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  • Attractions
    • woman photographing view of portlandView All Attractions
    • Attractions Open Now
    • Museums
    • Parks & Gardens
    • Family Friendly
    • Shopping
    • On a Budget
    • EVEN MORE THINGS TO DO
  • Culture
    • people sitting at tables eating foodView All Culture
    • Arts
    • Beer
    • Biking
    • Cannabis
    • Cultural Communities
    • Craft Spirits
    • Food
    • Makers
    • Music
    • Nightlife
    • Outdoors
    • Sports
    • Weird
    • Wine
    • MORE CULTURE
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    • people walking on the sidewalk under a vintage Hollywood Theater signView All Neighborhoods
    • Alberta Arts District
    • Belmont
    • Central Eastside
    • Division/Clinton
    • Downtown
    • Hawthorne
    • Lloyd
    • Mississippi
    • Northwest / Nob Hill
    • Old Town Chinatown
    • Pearl District
    • St. Johns
    • Sellwood-Moreland
    • Williams
    • ALL NEIGHBORHOODS
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    • RegionView All Region
    • Near the City
    • Columbia River Gorge
    • Mount Hood
    • Oregon Coast
    • Willamette Valley
    • ALL REGIONS
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i
Stroll through skeletons and other oddities at North Portland’s Paxton Gate.
Neighborhoods / North Portland

Mississippi

Enjoy live music, local shops and popular restaurants and bars on this historic North Portland street.

i
Stroll through skeletons and other oddities at North Portland’s Paxton Gate.

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 up-and-coming North Williams Avenue). Read on for our favorite things to do and see in Mississippi.

Short-Term Rentals in Mississippi

Use the links below to search for short-term vacation rental listings in and near Mississippi.

Airbnb

Vacasa

Vrbo

Dining 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. At the south end of Mississippi, Ecliptic Brewing offers celestial-themed brews from legendary brew-master John Harris together with upscale fare.

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.

Food Carts

Portland food carts offer a wide range of simple, satisfying eats and some surprisingly sophisticated fare.

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Meat reigns supreme at The People’s Pig, where perfectly smoked pork shoulder and fried chicken sandwiches have barbecue-lovers in hog heaven. Another local barbecue favorite, Miss Delta runs a hefty smoker behind their restaurant, smoking meats for hours before it gets served.

a table of barbecue food
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Miss Delta dishes up some of the city's best barbecue on North Mississippi Avenue.
a man cooking meat in an outdoor smoker
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Credit: Catalina Gaitan
a bartender cutting lemons and limes
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A bartender prepares citrus fruits for cocktails at Miss Delta on North Mississippi Avenue.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan
a bartender serves a tall cocktail
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Colorful cocktail compliment authentic barbecue served at Miss Delta on North Mississippi Avenue in North Portland.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan

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.

Doughnut Shops in Portland

Voodoo is just one of many doughnut purveyors in Portland serving zany creations, gourmet flavors and gluten-free goodies.

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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 in 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’s hosts “Living Art Workshops” on activities like staghorn fern mounting, terrarium building and houseplant care.

person standing behind counter at a garden nursery
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Pistils Nursery on North Mississippi Avenue offers plenty of gardening supplies, plants and resources, including a build-your-own-terrarium station.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan
interior of a garden nursery
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Pistils Nursery on North Mississippi Avenue offers plenty of gardening supplies, plants and resources, including a build-your-own-terrarium station.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan
people walking through a garden nursery
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Pistils Nursery on North Mississippi Avenue offers plenty of gardening supplies, plants and resources, including a build-your-own-terrarium station.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan
shelf with a stack of books and plants
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Pistils Nursery on North Mississippi Avenue offers plenty of gardening supplies, plants and resources, including a build-your-own-terrarium station.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan
potted plants for sale on the exterior of a plant nursery
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Pistils Nursery on North Mississippi Avenue offers plenty of gardening supplies, plants and resources, including a build-your-own-terrarium station.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan

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.

Live Music Venues in Portland

From gritty rock to velvety jazz, Portland’s live music scene offers tunes for all types.

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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 own beetle, grasshopper or butterfly. You can also shop for exotic plants, taxidermy, crystals, animal skulls, curios and mounted insects.

an a-frame sign on the sidewalk advertising the shop Paxton Gate
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Paxton Gate on North Mississippi Avenue offers a plethora of taxidermy, preserved oddities and unique gifts.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan
unusual items like taxidermy and framed insects are displayed on shop shelves and walls
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Paxton Gate on North Mississippi Avenue offers a plethora of taxidermy, preserved oddities and unique gifts.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan
unusual items like taxidermy and framed insects are displayed on shop shelves and walls
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Paxton Gate on North Mississippi Avenue offers a plethora of taxidermy, preserved oddities and unique gifts.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan
shelves and walls stocked with natural items like stones and minerals, taxidermy examples, and framed insects
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Paxton Gate on North Mississippi Avenue offers a plethora of taxidermy, preserved oddities and unique gifts.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan
shelves and walls stocked with natural items like stones and minerals, taxidermy examples, and framed insects
5 of 5
Paxton Gate on North Mississippi Avenue offers a plethora of taxidermy, preserved oddities and unique gifts.
Credit: Catalina Gaitan

Explore Portland With Near Me Now

Are you in Portland or visiting soon? Our Near Me Now web app will lead you to some of our favorite neighborhood spots.

Visit Near Me Now

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, which specializes 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 Bridge City Comics attests to the number of comic book publishers and professionals in Portland — thought to be second only to that in New York City.

Vinyl Shopping in Portland

From vintage wax to new European imports, those rare releases you’ve been searching for are surely waiting at one of these rockin’ local vinyl stores.

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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.

Online sensation Sock Dreams has its world headquarters on North Mississippi Avenue. So instead of ordering online, hoof it into their store for socks of all stripes: sexy, silly and, of course, soft. And 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.

Neighborhoods, Tours & Itineraries

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.

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