Blue Scorcher Bakery and Café in the Fort George building.
Image: Isabel Lemus Kristensen
If you love beer, seafood or history, Astoria is the place to be. About a two-hour drive from Portland is this small fishing village, right at the mouth of the Columbia River. Large container ships pass by as they make their way to port. or to the sea. A refrain of sea lions sunbathes on the docks. And Victoria-era houses jut out from the steep hills, one of which made a brief appearance in the cult film The Goonies, and is now a museum.
Astoria, which bustles with activity in the summer, is sleepier in the dead of winter, making it a quiet coastal getaway for travelers looking to dodge the crowds. That said, tranquility doesn’t mean boredom. It’s packed with museums, state parks, antique shops, walking and biking trails, riverside and oceanside table restaurants, food carts, cafes, microbreweries, and the annual Fort George Brewery, which returns Feb. 18 after three years. hiatus.
I spent 28 busy hours in Astoria. This is what I went to and what I did in this historic port city during the winter.
Historic Pier 39 on the Columbia River.
Image: Isabel Lemus Kristensen
10:00 Pier 39 is the former home of Hanthorn Cannery, which produced 30,000 instances of canned salmon each year in the last nineteenth century. Today, the historic canning factory is home to businesses such as Coffee Girl, Rogue Brewery, The Vineside wine bar, and Astoria Scuba. Coffee Girl is located at the end of the riverfront pier. Guests can enjoy a cup of coffee and watch the boats go by. The café offers a variety of espresso, pastries, breakfast and lunch. I tried one of their specials of the month: a “Roaring Twenties” latte with Irish cream and cinnamon with brown sugar. You’ll find a new series of drink specials in February, but they won’t stay for long. 100 39th Street
11 a. m. A 12. 8 miles, the Astoria Riverwalk stretches along the city’s waterfront, past restaurants, hotels, breweries and museums. Tram tracks also run along the way. The “Old 300” cart only works from spring through fall for $1.
In addition to the casual cyclist or individual walking their dog, you’ll most likely see wildlife on the boardwalk, adding California sea lions lounging on the docks, double-crested cormorants, gulls, and tourniquets floating along the river. My friend and I even saw a juvenile bald eagle with spotted plumage perched on a tree branch.
Good Bowl food cart owned by Olaf Ydstie near Astoria City Hall.
Image: Isabel Lemus Kristensen
1:00 p. m. Hop on 11th Street and Duane and locate a funny Botjoy mural of smiling robots with the words “keep smiling” and “what brings joy to Astoria?”After portraying his first “Bot” on the back of a domino in 2010, Hirsch introduced Botjoy, a global art movement committed to spreading “joy, courage, love and gratitude. “In addition to Astoria, Hirsch’s artwork can be discovered in Portland, New Orleans, Boulder and other cities.
A $9 bowl of rice, beans, coleslaw, chipotle cream, cilantro pesto and sarza at Good Bowl.
Image: Isabel Lemus Kristensen
You’ll also find a handful of food carts ranging from Surf 2 Soul po’boys and hush puppies to farm-to-table bowls filled with rice, beans, coleslaw, chipotle sour cream, cilantro pesto, and tarza at Good Bowl. (Note: some cars only settle for money or Venmo. )
2:00 p. m. What does a stolen boat at one of the most damaging point crossings in the world have in common?On Feb. 3, a guy stole a yacht from an Astoria marina and took it to Columbia Bar. A large wave capsized the boat, throwing it overboard into a 20-foot sea where it was thankfully rescued through a Coast Guard swimmer.
Columbia Bar, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean, is known for its violent waves, some reaching heights of more than 40 feet, and the strong winds that hit boats making the perilous crossing. It has even earned the nickname “The Graveyard of the Pacific” after destroying more than 2,000 ships since 1792.
In 2021, the Columbia River Maritime Museum opened a new exhibit featuring shipwrecks along the Oregon coast, such as Beeswax Wreck: a Spanish galleon with beeswax in its cargo that sank at Nehalem Spit in the seventeenth century. In addition to shipwrecks, locate plenty of things to keep you busy on the CRMM, adding a display featuring U. S. Coast Guard pilots. The U. S. and Columbia River Bar is a major and interactive exhibits like flying a tugboat or looking at the knots of sails with your hand. 1792 Marine Drive
A cup of frozen custard with rainbow noodles at Custard King.
