Way Out West: A Day in Portland

Welcome to long days and warmer nights, Summer is here! It's also time to stretch your wandering limbs and explore: in this blog series we will be highlighting the great things to see and do Way Out West (check out last week's!). You don't need to step far from our coast to discover great adventures-make it a day or a weekend, grab your sunhat and go...

Only a day after touching back down from my trip to Portland, and I am already thinking of places to return to and making a list of places I want to see for next time. Each neighborhood (each street even!) is practically a city in itself, it's impossible to see it all the first time around!  Portland's public transport toggles between the MAX train and streetcars, enabling you to reach just about any stretch of the city. From there, certain low to no traffic streets are designated bike routes (like our Marsh St in SLO)!

After reflecting on the many sights I saw and spaces I entered, if I could spend one day back in Portland with only my walking shoes on or pair of pedals, I would head straight to the Northeast side. This area carried a beauty for me in its wildflower front yards, porches on almost every home, and food still lingering on my tastebuds.

MISSISSIPPI DISTRICT
Tasty & Sons. Don't miss a day of brunching in the city, starting here. Water Avenue coffee, a complete Bloody Mary menu, potatoes bravas with over easy eggs & aioli, Auntie Paula's french toast with strawberry rhubarb maple & whipped cream, Burmese red pork stew with short grain rice & eggs two ways.

Radar. Tasty lazy sours, deviled eggs three ways, and roasted radishes with brown butter & sea salt

Paxton Gate. I had to drag myself out of this store, only after discovering the mother store is driving distance from SLO, in San Fran.

Spin Laundry Lounge. I wish I had had some dirty socks with me to my wash when I strolled by this gem.

Rebuilding Center. Doors on doors on doors.

Worn Path. Refurbished axes to Forest park maps to Poler Camp gear, all things hip and manly.

Manifesto Shoes.

Lark Press.

Pistils Nursery. They wanted a unique garden shop, and successfully, I've never seen anything like it.

Animal Traffic. A mix of new and old Americana goods. I needed to bring a second suitcase.

Half Pint Vintage. Heaps of vintage of leather!

Lodekka. A double decker bus turned dress shop: yes please.

Back Talk. New and olds, with a fashion designer sharing the space as her studio.

Queen Bee Creations. Like an open kitchen restaurant, the front space is their retail and the back opens up to their workspace full of bolts of cloth and sewing machines.
Flutter. "A beautiful disarray of found objects and clutter"--well said.

TABOR DISTRICT
Mt Tabor. Bike to the top on the path or climb over 256 steps (we counted) to the hilltop park overlooking parts of Portland.

Seven Virtues. Cappuccinos and macchiatos all day long.

Tannery Bar. Old habits cocktail, corn nuts, fried cauliflower & namesake fries with garlic chili aioli

Country Cat. Here's brunch again: Bloody Mary with jerky, Two fried eggs on a biscuit dressed with sausage gravy &served with home fries, Cast iron skillet fried chicken & toasted pecan-bacon spoonbread dressed in maple syrup. 

The Maven. Vintage and new items to drool over.

 

EATS ALL OVER

Salt & Straw. Ice cream extraordinaires: chocolate chip mint julep, coffee and bourbon, honey balsamic strawberry with cracked pepper, chocolate with gooey brownies, and honey lavender. Yum.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

Water Avenue Coffee.

Blue Star Donuts. Donut connoisseurs.

Been to Portland? What spots did you swoon over?

xoxo,
Betsi

Ruby Rose is now open at 1235 Monterey Street!

For all of us, we have businesses or people we admire,
one of ours is Yvon Chouinard, the visionary behind the company Patagonia. His quotes were running crazy through my head through this crazy, amazing project.

“How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.”...“The word ‘adventure’ has just gotten overused. For me, adventure is when everything goes wrong — that’s when the adventure starts.”

Well, we are happy to say that we feel like we climbed the mountain, and had quite the adventure!

It took a whole village to move into this space! We are now open at 1235 Monterey Street at Johnson (a.k.a. MoJo!). Our new shop hours are Tuesday - Saturday 11 - 5 and Sunday 12 - 4. Please stop by, we'd love to see you!

We were inspired by the book Create Walls by Geraldine James to create this wall hanging, what do you think?

