Alberta Rose Theater

Sometimes adventures happen without planning. These are often the best kind since we're not expecting anything special and then we end up discovering something we wouldn't have otherwise. Last night, Charlie and I decided to see a movie. Neither one of us are avid movie-watchers so, as it was, it was a deviation from our "normal" Saturday evening. Neither one of us were particularly excited about what was playing, but we finally decided on a show that had high reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. It was on the East side of town, which is a longer drive for us and, given that it was officially the first movie we've seen since moving to the area, we followed GoogleMaps to the theater. If you've driven in Portland, you're aware of the annoying routes that GoogleMaps often suggests (do we really need to drive down two-way, one-lane, neighborhood streets with twisty roads to reach everywhere?). Sure enough, we rush into the theater hoping to purchase non-front row seats 10 minutes after it started. Well. Somehow this movie stopped playing two weeks ago. We might have gone to the wrong theater location because of GoogleMaps' decision to route us to one other than we chose... but clearly, our internet movie-searching methods are not too great. Good thing we didn't buy those tickets online. Now, we're left with a few options: neither of us were too keen on watching a movie at this point, so we could 1. go home and eat leftovers, 2. go to dinner in the city and then go home (always a solid option), or 3. find another activity and have dinner in the city. We decided on Option 3, if we could find an activity. Now, this is Portland. There is an activity every night. There are multiple activities every night. I looked for food and Charlie looked for activities. Yelp helped us to unanimously decide on The Grilled Cheese Grill: fast, cheap, and -- who can say no to cheese?? We chose to stay in the Alberta Arts District for the evening and, of course, the Alberta Rose Theater had a show starting at 8! We didn't even know what was playing but, hey- we were up for anything! Part of these unplanned adventures stem from a willingness to try something new or unknown.

The Grilled Cheese Grill was the first stop for this unplanned evening. Yelp had me at "cheese," but after ordering into an Airstream trailer and eating my dinner inside of a refurbished school bus, complete with a psychedelic ceiling mural and vintage high school yearbook photos plastered to the tables, I can honestly say that I'll be back for more than just "cheese." Less than 20 bucks later, we left happy and full.

We also left with the hopes of finding a decent Manhattan before seeing the show at the Alberta Rose. Again, this is Portland: it's almost impossible to walk two blocks without finding three bars. Since I haven't been in the Pacific Northwest long enough yet to get annoyed by the rain, it seemed to even make the night a little more magical as we darted between destinations with our umbrellas up. We sat at the counter of Vita Cafe, just a block East of the theater. Charlie ordered the "Smokey Manhattan" and I had "The Perfect Manhattan," but I asked for "light on the Dry Vermouth," making it less than "Perfect," but pretty darn perfect for me. Excellent pre-concert drinks!

We made it into the Alberta Rose Theater just as the first song of the night had started. Charlie ordered our two glasses of wine at the bar at the back of the theater and I scoped out two seats (perhaps the last ones?) next to each other in the middle. We slipped into our seats at the break of the end of the first song. Frances Luke Accord was opening for Darlingside. Had we ever heard of either group? Nope. Would I buy tickets if I saw that they were playing again? Definitely. The theater website describes Darlingside as "an eclectic blend of 60s folk, clever wry wit, classical arrangements and soaring harmonies with modern indie-rock sensibility," and, despite the ambiguity of that description, I couldn't agree more.

What started out as a no-longer-showing-anymore-or-maybe-we-went-to-the-wrong-theater-movie-night ended up being for the best. Who knew that our inability to use technology correctly could lead to a night of grilled cheese in a school bus, delicious Manhattans, and discovering two great music groups in a venue that we hadn't yet been to? We must have done something right to have the evening that we did.