Vintage Roadside & Charles Phoenix take Portland by storm!

Howdy gang! Things have been jumping and we thought it would be great to catch up with all of you. So, here comes roughly 96 hours, jammed into 10 minutes of reading time. Or 12 minutes if you'd like to leave a comment. :-)

There were two great events this past weekend here in Portland - both presented by the Historic Preservation League of Oregon. Saturday's offering was the "Mid-Century Marvelous Home Tour" highlighting some of the homes built by Robert Rummer in the Bohmann Park neighborhood while Sunday saw the return to Portland of pop culture humorist Charles Phoenix at the Hollywood Theater.

As part of Charles' prep for his show he wanted to revisit some of his favorite places & things that you can only find in Portland, as well as visit a few new places. We were thrilled to get to ride along. Without further ado here's some of the things we saw and did over those four days!

It didn't take long for Charles to start spotting the good stuff. This 1955 Nash was his first stop between the airport and Vintage Roadside HQ.

Then it was time for a quick "hello" to our Burger Family. Here's Charles giving Mama Burger a friendly pat on the belly.

Next up was a visit to the Oregon Zoo for a ride on The Zooliner - a 1958 replica of the General Motors' Aerotrain. We made it just in time for the last ride of the day and it was a wonderful 4-mile trip through Washington Park. If you're in Portland you owe yourself a ride on this great little train!

After our train ride we were lucky enough to follow the train back into the tunnel and spend some time talking with the gentlemen that care for and operate the zoo's trains. They were incredibly generous with their time and shared some amazing history with us.

At this point it was time to grab something to eat. Our destination was The Original Taco House. The OTH is the sister restaurant to the fondly-remembered Waddles Drive In (which opened in 1938) and lays claim as Portland's first year-round Mexican restaurant. You'll find locations on both NE 82nd (the original location) and also on SE Powell. We chose the Powell location for our visit and thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

Then it was off for a little exercise to work off dinner. The activity of choice was roller skating at Oaks Park. The rink at The Oaks is the oldest continually operating rink in the United States, and to up the coolness factor, also features a massive Wurlitzer pipe organ. We had planned our visit for a night featuring live organ music and it's hard to describe just how amazing it it when the organ starts playing. Another can't-miss piece of Portland history.

After spending some time talking with a gentleman who'd been skating at the rink since 1941 it was decided we'd wrap the night up with a look at the incredible Palms Motel neon sign on Interstate Avenue. We've personally photographed this sign hundreds of times and just never get tired of standing underneath it. It's truly a treasure among the neon sign world.

Day two started off with breakfast at another Portland institution - The Original Pancake House. Founded in 1953 by Les Highet and Erma Hueneke, the business has now grown to include 120 franchise locations, including their first-ever Japanese location opening soon. We were asking our server questions about the history and before we knew it both the 2nd and 3rd generation of the family were at our table talking with us! They kindly invited us up to the company offices after our meal to share more of the history and to make sure we had all the information we were looking for. Needless to say they made a fantastic impression. Oh, and the food was incredible...as a matter of fact we've already planned our next meal there!

Then it was on to "Mission Myrtlewood." Charles had long known of the famous Oregon souvenirs made from Myrtlewood, and knew no trip to Oregon would be complete without taking a piece home. It took a bit of hunting around but we finally found this hazelnut snack set at an antique mall. The Phoenix household will now be graced with a little piece of Oregon.

Since we were considering this a "road trip" of sorts the idea of eating on any type of schedule goes out the window. Case in point - we had just eaten a huge breakfast about an hour earlier but there was no way we could pass up the 99-year-old soda fountain at Fairley's Pharmacy on NE Sandy. And like on our visit last month, and well, almost every time before, I chose the chocolate malt. 

We spent some time poking around a few antique and vintage stores and then realized...it's National Doughnut Day! In honor of the "holiday" we visited another Portland location now known around the world - Voodoo Doughnuts. If you're in Portland on National Doughnut Day there's really no more perfect place to celebrate all that is doughnut.

