If the pandemic taught us one thing, it is to find joy where you can, right now. For many people, that translates directly into: “Eat more sweets.” And the food scene is happy to help. Starting last fall and into the spring, Portland’s east side has seen a surge of new and re-tooled places to get treats.
Are desserts the new succulents? Maybe! Though in several instances, Portland has places where you can get both.
So, if you’re looking for something to make you feel better, if only for a moment, here are nine new spots to find happiness in the form of sugar.
Bee’s Custom Cakes
Cakesicle and cupcake at Bee’s Custom Cakes.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian
Bee’s Custom Cakes has been serving treats since 2018, but only opened its brick and mortar on Fremont in April. The new spot is bright and inviting, with plenty of seating and plenty of locations to make an Instagram photo of your dessert.
And there are options for dessert. A lot of options. The cake case is stocked with slices of cake, cupcakes and cake pops. The pastry case has more breakfast-style treats like chocolate muffins and scones (and OK, cookies and brownies).
Rebecca Powazek-Anderson started Bee’s Cakes as a food cart in Southeast Portland.
“We specialize in really unique flavor pairings and fun cookies like our Ritz Cracker cookie and our spumoni or creme brûlée cookie,” Powazek-Anderson said.
They also love “funky cake flavors and nontraditional decorating,” she said.
While you may feel paralyzed by the choices, just know you can’t go wrong. Try the chocolate cakesicle covered in white chocolate and filled with dense, fudgy chocolate that is fit for a mermaid’s birthday party. Or maybe go for the lemon curd funfetti cupcake, which features a bright lemon curd, a dollop of buttercream and rainbow funfetti that lets the other flavors shine.
Details: Bee’s Custom Cakes, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday-Sunday, 7137 N.E. Fremont St., beescustomcakes.com
Creative Culture
Vicki Ng with her daughter, Teagan, 2-1/2, enjoying an elaborate milk shake along with some crafting at Creative Culture, a new DIY craft studio and plant bar in Northeast Portland. April 13, 2022 Beth Nakamura/Staff The Oregonian
If you want an activity to go with your treats, try Creative Culture, which opened in Sullivan’s Gulch in April. At Creative Culture, over-the-top milkshakes are an accessory to the main event: crafting. Pick out a succulent and decorate its pot. Paint a piece of pottery. Make a wreath. Or choose from an assortment of about 14 craft kits.
All of this is done on big tables in a light, airy room on Northeast 28th Avenue next to the Fred Meyer parking lot, and no reservations are required.
Creative Culture was created by Dell Ann Upp and her now 11-year-old daughter, first in Kansas City in 2020 and now in Portland.
“Me and my daughter were just loving to craft all the time and we got sick of cleaning up the mess so we said, ‘Let’s make a craft studio that we can let other people make the mess and we’ll clean it up for them,’” Upp said.
So go and craft with a milkshake to your heart’s content. Just be warned, one of the milkshakes comes with a full cupcake, so you may want to bring a friend.
Details: Creative Culture, 1448 N.E. 28th Ave., 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, creativeculturepdx.com
READ MORE: Love milkshakes, crafts and/or plants? Portland’s new Creative Culture is for you
St. Beatrix
Inside St. Beatrix.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian
The vibes at St. Beatrix are exactly what you want in a dessert destination. There’s the pink, which yes, most of Portland’s new sweeteries are pink, but it’s pink with an eclectic frosting of patterns and artwork and mirrored little tables.
Vibes only go so far, and that’s where the treats come in. St. Beatrix serves up desserts and pastries and even breakfast sandwiches from its home on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The jammer, filled with grapefruit curd that is sweet and moist throughout, gives Grand Central Bakery, Portland’s classic jammer destination, a run for its money.
St. Beatrix is the oldest shop in this roundup. Jessie Smith, a former baker at Bushel & Peck Bakeshop, in the same location, opened the shop under the name St. Beatrix in January 2020, a few months before COVID lockdowns hit.
