Tag: XOXO Festival

Food Recomendations For Portland Visitors

Portland

XOXO Festival is coming up, starting tomorrow, and I could not be more XOXO-cited (don’t groan, you loved it, I’m not apologizing.) On the good social medias people are posting their travel selfies, tips and tricks, and scheduling meetups. I can’t share any of that, but here in public, I’m going to make a personal list of some of my favorite things about Portland, from me, a native son of the city. It’s true: I was born here almost 60 years ago, at St. Vincent’s, on a snowy December evening.

I’m not one of those Portlanders who hate people moving here, though. I want people to move here, mostly leftist or progressive folks, because governmentally the city is run by centrists at best, although I have hopes that the new form of city government we all voted in and that the current pack of conservative commissioners have been trying their best to sabotage will enable true progressive voices, and hopefully diverse ones, to have greater say in how my city works.

So if you’re new to Portland, visiting for the XOXO Festival, here are some off-the-beaten-track recommendations for food, entertainment, and quality time. I grew up in Southeast Portland, so most of my faves are in this quadrant of the city.

I have never had bad service at Kay’s Bar or the Limelight Lounge, both located in SE Portland on Milwaukie Avenue. These are friendly neighborhood establishments with caring staff who know their business. The bartenders at Kay’s serve strong drinks, the menu is bar food but done really well, and the atmosphere and decor is chill and retro. I could be biased, though: the previous cook named a burger special after me once (the Lunar Burger, which had goat cheese and cole slaw, is sadly no longer on the menu.) Many vegan or vegetarian options, also!

The Limelight likewise has filling, delicious burgers, sandwiches, and specials. The restaurant side is warm and inviting; I like to grab a window seat and watch the foot traffic but on sunny days you can sit outside. Limelight is my go-to for Taco Tuesdays; three tacos for cheap, all day long, along with the Niño Nachos, and a beer, is a filling inexpensive meal. Try a drink with one of their infused vodkas; the jalepeno makes a great vodka martini. Their Taco Tuesday always includes a vegetarian option, as well.

Maya’s Taqueria downtown, Santa Fe Taqueria in NW, and Aztec Willie’s in NE, are all long-time Portland Mexican food staples. Their verde chicken is amazing, and I consider their salsa to be the pinacle and the match of anything I’ve ever had in actual Mexico (though I am a tourist there, of course.) Maya’s is also situated right on the MAX line and a block from the Central Library; I have spent many a lazy afternoon or evening sitting at the bench watching the world go by through the large front windows, nursing a beer and filling myself with a burrito or quesadilla. Ah, memories. Aztec Willies is open late over the weekend, and has a terrific dance floor!

Lauretta Jean’s wins on pie; they’re on SE Division. Also a tiny shop, they always have many different pies to choose from. I prefer berry pies, and now is the perfect season for blackberry, raspberry, and marionberry, but they do an awesome cheesecake, or a Boston creme. You can drop in for a slice, or buy whole pies.

One last time, with feeling

General

My team lead called me today. He wanted to know if I’d be willing to take another tech’s on-call rotation next week, since they’d be on vacation.

“I would love to, and I’d be able to during the week, but that weekend I’m volunteering for a conference so I’d be really distracted.”

“Oh, that’s understandable,” he said. He’s very reasonable and very much about work-life balance, so I knew it wasn’t a big deal. “We’ll make it work somehow, no problem.” He paused. “On another note, though, what’s this convention about?”

“It’s called the XOXO Festival. It’s… kind of an indie-artist tech conference? There are multiple tracks for music, for games, and for videos and podcasts, and art of all kinds.”

I shared the website with him and he browsed it while I tried to shorthand a quick description.

XOXO is sort of hard to explain. It’s got a vibe unlike so many other conferences out there. It’s definitely not tech-bro territory, and it’s not wild and pagan like Burning Man, and it’s not techically nerdy like DefCon. Its attitude is sharing, curious, talented, and kind.

The festival takes the best parts of Portland, and none of the worst parts. XOXO is a product of the Portland I love, created by two friends, Andy B. and Andy M., who are perhaps the most curious, talented, and kind people I know. I’m happy to have been even a small part of XOXO, even though I have never felt my imposter syndrome as strongly as I have among the staff, volunteers, guests, and attendees at any of these festivals.

And I’m sad that it’s ending. Did I mention that? Andy and Andy have spent a lot of time and energy creating and curating this thing, and they want to put a bow on it, make one final statement, and move on to other projects. So 2024 is the last XOXO. I had to be there. I missed the last one, in 2019, because I was in a depressed headspace.

But I’ve stayed in the community — oh did I mention there’s a community? The XOXO spirit begat a private Slack that has been operating for as long as Slack has been a thing, I think? I’d have to go look. I’ve stayed in the community and it has been, for me, the Best Place on the Internet. I try to give back to the XOXO family as much as they’ve given me.

I’ve always been a volunteer, helping to staff and run the past events, and this year is no different. Tonight was the volunteer orientation and it was amazing to be in-person with people I’ve only mostly interacted with online for so long. Andy and Andy stood up in front of us, talked about the vibe, and reminded us all of what our expectations should be.

“But you know all this,” Andy M. said. “Everyone here has either worked, or attended, a past XOXO. We couldn’t do this without you.”

The feeling is reciprocated.