I kept seeing many artistic tributes pop up in various cities...
A mere two weeks after his tragic death, Portland artist Ashley Montague painted the city's first Prince tribute mural. It's now two years later, with paint peeling in the upper regions.
The mural is located in the NE quadrant of Portland in the Cully neighborhood, the very same neighborhood of most of our Day 1 posts visits. It's located on a small building behind (and belonging to) local coffee shop, Motivasi.
The colors are still vibrant. Too bad the paint is peeling and that there was trash on the ground next to it.
Very cool to see this in person finally!
The soundtrack of my teen years.
Since we were here...we may as well stop for coffee.
It was pretty quiet during our visit. Only one patron plus the barista. She wanted to make sure we knew that the macchiato was "small"; we did mention we wanted the "traditional". I keep hearing more and more baristas clarify nowadays. I guess they are tired of having people expect the Starbucks version of a macchiato, ha ha (that in itself is a travesty. But we did let her know we knew the difference.
What was puzzling was that she said she was trained to make macchiatos and cortados a certain way and that she could make it the way we wanted. I thought there was pretty much a specific ratio of espresso to milk for those particular drinks, but we let her do what she wanted.
Cool artwork on the walls by local artists.
Our macchiato proper and my cortado (which was served in a small cup instead of a Gibraltar glass; not sure if they had one or not but this is how we got it).
I liked Bert's macchiato better here than at Bison. My cortado was not bad either. Smooth, but not what I was expecting it to look like. The larger amount of milk in my drink was easier to take than Bert's macchiato.
We spent some time relaxing there before making our way back to the car. It was nearing check in time. After we crossed the beautiful arched Fremont Bridge, we headed to the local store, Fred Meyers (aka Freddies to native Portlanders) to buy some supplies and food for our breakfasts and dinners for the next few days.
Reviews:
A cyclist blog, "Portland Coffee Hangouts" mentions Motivasi and subsequent revisits from a few years ago.
*I wish I had seen this blog before our trip. It's like a detailed encyclopedia of coffee/bakery spots. These guys DO NOT mess around. This is not a small feat considering the plethora of coffee shops in Portland. Downside, no photos of coffee but a fascinating compendium of their discussion topics and whether or not the shop is cyclist friendly and conducive to hanging out, etc. Very thorough!
Articles/mentions:
"Portland's first Prince mural is complete WillametteWeek, May 9, 2016
"Artist paints stunning Prince mural near Portland coffee shop" ThatOregonLife, May 11, 2016
"Prince mural now adorns building in Northeast Portland" OregonLive, May 11, 2016
"Prince mural pops up in Northeast Portland" KATU.Com, May 2016
Motivasi Coffee
4502 NE Cully Blvd.
Portland, OR 97218
fb page + reviews from that four lettered site
Portland 2018 Day 1 in order:
Breakfast at Elmer's Restaurant"
Joseph Wood Hill Park at Rocky Butte Park
Annie's Donuts
Bison Coffee House
Pip's Original Doughnuts and Chai, plus this post.
But technically, the last post is our grocery store sushi dinner from Fred Meyer (not that exciting).
Day 2 would be pretty exciting...especially since one event was happening not just in Portland, but nation wide.
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