Nick and Tyler were born and raised in Imperial, a small town in Southwestern Nebraska, just a stone’s throw…
Glitterfox w/ The Apricots
Change and perspective expand quickly in tight quarters — and no one knows that as well as married couple Solange Igoa and Andrea Walker. It’s true of each of their time as queer kids in need of an escape from conservative towns; of their years living together in a van, traveling the country to play…
Jeremy Ferrara
“Certainty and clarity are like everything else. Yeah, they come and go.” These are the kind of gentle reminders you get when you listen to Portland songwriter Jeremy Ferrara. Regarded as “open-hearted and determinedly honest” by Americana UK, and as “exuding as much gentleness and vulnerability as anything in Nick Drake’s catalog” by Americana Highways, Ferrara…
Cheekface
When we last left the arguably interesting adventures of Cheekface, they'd released the minor phenomenon, Emphatically No. The band's sophomore album bowed at #1 on Bandcamp's alternative and vinyl sales charts, became a college radio staple, and propelled the L.A. talk-singing trio into packed houses of Cheek Freaks across the US. So now is a good…
Anna Akana
After a stalking incident forced Anna into retirement for 6 years, she's back — and armed with a restraining order and a plethora of new stories to tell. Anna Akana is a comedian, actress and writer. As an actress, she can be seen in Marvel's Ant-Man, Comedy Central's Corporate, Netflix's Jupiter's Legacy and the Emmy-nominated…
Big Richard
The world-class musicians in Big Richard initially convened in 2021 for a festival date. The quartet showed up to the one-off like it had been together for years and quicklygraduated to club shows and dates. The musicians siphon from bluegrass, old time, classical, country, and pop. Bursting with jaw-dropping virtuosity; playfully irreverent stage banter; stunning…
Charlotte Cornfield & Al Menne
It’s been less than two years since Highs in the Minuses became Charlotte Cornfield’s break-out — a magnetic mission statement for the Toronto songwriter described by Rolling Stone as “Canada’s best-kept secret.” Cornfield emerged from pandemic seclusion with new fans, raised expectations, and her first major US tour. She could have kept touring forever. She…
Jerry's Middle Finger
Humbly formed in 2015 by a group of professional musicians passionate about Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, JMF started honing its one-of-a-kind sound at LA speakeasies and beachside dive bars. Audiences of all ages instantly fell in love and soon JMF was playing to packed rooms from legendary stages throughout California, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado,…
Robert Henry & The Repeaters
As the frontman for Robert Henry & The Repeaters, I found my country music passion at 17 after a heavy metal phase in high school. Influenced by American country's rich blend of blues and storytelling traditions, our band, formed in 2018, channels legends like Waylon Jennings in our unique sound. The latest album, released on…
WAYFARER
WAYFARER (Century Media) is the pre-eminent Western American Metal band. Composed of four black-clad players from Denver, Colorado, the band’s sound draws from the deep wells of black metal, gothic country, and a mericana – creating a thunderous and uniquely American genre of metal all to their own. After ten years of existence, the band…
Coco
Coco — the project of Maia Friedman, Oliver Hill, and Dan Molad — began as an experiment of sorts; three friends writing songs for nothing other than the ritual of doing so. “There’s a mutual admiration and trust among us,” the band shares. “It allows a ‘first thought best thought’ mentality.” Their vast and varied…
Kassi Valazza
There is a cult-like fascination growing around Kassi Valazza following the self-release of her 2019 debut album Dear Dead Days, and her surprise 2022 EP, Highway Sounds. She is seated squarely at the vanguard of new American songwriters strengthening and broadening the sound of country music as she tours with celebrated acts such as Melissa…
AJ Lee and Blue Summit
AJ Lee and Blue Summit made their first appearance in Santa Cruz in 2015. Led by singer, songwriter, and mandolinist, AJ Lee, the bluegrass band has performed all over the world, but finds home in California’s Bay Area. In 2019, they released their debut album, Like I Used To. Their second full length project, I’ll…
The Marked Men
