11 Little Things in Portland That You’ll Miss Like Crazy When You Leave

The City of Roses Will Always be Home

Sure, you’ll miss the big stuff like Powell’s and Forest Park, but it’s the tiny everyday Portland quirks that really get you nostalgic. Here are the weirdly specific things that make former Portlanders surprisingly homesick.

The Voodoo Doughnut Flex

Not that you actually went there (that’s for tourists), but you loved having strong opinions about it.

Your new city’s locals don’t understand why you get fired up explaining why Blue Star is superior, or why you still dream about that one maple bacon bar from Doe Donuts that changed your life.

The Free Coffee Grounds Ritual

Your weekly pilgrimage to grab Stumptown’s free used coffee grounds for your garden. The baristas knew you by name and saved you the good stuff.

Your new city’s coffee shops look at you weird when you ask about their grounds, and your tomatoes are suffering for it.

The Unipiper Sightings

Nothing makes a mundane Tuesday better than randomly spotting a guy playing flaming bagpipes on a unicycle. Your new city’s street performers seem painfully conventional in comparison.

Plus, you miss pretending it’s totally normal when explaining it to out-of-town visitors.

The Fred Meyer Hierarchy

You had strong opinions about which Freddy’s was the ‘good one’ and which to avoid.

The Hollywood Fred Meyer was basically Portland’s town hall, while the one on Hawthorne had that weird parking lot you’d battle through for cheap gas. Your new city’s grocery stores lack this complex social ecosystem.

The Laurelhurst Duck Encounters

The oddly aggressive ducks at Laurelhurst Park that definitely remembered if you forgot to bring them snacks.

You had an unspoken agreement with that one spotted duck who’d guard your picnic blanket from other birds. Your new park’s waterfowl lack this entrepreneurial spirit.

The Portland Weather Denial

That specific week in February when it hits 55 degrees and everyone breaks out their Birkenstocks and cargo shorts like winter’s over.

Your new city’s residents don’t understand the art of wearing sandals with wool socks, or why you still check PDX Weather People’s Instagram daily.

The Food Cart Farewell Tour

The emotional rollercoaster of discovering your favorite food cart pod is becoming condos.

You still dream about that one perfect khao soi from the cart that disappeared overnight. Your new city’s ‘food truck scene’ is suspiciously permanent and therefore untrustworthy.

The Bridge Identity Crisis

Automatically judging people based on which bridge they use to cross the Willamette. Steel Bridge people and Hawthorne Bridge people are just different, and that’s a fact.

Your new city’s bridges are just… bridges. How boring.

The Neighborhood Cinema Nostalgia

The sticky floors of the Laurelhurst Theater, drinking beer and eating pizza while watching $4 second-run movies.

Your new city’s multiplexes don’t understand why you keep asking about their ‘slice and pint’ special during old movie nights.

The Farmers Market Seasons

The specific joy of seeing the first Hood strawberries at the PSU Farmers Market, knowing you have exactly three weeks to eat your weight in berries.

Your new city’s year-round strawberries are suspicious and wrong. What do you mean they’re available in December?

The Max Train Personality Test

You could tell everything about a person by which Max line they complained about most.

Yellow Line riders had different energy than Blue Line die-hards, and don’t even start about the people who only rode the streetcar. Your new city’s transit system lacks this complex social hierarchy.