Travel Portland: Where to Shop

This eclectic city holds an abundance of great buys.

I don’t know how any artisans are left in any other city in America—they all seem to have moved here. Twenty years ago if you wanted to dedicate your life to hand-building birchbark canoes, you had to invent a time machine. Now you move to Portland and share some space with a guy who restores old turntables and another who hand-blows scotch glasses, and you all follow your artisanal dreams.Saline on MeIf you’re going to source a locally raised rack of lamb, then why season it with something that’s been transported over from France when you live on one of the greatest salt-producing entities on the planet? Jacobsen Salt Co. proprietor Ben Jacobsen has created America’s Maldon—a singular inexpensive extravagance so natural that it seems impossible no one else is doing it. The pure flake sea salt is a given, the Oregon pinot noir version a perfect gift, and the salty black licorice a godsend. jacobsensalt.comBuzz Factory Damian Magista is like social services for bees. He finds suitable homes for them scattered throughout town—be it the roof of the Sentinel Hotel or an empty lot in the Southeast—and he establishes them there in safety. In return, they provide him with the honey that reflects the local surroundings that the bees harvest from. Bee Local is terroir-driven honey, and it tastes so much more alive and vital than the supermarket stuff that it seems unfair they share the same base descriptor. shop.beelocal.com 3 Must Stops For HomewaresBeam and Anchor An amazing collective that produces everything from bespoke leather goods to handmade soap to heirloom furniture. It doesn’t get any more Portland than this. beamandanchor.comSchoolhouse Electric and Supply Co. A jewel in the little-visited area north of downtown, this was one of the purveyors of just the right piece—be it a leather club chair, a local jeweller’s bangle or a hammer so pretty you hate to hit anything with it. They now have a store in NYC, but this flagship was where it all started. schoolhouseelectric.comRejuvenation Another local success story that has since expanded up and down the West Coast. What started as an architectural salvage shop has morphed into one of the nation’s pre-eminent manufacturers of period lighting. They still buy salvage, but these days the sprawling 38,000-square-foot store stocks everything from contemporary furniture to one-off antiques. rejuvenation.com