After the Home Tour on Saturday we managed to squeeze in a few more stops. We began at the old McDonald's building on SE Powell. We've not seen it used for anything in the past few years but we're glad it's still there to enjoy. Oh, yes the Camaro was the rental car for the weekend. Guess which of these three words describes the new Camaro: Subtle, Fun, or Roomy? Here's a hint - it's the middle one. :-)

After some time watching the giant spinning loaf of bread on the Franz Bread building, it was over to the Lloyd Center Mall for a visit to Joe Brown's Carmel Corn. Started in downtown Portland in 1932, closed shortly after WWII, and then revived again in 1960 by Mr. Brown's sister Betty, you can still enjoy a bag or box of carmel corn served from the same location in what was once the country's largest outdoor mall.

Our final stop of the day was for something Charles is well known for - his incredible suits. We had spoken with him prior to his visit and he asked if we might know of an airbrush artist to create a one-of-a-kind suit highlighting all that is Portland. We just so happened to know two local artists whose airbrush skills have always floored us. We put Charles in touch with Matt Stanger & Ian Pian and the rest is fashion history. 

Here's a look at the suit in all its glory.

Charles' show on Sunday was an absolute home-run and everyone thoroughly enjoyed his personal take on our fair city! The weekend ended with a large gathering at The Alibi tiki bar and hopes of doing it all again soon.

We'd personally like to encourage anyone that gets the chance to see one of Charles' shows to not miss it. It's not often you can be entertained, educated and left shaking your head all in one amazing evening!

(All non-watermarked images courtesy of Peter Kim - photographer.)

Jeff & Kelly

Vintage Roadside

Vintage Roadside on Facebook

Ontario, California - Charles Phoenix, Graber Olives, and Thunderbird Lanes

Before we jump into our tour of vintage Ontario, we'd like to begin the wrap up of our Palm Springs trip with a few thank you's.

First, a huge thanks to everyone that stopped by to say hello and pick up t-shirts at the Charles Phoenix show and the following day at the Vintage Airstream show. We truly appreciate it!

We'd also like to say thank you so much to Jacques Caussin, Nickie McLaughlin, and Christy Eugenis from the Board of Modernism Week for letting us be a part of the show. We had an amazing time and can't wait for 2011! And a tremendous thank you to Charles Phoenix for spending a Sunday showing us the sights and sharing the history of his hometown of Ontario.

On to the field trip!

Our first stop of the day was at the Ontario Museum of History & Art. Housed in Ontario's second city hall, the museum has a wonderful collection of local artifacts on display. A few of our favorites were the items from the former Hotpoint factory, the Road Ways exhibit, and the neon sign from the former Thunderbird Lanes.

One of the highlights of the Hotpoint display was seeing the great product names once used by the company. Can you imagine the buzz at the dinner party once you announced you were now the proud owner of a brand new "El Stovo"?


Happy Hotpoint. Most famously portrayed by Mary Tyler Moore in the Hotpoint commercials of 1954. We're calling dibs on this outfit for Halloween 2010!


The mighty Thunderbird! When we began our initial research on Thunderbird Lanes as one of our t-shirt designs, we were thrilled to discover the museum now housed the sign. We'd been looking forward to seeing the sign in person and have to say, seeing a 17' wide neon Thunderbird at eye level is quite an experience. (If you'd like to see how our Thunderbird Lanes t-shirt turned out you can click here.)


The museum is open Thursday - Sunday and admission is free. If you're ever in the area it's well worth a stop. You can find more information on their website here.

Our next stop was Graber Olives. In business since 1894, Graber's is the type of place we love to visit. We're huge fans of "factory" tours and the tour of Graber's did not disappoint. Along the tour we saw how the olives were cured, canned, and labeled as well as hearing stories of the people behind the olives past and present. Two of our favorite parts of the tour were the equipment they still use, which dates to the 1940s, and Betty, our tour guide.

Tours are offered throughout the year along with group tours by request. You can learn more about Graber at their website located here.

Below, Betty explains how the labeling machine (over her right shoulder) operates.


A shot of one of their prize winning boxes designed by artist Rex Brandt.


We wrapped up our day in Ontario at Vince's Spaghetti - an Ontario institution since opening in September of 1945 as an open air French Dip stand. According to Vince's website they "serve over 9000 meals a week, over 1500 miles of spaghetti each year, and over 21 tons of spaghetti every month."


Below, Charles shares his tips on making the most of a visit to Vince's with Mrs. Roadside as well as trying to convince her that his dubbing of us as "Jelly" is a win-win for everyone.


