Welcome to Portland in Summer… a glorious month where you bare your pasty legs, drink on patios, and switch from complaining about the rain to complaining that it's too hot. Lucky for you, you've got a wide array of frozen awesomeness to keep you cold… then make you complain about how it's too cold.
Nitro Ice Cream at What's the Scoop3540 N Williams; Williams/Vancouver; 971.266.1787Using the power of liquid nitrogen to keep the T-1000 from altering the future infuse its ice cream w/ bourbon and tequila, What's the Scoop will then put that boozy ice cream on anything from brownies to fortune-cookie cones. They'll also top it with marshmallow cream and blowtorch it, ensuring your belt size will be altered in the future.
Ice Plates at Riffle333 NW 13th; Pearl District; 503.894.8978Showing a commitment to ice seldom seen in those not named Coco, Riffle's peeps actually chainsaw gigantic blocks into everything from cubes made to fit the exact dimensions of certain glasses, to plates for fish cutlets that keep the bottom cold and the top hot… just the way Ice likes it.
Booze Slushies at So Cold Mobile cart (see website for location updates)Having conquered the sustainable, solar-powered shaved ice world (it's an insanely dense world), So Cold has mutated into So Cold Cocktails, which makes porcelain dolls boozy slushies w/ fresh juices, high-end booze, and locally made bitters. The cart's fully mobile, so expect to see them making Snoopy Snow Cone Machines feel inadequate all over town this Summer.
Ice Rail at Henry's 12th Street Tavern10 NW 12th; Downtown; 503.227.5350Like Saturn -- but not completely useless when your beer gets warm -- iconic brewery row tavern Henry's bar is surrounded by a perimeter of ice (though lacking other galactic debris) on which you can set your beer to chill as you gaze at 100+ taps… and all the hot chicks that call Henry's home. Suck it, Saturn.
Sidepipe at Trigger128 NE Russell; NE Portland; 503.327.8234Effectively ending the argument of whether beer or margs are the better Summer drinks with an emphatic "both", the Bunk dudes' Tex-Mex joint has concocted the mighty Sidepipe, and it's gloriously simple. Just take a fishbowl-sized frozen marg from a slushie machine, then jam a mini Corona in the side… as you sip it, the beer slowly drains. That's called science. And it makes you talk funny.