Image: Isabel Lemus Kristensen
3:30 pm. What’s better than a scoop of creamy ice cream at noon?The Custard King drive-in cinema has been an integral component of Astoria since the 1950s, serving burgers, fries, fish soup, smoothies and its homemade frozen custard of the same name with vanilla or chocolate. flavors with your selection of toppings. 1597 Commercial Street
5:30 pm. Fort George alumni David Coyne and Nathan Lampson have expanded Astoria’s thriving beer scene with a new brewery they introduced in November 2022 in a former beer distribution warehouse: Obelisk Beer Company. from a citrus-style Czech pilsner to a velvety English oatmeal, many of which were created in collaboration with Pacific Northwest brewers such as Ex Novo Brewing and Living Haus Beer Company. 598 Bond Street
18:00 Busu Astoria is the hidden gem of Astoria. Open from a window on 11th Street, the place to eat serves Japanese food to go. The place to eat, which opened five years ago, uses local ingredients and adjusts its menu each week. Miso soup with seaweed and blue oyster mushrooms.
Bowline Hotel along the Astoria Riverwalk.
Image: Isabel Lemus Kristensen
19:00 Astoria offers a variety of hotels adding Astoria Riverwalk Inn, Norblad Hotel, Elliott Hotel and more. But I stayed at Bowline, a 40-room luxury hotel in a former seafood processing plant that opened in July 2021. Rooms are designed with high ceilings, fireplaces, soaking tubs, and, in most cases, private balconies overlooking the Columbia River.
The hotel’s Scandinavian-inspired Knot bar is bustling 24 hours a day. If you’re looking for a late-night (or morning) drink, the bar’s menu has everything from a Smoking Gun with mezcal, tequila reposado, and orange bitters and cardamom, to a grapefruit-infused Salty Dog.
Bowline is nestled on a pier, which happens to be a favorite spot for sea lions. So even when they curl up to sleep in their fluffy king-sized bed, the sea lions are still awake and barking. (The hotel provides loose earplugs of “in the case of sea lions. “) I slept through the night and woke up to a view of the morning fog hovering over the river and sea lions judging out of the water. 1 Ninth St
10:00 a. m. On the corner of Duane and 15th is Blue Scorcher Bakery and Café, a local hangout that draws you in with the aroma of freshly baked coffee cakes. The line along the hour we ordered breakfast: cardamom and almonds a cinnamon and hazelnut butter bun, a cheese-stuffed Dane, a breakfast sandwich with chipotle mayonnaise and a fried egg in between, and a latte with honey and CBD. Blue Scorcher is a cozy place to sit with a cup of local coffee. roaster Astoria Coffee Company and one of the bakery’s bakeries, or maybe two, or three. . . or four. . .
Wreck of the Peter Iredale in Fort Stevens State Park.
Image: Isabel Lemus Kristensen
About 16 miles from Astoria, across from Youngs Bay, is Fort Stevens State Park, a 4300-acre former military installation that once protected the mouth of the Columbia River for 84 years, from the Civil War to World War II. Today, tourists can explore its concrete artillery gun batteries, stop at the historic Peter Iredale shipwreck at Clatsop Spit, hike or motorcycle on miles of trails, or climb the most sensible tower overlooking the South Pier of the Columbia River.
Russell Battery at Fort Stevens State Park.
Image: Isabel Lemus Kristensen
The deserted structures are strange, especially the remote Russell Battery, which sits about a mile south of the main fort and faces the ocean. One-inch rifles were once used there. I spent almost 3 hours in Fort Stevens, but you might spend an entire day there without having noticed everything. (Note: In mid-January, two whales appeared near the remains of the Peter Iredale Authorities suggested visitors stay away from the whales. )
My friend and I made a brief afternoon stop at Fortune and Glory Cider Company (formerly Reveille Ciderworks): Astoria’s first strong cider maker. Each batch of their hard cider is based on a blend of 8 to twelve types of Northwest apples fermented with English Cider, British Beer or Belgian Saison yeast. Fortune and Glory’s menu includes English pub-style ciders and Belgian farm ciders. Back to Black is a blackberry cider with notes of hibiscus, blueberry blossoms and black tea; Blue Monday, an English pub cider, is made with Willamette Valley blueberries and a touch of lemon; Lemony Thicket, a farm cider with sour fruits, raspberries and lemon zest.
Also snack: chips with hummus topped with shredded pistachios, homemade cheese ball with toasted walnuts and Belgian waffles from rue liégeoise on Saturdays and Sundays. eat. (If there’s one thing I’ve learned about downtown Astoria: There’s almost a brewery or place to eat in sight. )1450 Exchange St
Last note from my travels: As someone wary of COVID, I’d like to point out that many of those restaurants, breweries, and cafes offer meals or takeout if you’re not comfortable dining indoors.