Ben Waterhouse

Beyond finding interesting parts for women in a play that otherwise has little room for them, Van Der Merwe’s erasure of gender shines a light on the Macbeth’s obsession with manliness: feeling like a man, fighting like a man, killing like a man, dying like a man. In “Macbeth,” as all too often in our own times, manhood is inextricably tied to violence.

Gender-bending ‘Macbeth’ finds horror in the shadows

In its bittersweet tone, as in many other respects, “Kodachrome” recalls Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” It is set in a small New England town — the real and very New-Englandy Colchester, Connecticut. And it’s driven by an all-seeing, third-wall-breaking narrator: The Photographer (Lena Kaminsky), a shutterbug whose luminous images of buildings and people have made her the unofficial recorder of local life.

In Portland Center Stage’s ‘Kodachrome,’ the focus is on love’s blurred lines

Güero is much more than a sandwich shop — it’s a multisensory experience in which sandwiches are served. By day, Güero is light-filled and cheery; by night, it hums. On a recent weekday evening, pretty young couples traded rock-climbing stories over mezcal cocktails and oversized tortas in the warm, low light — subdued but not quite dim.

Portland’s 2017 Rising Star restaurant: Guero

When Olympia Provisions, Portland’s acclaimed sausage-maker, announced the second permanent location of its hotdog-joint spinoff, OP Wurst, in 2016, the decision was baffling to some. The first location, in downtown Portland’s Pine Street Market, was already a big hit, so an expansion made sense. But why Oregon City?

Why Oregon City’s downtown food scene has become so appealing

In this mix of tradition and tumult, old vines and new, there’s still much to discover. Take the scrappy winemakers of the valley’s Eola-Amity Hills region, at play with lesser-known varietals like gamay and Melon de Bourgogne that thrive in these ancient volcanic basalt soils. Here, in the most southern of the Willamette Valley’s six sub-AVAs, find wide-open country roads—less known than the well-charted wine trails to the north—that make easy touring for off-the-map wine-tasters.

A Wine Country Bike Trip in Oregon’s Eola–Amity Hills

We’re home to an unlikely number of good Spanish restaurants, along with hispanophile shops, bars and even wineries. You don’t need a festival to explore the diversity of Spanish food and drink here—you can work your way around the country, from Andalucía to Valencia, any time you like.

Every day is Tapas Day: Where to find Spain’s best regional dishes in Portland

St. Patrick’s Day approaches, which means it’s time to break out the flocked top hats, dump dye in the rivers and order the obligatory pint of Guinness. But before you crack the top on that widget-bearing can, consider the 5,000 miles it had to travel to reach you. Wouldn’t you prefer a fresher pint?

On St. Patrick’s Day, ditch Guinness for these Oregon-brewed Irish stouts

With its pendant lights, cactus collection, and a mural reminiscent of Matisse cut-outs covering one wall, this Belmont Street cafe is a distillation of recent Portland design trends. The space is as tall as it is deep, with turquoise tile on the floor and a massive old-growth beam looming overhead.

Portland’s 5 most innovative new coffee shops

For most of his life, Hiro Horie was an organization man. He spent 25 years working the Japanese baking giant Pasco, starting on the English muffin line and eventually running the company’s American wholesale operations in Los Angeles and, later, Portland. So it took a lot for the soft-spoken baker to leave the corporate fold two years ago and open his own shop.

At Beaverton’s Oyatsupan Bakers, experience translates to smaller scale