The Marked Men's energy-packed mix of leather-clad punk with tough garage rock guitars, urgent vocals, and a tight rhythm section proved to be a very influential one. While many bands followed in their footsteps, few captured the magic the quartet did. With two songwriters, Jeff Burke and Mark Ryan, tossing out instant classic rockers, the…
Kara Jackson
Kara Jackson is an award-winning poet, singer-songwriter, and producer from Oak Park, Illinois (Chicago). She is the 2019 National Youth Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate of Chicago (2018). Kara released her debut album, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?, in April 2023. Kara is also the author of the poetry book…
Cat Clyde
Cat Clyde is a singer/songwriter based out of rural Ontario, Canada. A combination of driven, soulful blues and sweet, folk-tinged, dulcet tones that carry a particular sense of familiarity provide the structure on which she creates her unique sound. Cat Clyde’s 3rd album, Down Rounder, is a wonder of deeply felt songwriting, a record that finds the…
Brainstory
Based in LA but hailing from the Inland Empire's own Rialto, CA, two-thirds of Brainstory, Kevin and Tony Martin, are brothers by blood, while Eric Hagstrom is a brother through their music and long-term friendship. While the group's initial connection comes from the heady mixture of jazz-performance-focused music school and the grind of playing local…
The Go! Team
The Go! Team announced their first North American shows in 5 years with a run of West Coast dates in May 2024. The shows will see the band play songs from their double whammy of recent releases, Get Up Sequences Part 1 and Part 2, and also serve as a celebration of 20 years since the…
Dustin Kensrue
Dustin Kensrue was still a teenager when he formed Thrice, the dynamic and multifaceted rock band who have been bending and blending genres for the past quarter century. Before the group's touring schedule took him around the world, he spent his childhood in Southern California, regularly heading into the desert to visit his paternal grandparents…
Chatham County Line
Launched a little more than twenty years ago in Raleigh, North Carolina, Chatham County Line built a devoted local following on the strength of their genre-bending live show — an intoxicating blend of bluegrass, folk, country, and rock and roll — before breaking out internationally with their 2003 self-titled debut. In the years to come,…
Cedric Burnside
When Cedric Burnside prepared to record Hill Country Love, the follow-up to his 2021 Grammy-winning album I Be Trying, he set up shop in a former legal office located in a row of structures in the seat of Tippah County, a town with 5,000 residents that’s known as the birthplace of the Hill Country Blues…
Colby Acuff
Sometimes, it seems like country has forgotten its wild roots — or at least outgrown them, changing as it has to reflect an ever-evolving world. Then there’s a guy like Colby Acuff. A fourth-generation Idaho native with a rugged spirit true to his mountain home, honest-to-a-fault lyrics and a sound as raw as the remote…
John Craigie
Portland, Oregon based singer-songwriter John Craigie covers the entire Beatles album 'Rubber Soul' with his unique "Lonely" blend of wit, humor, history and stories told between each beloved song. Five special guests will open the show, each playing one non 'Rubber Soul' Beatles song. Much like community, music nourishes us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It…
dada
Since the release of dada’s groundbreaking 1992 debut Puzzle, the trio has created an array of songs boasting progressive rock musicianship, dazzling vocal harmonies and melodic power pop layered with inspired psychedelic and experimental rock impulses. Adding to the trio’s groundbreaking line of attack are the marathon-length shows that deliver on the promise that every…
Yard Act
What do you do when everything you’ve ever wanted suddenly lands in your lap, but the questions still keep on coming? Since first steering their golden Rover into swift public acclaim back in 2020, Leeds quartet Yard Act has become one of the great indie success stories of the decade so far. Along the way, they’ve…
Illustration by Subin Yang
North Portland Neighborhoods
Sometimes called the “Fifth Quadrant,” North Portland encompasses a range of neighborhoods and commercial districts, including St. Johns, Mississippi/Williams and Kenton. Attractions include the St. Johns Bridge, Portland International Raceway, Peninsula Park Rose Garden and Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area.
Was this page helpful?