The Portland Book of Dates
The Portland The Portland Portland The
Portland Book of Dates Portland Portland Book of Dates Book of Dates
Adventures,
Escapes,
Adventures, Escapes,
and Secret Spots
and Secret Spots
eden dawn
ashod simonian
Copyright © 2025 by Eden Dawn and Ashod Simonian
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Printed in China
SASQUATCH BOOKS with colophon is a registered trademark of Blue Star Press, LLC 29 28 27 26 25 9
Originally published in paperback and in slightly different form in the United States by Sasquatch Books in 2021.
Editor: Jen Worick
Production editor: Jill Saginario
Production designer: Tony Ong
Illustrations: Ashod Simonian
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to use a representation of the following sculpture: Page 119: Joseph Warren, , 2007, Collection of Maryhill Museum of Art.
ISBN: 978-1-63217-587-8
Sasquatch Books 1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 1025 Seattle, WA 98101
SasquatchBooks.com
To Grandpa Jim and Grandma Eva for showing us what seven decades of love and adventure can look like
Introduction
We love being in love. With each other, especially, but with Oregon as well. Eden’s been here her whole life, and Ashod moved to Portland in 2006 after passing through on countless rock-and-roll tours—always enamored by the cozy cafés, towering trees, and friendly people. We’re both social types who circled each other’s orbits for years before dating. We’d bump into each other at fashion shows, house parties, and backstage at friends’ concerts, fl irting across crowded rooms. When our stars finally aligned, we vowed to never become the kind of couple that spends every night in sweats zoned out in front of the TV.
That promise meant researching weird itineraries to impress the other and having a good time even when the weather upended our plans (which it did frequently, because Oregon). As our relationship grew, so did the amount of ground our dates covered. We visited places we had seen plastered on Instagram (hello, Painted Hills) but also stumbled upon some lesser-known gems like Clear Lake, where we floated in a rickety rowboat over a surreal forest frozen beneath the water. Our “Simonian Sunday Drives” (as Eden likes to call them—even if it’s Saturday) became a regular occurrence.
Early in our relationship, Portland entered a growth spurt that has yet to show any signs of slowing. We lost our beloved neighborhood bar, Tiga, and every month since, it seems another favorite haunt is gone. While New Portland continues to rave about this hot new restaurant or that hip new bar—which, to be clear, are often wonderful—we are constantly making date-night arrangements to help support the establishments that made us fall in love with this city in the first place. We’re including many of these
within—not because we want to expose our secrets but because we want to share the magic we’ve experienced and help these places thrive for years to come.
In May of 2016, next to a glowing fluorescent waterfall deep in the recesses of the mine in the Seven Dwarves’ House at Oregon’s most off-thewall amusement park, Enchanted Forest, Ashod took a knee and proposed. Our love has always been infused with an appreciation of all things kitsch, and there was no place more perfect to slide on a plastic ring and make it official. These only-in-Oregon oddities inform many of the dates in this book.
We hope you enjoy the fruits of our labor as much as we did.
Since we first published this in January 2021, tens of thousands of happy couples, nervous daters, and friends looking for high jinks have bought our book. Every single time we get tagged in a photo, hear of someone being gifted a copy the day they bought a house, or find a real-life duo who spent a first date based on a page from here, it brings us an immense amount of delight. We are only on this big rock swirling through space for a short time, so to spend it seeking joy with our loved ones is truly the smartest thing to do—which is why we wanted to do an updated version for you. This time around we organized it by in-town dates, day trips, and overnighters, while also swapping out closures, shouting out new favorites, and making sure you're stocked with fun for many more years to come. Go forth.
WISHING YOU AND YOURS ALL THE LOVE IN THE WORLD,
Eden & Ashod