Our dear friends from Huckleberry Market gifted us this gorgeous arrangement for our opening! They will be moving into our old location and we can't wait to see how they transform the space! 

See you very soon! xoxo, Ruby Rose. 

photos by Kendra Aronson.

Huckleberry Market

Our replacements for 1335 Walker Street are full of passion and creativity, and we are proud to see our old space move onto new and grander endeavors. Allow us to introduce you: everyone, meet Huckleberry Market.
Huckleberry Market, meet everyone.

Huckleberry Market is a space dedicated to creative & personal gatherings. Shop for supplies for a dinner party, find local professionals for events and weddings, and take creative workshops to get the skills you need to make your events extra special. The Market offers beverages and snacks for you to sit and stay a while, because we know the creative process takes time (and coffee!)

Carla and Karen, the owners, both have a passion for all things homemaking and love connecting people through intimate gatherings. They want to make a space where such events can be hosted, and help people create them on their own by providing supplies and teaching workshops. Flowers are a huge part of any event for them, they are like these temporary pieces of art right at the center on the table, and so they will be a big part of the market. They will offer floral design services for weddings, events, and local deliveries.

Grow Nursery from Cambria, CA will curate a selection of unique handmade pottery and rare plants inside the market.

Local artist Neal Breton will be working out of Huckleberry Market, making and selling his illustrations as well as hosting and planning workshops. Here is a little bit about Neal:

Mainly, I'm a painter. I have done quite a bit of illustrating since moving to SLO about 6 years ago from various parts of Southern California. In that time, I have done a poster for the SLO Downtown Association's summer concert festival, illustrated several covers and features for the New Times, and most recently I was lucky enough to illustrate a beer label for a Davis, California based beer company called Sudwerk.
My latest endeavors find me traveling quite often around the state; I have art shows this year in the Bay Area as well as Southern California. I co-founded Fiasco! Gallery with partner Jeff Claassen, which is located in Studios on the Park in Paso Robles.
Lately, my paintings explore my views of society in a contemporary neo-folk/urban style. I work in clusters of small paintings, working out ideas quickly, then moving on to another stream of thought. I usually work on several clusters at the same time as to not let any ideas stagnate.
My intentions for the space are to hang a few paintings, show a few illustrations wares, possibly pick up a few jobs doodling wedding invitations and to be a part of the handmade aesthetic.

Be ready for their open signs and doors--this month!

The Whole Village

"It takes a village to raise a child"

-African Proverb

It also takes a village to open a store.

From dreaming and planning to stripping paint and packing boxes for hours, many many hands played crucial roles in the move to 1235 Monterey Street. We could not have done it without you-even the curious faces and excited online comments have encouraged us to keep going after our vision and seeing it through. As we unpack, arrange and rearrange this week in preparation for opening in the new space, we want to pay tribute to those who worked hard to make it happen. Whether pictured or not pictured, thank you to our village, from the bottom of our hearts--you made this possible...and oh so much more fun.

We're Moving!!!

After months of planning, dreaming and readying, this weekend we pack up our shop on Walker Street and move to our new location on 1235 Monterey Street. Though we bid adieu to our affectionately named SLOHO area, Ruby Rose is finding some good MOJO in our new spot at the MOnterey and JOhnson intersection!

For the next week, we will be closed, unpacking new and old items into the new space. With the move comes more room and open six days a week! Join us a week from today--Friday, June 13th--as we fling open our doors at 11a.

Check back here on Monday to see who is taking over the old space!

I Spy...

...something from Ruby Rose!

Every day people drop into our store looking to enhance their space and/or style: students, shop owners, professionals, creatives, travelers and locals alike. Then when we are around town, we spy many of our pieces being utilized in so many different ways! One of the perks of this biz is discovering how our customers use their purchases-whether at home, in your business, or on the street. Some share with us their photos, like these posts from inspiring customers displaying their wares:

And keep an eye out for some of our items now strategically placed about local businesses--like the old refrigerator box from our Weekly Six post, now at Scout Coffee; a metal bussing cart now at Sally Loo's, or porch lights spied at Sidecar.

So today we want to know: what do you with and how do you wear your Ruby Rose purchases? Upload to Instagram, tag us (@rubyrose805) & include #ispyrubyrose, or comment below telling us what you've done!