After a great day around Ontario we pointed the car north and headed back to Vintage Roadside World Headquarters - with a few detours along the way.

Mini Jake stretches his legs in the pet area of a highway rest stop.


Hope everyone had a nice start to their week,

Jeff & Kelly
Vintage Roadside

Vintage Roadside and Modernism Week

It's February in Oregon. While we've had a mild winter we've still had our share of rain, gray skies, and temperatures that won't have us grabbing the scissors and making that first pair of cut-offs for 2010 anytime soon.

So...let's load up the car and head someplace warm!

Point B on this road trip will be Palm Springs, California. We're headed down to Modernism Week to host a Charles Phoenix book signing and to be a part of the first Vintage Airstream & Travel Trailer Show at the Ace Hotel.

And away we go.

One of our favorite stops along the way was an antique store and collection located in Kramer Junction, California. The shop features an amazing collection of gas, highway and other random signs along with several vintage vehicles. The shop is located east of Boron at the junction of Highways 58 & 395.


Before we settled in we wanted to see a couple things in Rancho Mirage. First up was the amazing Rancho Super Car Wash. Once part of the Elephant Car Wash chain that stretched throughout Washington, Oregon and California the elephant is one of the few remaining vintage neon signs in the area.


Our next stop was the former Chart House Restaurant. Built in 1978, this was one of several Chart House buildings designed by Kendrick Bangs Kellogg who also designed the Doolittle residence in Joshua Tree.


The restaurant is currently closed but there are signs stating that a new establishment will be "opening soon".


We were able to get down to the area a day early and had the pleasure of spending an afternoon and evening with friends.

Below you'll see both Stinky and Mini Jake enjoying the late afternoon sun on our day off.


Fast forward a day and here we are all set up for the Charles Phoenix book signing on Friday night. We'd like to thank Jorg and the rest of the engineering staff at the Ace Hotel for setting us up with the great lighting.

Charles had a packed house for his slide show and we'd like to thank everyone who stopped by after the show to pick up t-shirts, books and to say hello. We had a great time!


We'll have our day at the vintage travel trailer show in our next entry.

See you soon,

Jeff & Kelly
Vintage Roadside

Vintage Roadside + Charles Phoenix = Modernism Week fun!

We're thrilled to announce we'll be spending the evening of February 19th at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs as part of Modernism Week. What's going on at the Ace you may ask? An evening with the one-and-only Charles Phoenix! "But wait there's more!", as they say on TV. You'll also be the first to see two brand-new Vintage Roadside t-shirts we're launching as part of Modernism Week. We'll be offering a selection of Charles' books at the Vintage Roadside booth and hosting a book signing by Charles after his performance. We've seen a number of Charles' performances and can guarantee you'll not want to miss this!

• Where: The Ace Hotel. 701 E Palm Canyon Dr. Palm Springs, CA
• When: February 19th - 6:30 pm
• How Much: $20.00

We hope to see you there - it should be a great evening!

Jeff & Kelly
Vintage Roadside

Vintage Roadside Visits: The Safari Club

Field Trip! How long has it been since you've thought of those two magical words? For us it had been way too long. So, when the opportunity arose last week to spend the day showing Charles Phoenix around we loaded up the car and headed for Estacada. Our destination - The Safari Club.

After rounding up the gang we spent the drive out relating stories and rumors we'd heard about the Safari Club. David had heard the animals were gone..... Justin had heard they were still there... Charles enjoyed his Franz cookies from his visit to the bakery earlier in the day....

As we came into town we spotted the sign from a few blocks away. If you've ever driven miles and miles to visit a "legendary" place you'll know the feeling you get when you arrive and the place is actually standing (and open) - relief!


Our first impression - Wow, the place is huge! The Safari Club takes up most of a city block and is covered with split rock and some sort of wild green plastic thatch. We all agreed that these attributes boded well for true entertainment possibilities.

Upon entering you're given a choice. Bright restaurant to the right, dim lounge to the left. Oh, you're also met by a huge pair of bears giving you a hint to what lurks within the lounge. The bears are roughly 8 - 10 feet tall and while they've aged a bit they're still one of the more impressive pairs of greeters we've seen. That 3' tall fiberglass chef statue found outside many restaurants would simply be an appetizer for this pair. There's also a sign with information about the origins of the Safari Club:

"The Safari Club was designed and constructed by Jorgans Construction Company in 1970.

