Slappy Cakes

4246 SE Belmont St
503-477-4805
slappycakes.com

Easy-Bake meets performance art at this recently opened eatery. Just pick a batter, add your fixins, and flip the switch on your table’s built-in pancake griddle. When the batter arrives in squeeze bottles, the show begins. Faces, letters, giant animals—the griddle is your canvas! And those who forsake pancakes will find the full gamut of breakfast staples here, from country-fried steak to eggs Benedict, not to mention an eye-widening menu of forenoon cocktails. —RR

 

 

Tryon Life Community Farm

11640 SW Boones Ferry Rd
503-245-3847
tryonfarm.org

Nestled within Southwest Portland’s Tryon Creek State Forest, this seven-acre farm seems like the kind of place the mother of environmentalism, Rachel Carson, had in mind when she penned her 1956 Woman’s Home Companion essay, “Help Your Child to Wonder.” Among the farm’s firs and free-roaming chickens, growing greenies can learn about native species, wetland management, and, yes, even composting toilets. Just be prepared for questions a bit trickier than “Why is the sky blue?” (Like, “Mom, what are dreadlocks?”) —KC

 

Teen Yoga

Holiday’s health & fitness yoga
3942 SE Hawthorne Blvd
?503-224-8611
holidaysyogacenter.com

Have the SATs got your teen stressing? Are all the hours he spends logged on to Facebook making him slouch? If so, Holiday’s “Standing On Your Own Two Feet” course—a nonprofit yoga program designed to help teens stretch, pose, and breathe their way to relaxation, strength, and self-discipline—may be just the ticket. And if Wednesday’s Teen Yoga class conflicts with piano lessons, take a deep breath: at Holiday’s, teens are welcome in any yoga class at half-price. —MC

Shakespeare in the Parks

portlandactors.com

You like Cary Grant; your teenager would take a bullet for Zac Efron. Shakespeare in the Parks offers some middle ground. One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays and certainly one of his lightest, The Comedy of Errors—performed for free in city parks by the Portland Actors Ensemble starting July 31—is an episode of Three’s Company wrapped in Elizabethan dress, with slapstick comedy, cases of mistaken identity, and a fair number of bawdy puns. It won’t replace Hannah Montana, but it will certainly age better than Miley Cyrus will. —BWB

The Merry Kitchen

5202 NE 72nd Ave
503-946-8357
themerrykitchen.com

If Meryl Streep’s turn in Julie & Julia inspired your teen to pick up a whisk, but her creations could use some, er, constructive criticism, send her to the Merry Kitchen for some tutoring. Each week, owner and Western Culinary grad Julie Merry opens her home to kids of all ages, teaching them the basics of healthy, seasonal cooking—from the garden to the kitchen to the compost pile. In no time, your budding gourmand will be whipping up fresh ravioli, roasting chicken, rolling sushi, and baking red velvet cupcakes. The downside? If they’re cooking, you’ll be on dish duty. —RR