Architecture of the Sandwich

From the constant changes of the Sausage Sandwich at Clyde Common to the bizarre combination of the hot dog flight at The Original, the variety of Portland’s sandwiches mirrors architecture from around the country.

By Eva Hagberg and Mike Thelin

Light a Fire 2009

Here are the winners of this year’s Light a Fire awards. Winners range from a program that teaches chess to underprivileged children to one that provides new and gently used prom dresses to students that may not be able to afford their own.

Edited by Kasey CordellBy Elizabeth Buelow, Kelly O'Brien, Meghan Hilliard, and Kasey Cordell

$20 Is The New $50

We scoured the Portland metro area to find a dozen culinary steals, ranging from the nationally-lauded Le Pigeon, to Sanchez Taqueria, a foodie pitstop in Tigard.

By Eva Hagberg and Mike Thelin

Snack Track

This guide will take you through the best and most wallet-friendly eateries and cafés within walking (or streetcar) distance of downtown.

By Eva Hagberg and Thomas Cobb

Game On!

We look at five members of the reinvented and reimagined Portland Trail Blazers who are ready to answer the call of “Rip City” and lead the team to their ultimate mission: a world title.

By Benjamin Golliver

Taking Stock

Through the Stock program at Gallery Homeland, group patronage helps to keep local artists afloat.

By Lisa Radon

Jesse Katz

Portland Monthly chats with Jesse Katz, Pulitzer-prize winning reporter, son of Vera Katz, and author of the upcoming The Opposite Field, a memoir about coaching his son in Little League.

Pimp My Ride

Cobb Tuning Surgeline, a Tigard autoshop who worked on Fast & Furious, shows you how to unlock your car’s hidden power.

By Vanessa Chang

Baptism by Fryer

Portland Monthly, with the help of Side Cart, deep-fries an entire Thanksgiving dinner.

By Kasey Cordell

Running in Space

Local design firm Terrazign helps astronauts battle atrophy due to weightlessness through exercising harnesses.

By Kasey Cordell

Off Hours

Our rundown of the best ways to spend your time this month.

Toll Position

The mayoral race in Vancouver has a lot more to do with Portland than you would think, as issues about a toll for the Columbia River Crossing shape the campaigns.

By Zach Dundas

PDX Index: PDX Airport

Our monthly rundown of the numbers that shape Portland.

By Kim Winternheimer

The Perfect Party

A lion, a critic, and a Design Star are among the guests at our table this month.

Common Threads

Pamela Baker-Miller partners with her grandmother Connie Codding to open her SW Portland boutique, Frances May.

By Meghan Hilliard

Bar Mingo

Chef Jerry Huisinga shapes Bar Mingo in much the same way he shaped his previous restaurant, Genoa—through the skillful mastery of simple food.

By Mike Thelin

Nel Centro

At Nel Centro, chef de cuisine R. Paul Hyman takes inspiration from the stretch of coastline between Nice and Genoa as he creates classic straightforward dishes that reflect a happy marriage of land and sea.

By Mike Thelin

Andina

Andina reflects the multi-faceted and multi-national (Spanish, African, Basque, Caribbean, and even Japanese) influences of Peruvian cuisine well.

By Mike Thelin

The Italian Job

Master chef Robert Reynolds reinvents the staid pumpkin pie.

By Martha Calhoon

Autumn on the Rocks

Take a little inspiration from the Czech Republic to find the right drink to bridge the seasons in the city.

By Rachel Ritchie

Our Critic's Top Wine Picks

Taste the often overlooked gewürztraminer wines, whose piquancy crawls up into your nose like the scent of cloves, and will surely spice up your Thanksgiving.

By Condé Cox

Sunny Side Up

Sayulita, a tiny village of 2,500, still feels like one imagines it did during the 16th century, when the Spanish first happened upon it. Even the Mexicans began settling it only in 1941.

By Randy Gragg

Abby's Closet

In 2004, the Eglands established Abby’s Closet, an organization that collects new and gently used prom dresses and then gives them to students who may not be able to afford their own. In April, 1,800 girls walked away from the Convention Center with their dream dresses.

Chess for Success

Chess is a sneaky game, says Phillip Margolin, the first president of Chess for Success (CFS), a nonprofit that introduces underprivileged children to the game.

Young Audiences

At a time when dwindling school-district budgets are eroding arts education, Young Audiences brings reputable artists to more than 200 K–8 schools, where they teach painting, storytelling, dance, music, and theater classes.

Quest Center

Founded 20 years ago in response to the AIDS crisis, Quest’s reach has extended beyond one disease. Last year alone, the center treated 2,000 people.

Garden Partners

Regency Park residents create the sensational garden display with the assistance of Garden Partners, a 10-year-old nonprofit dedicated to engaging elders by helping them care for plants for an hour or two each week.

Monica Beemer

It was 2001, and the troubled organization—an advocacy group for the homeless that runs a café serving low-cost nutritional meals—was losing $100,000 each year. To save Sisters, Beemer spent hours in her office fundraising and by 2005 Beemer had helped double revenue and had tripled the number of donors.

Matt Morton

Only 34 percent of Native American students in Portland Public Schools graduate within four years. It’s a number that Matt Morton—board chair for the Native American Youth and Family Center, or NAYA, a 35-year-old advocacy and resource center for Portland’s nearly 38,000 Native Americans—takes personally.

Kreeg Peeples

Kreeg Peeples is ashamed to admit that years ago, when his son was collecting canned food for needy families, he wondered why the recipients didn’t just go get a job. “I didn’t understand then that they were getting the bad breaks that you and I didn’t,” he says. Spending three years as a board member for Potluck in the Park has helped change his mind.

Jon Springer

The nonprofit organization, Elders in Action, works to provide seniors with a better quality of life. Sometimes that’s as simple as offering a sympathetic ear, and sometimes it means tackling complex issues like medical debt.

The Freshwater Trust

For 26 years, the group, armed with rubber boots and waders, has removed trash and invasive species from our rivers’ edges, helped redirect stream flows to make waterways more fish-friendly, and planted stream-saving trees.