We hope that you enjoy your visit in this unique club and further hope that you, your family and friends return time and time again. This is the only one of its type in the world today. It is owned by Park Enterprises and is managed by Mike Park.

This collection of outstanding trophies in this club was taken on 23 different hunting expeditions to six different countries through the world over a period of six years. The majority of trophies taken by world-renowned big game hunter Glen Park have now been entered in the World Record Books. Glen Park is the most active and outstanding hunter in the United States today.

It was Glen Park's idea to share these outstanding, beautiful trophies with the local citizenry by building a unique safari club."

After reading the sign it was evident that the Safari Club wasn't like the other lounges around town! The question we all had was how had the place fared over the last 4 decades? Was there anything left? Did the animals look real? With memories of watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom on Sunday nights we headed for the lounge.


Our initial reaction was that the lounge looked like many older lounges during the middle of a week - fairly dark and quiet with a few regulars at the bar. As our eyes adjusted to the light we noticed the very large floor to ceiling glass case located in the middle of the lounge along with another large display window in one corner. In the middle case a pair of tigers have been locked in mortal combat for almost 40 years. The gashes and blood still look shockingly bright after all these years. Another of the big surprises in the lounge area is the trio of cats suspended over the dance floor.

(Unfortunately the lights in the lounge area cases are no longer functional so photography is limited to using a flash.)

Death from above!

Incoming!

In the lounge we noticed numerous patches on the wall of a different color. These marked what were once dozens of mounted heads that no longer reside at the Safari Club. The gal we spoke with mentioned a walrus head with 5' tusks that almost reached the ground. It's a bit unclear where they've gone, but that does tend to add to the mystery of the Club.


The true gem of the Safari Room is the "dead zoo" located behind the large vinyl curtain in the lounge. Behind this locked curtain is another area that covers almost a full third of the building. The day we visited we were thrilled to be admitted behind the curtain into a chilly room where we saw a few tables, a pool table, and three more large dioramas.


In these we see more examples of the food chain at work. Cougars bring down deer, bears enjoy a meal of an elk, and in the third display another cougar prepares to jump from a pine tree onto the back of an elk.

We'd once again like to express our thanks to the Safari Club for allowing us to visit this area.


We were told an amazing bit of history the day we visited that we couldn't recall ever hearing before. Apparently the Park family also had a large cabin up near Mt. St. Helens with a collection of taxidermy that was far more extensive than the Safari Room. Many of the prize pieces had been moved to the cabin at the end of the 1970s. When Mt. St. Helens erupted the cabin and all of the collection were destroyed.


We'd highly recommend a trip out to the Safari Club. While a portion of the collection is no longer at the restaurant it's an amazing look back at another era. While many themed restaurants appear to have been decorated with the goal of appealing to a large number of patrons, the Safari Room appears to have been created simply to house the collection of Mr. Park. It's still possible to see how this place captured the imagination and drew customers from surrounding towns for a night of fine dining and dancing.

Charles Phoenix returns to Portland December 26th!

It looks like Portland will have a great alternative for the day after Christmas! After enjoying a day of holiday left-overs come on down to the Clinton Street Theater for an evening of vintage slide joy!

From the press release:

"After a sell-out performance in October, Pop Culture Humorist and Author Charles Phoenix brings his live Holiday slide show performance to the Clinton Street Theater one night only, December 26th. This laugh-out-loud celebration of Mid-century Holiday style is being presented by Portland's Speedboat Coffee.


Charles Phoenix super-charges the classic living room slide show by reinventing it into a hip and high octane celebration of classic and kitschy Mid-century American life and style. His informed and often hilarious narration of the very best of his massive collection of flea-market found Kodachrome slides will inspire your imagination and make your spirits soar.

In this hilarious holiday show you'll see how Americans decorated, dressed up, dined and drank to celebrate - New Years, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas in the 50s and 60s."

Plus to add to the coolness factor Mr. Phoenix will be projecting the original vintage slides. No Powerpoint presentations here!

Tickets are available at Speedboat Coffee located at 5115 SE Foster Rd., and at the Clinton Street Theater box office the day of the show.

A night with Charles will set you back a mere $19.00.

On the web:

Charles Phoenix
Speedboat Coffee