The shop’s original inspiration, Smith said, was “my grandmother, Beatrice, who I have a lot of fond, warm memories of being fed by, eating food with, etc. as a child.”
“As we’ve moved through COVID times,” Smith said, “I would say the shop has definitely been positively embraced and transformed by the queer and trans community here in the neighborhood and throughout the city. We have a solid quirky, queer, joyous and whimsical presence.”
And when it comes to cake, you can’t beat the fluffy basque cheesecake that is light and airy and almost tastes like toasted marshmallows.
Details: St. Beatrix, 3907 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, stbeatrix.com.
Mikiko Mochi Donuts
An assortment of gluten free, dairy free donuts from Mikiko Mochi Donuts on N.E. 28th Avenue in Northeast Portland, pictured on Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
You don’t have to like donuts to like Mikiko Mochi Donuts’ donuts. These are made using rice flour and baked, giving them the classic and satisfying squish of Japanese mochi, though a little fluffier.
Alex McGillivray and Emily Mikiko Strocher got into the mochi donut business as a pop-up in 2020. For Strocher, mochi is part of her family’s traditions. She is from Northern California, where her family owns a walnut orchard, Yuki Farms. Every year on the farm, her family holds mochitsuki celebrations for New Year.
Mikiko Mochi Donuts opened its brick and mortar in the winter, and their beautiful donuts, with bright flavors like yuzu vanilla funfetti and passion fruit curd, are little rays of sunshine that cut through the dark, cold days. And even if the rain stops, eventually, it really doesn’t make sense to buy less than a box so you can sample all the flavors.
Details: Mikiko Mochi Donuts is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily at 300 N.E. 28th Ave., mikikodonuts.com
Nico’s Ice Cream
Nico’s Ice Cream serves New Zealand-style fresh fruit ice cream to customers at the brick-and-mortar shop along Northeast Fremont Street, pictured here on Friday, April 1, 2022.Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
Nico’s Ice Cream may have officially opened its brick-and-mortar for business last fall, but summer is the New Zealand-style ice cream spot’s moment to shine.
“New Zealand-style” means that at Nico’s, the ice cream and pieces of fruit are scooped into a funnel and mechanically smashed together. The result has the texture of soft-serve with perfectly distributed berries.
Nico Vergara started Nico’s as a food truck, after working with another local food truck making New Zealand-style ice cream, Zeds Real Fruit Ice Cream. Since November, Vergara’s brick-and-mortar has been a popular place to get ice cream on Fremont. Now, unlike some places, Nico’s is open every day.
To take your Nico’s experience to the next level, visit on a “Tropical Thursday” and get the mango ice cream. You won’t be disappointed.
Details: Nico’s Ice Cream, 5713 N.E. Fremont St., 1 to 10 p.m. daily, nicosicecream.com
READ MORE: It’s already summer at Nico’s Ice Cream in Northeast Portland
Champagne Poetry
Soufflé pancakes at Champagne Poetry.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian
Eating treats isn’t just eating treats anymore. It really should be a picture-perfect moment that fills your friends and followers with envy. Like, does it even count as dessert if you can’t post it on Instagram? Enter: Champagne Poetry, which opened in early March, the dessert cafe and not the Drake song, on Hawthorne Boulevard.
Champagne Poetry is the brainchild of Dan Bian, who is both founder and head chef. She also owns La Rose Patisserie in Beaverton. A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Portland, Bian honed the art of pastry making while training in France.
The dessert case in this pink palace (even the toilet seat is pink here) is filled with only the most gorgeous desserts. From cakes that look like donuts and mangos to a rainbow of colorful macarons to an outrageous collection of cheesecakes to a Japanese-style cream cheese bun treat called “Cloud 9,” to the crispy, buttery croissants, let your eyes feast first.
Then let your body feast too, because this food is as good as it looks.
If you have some time to wait, order the soufflé pancakes, which are delicious but made to order and can take up to half an hour to arrive, jiggling, at your table. And if you’re really trying to make your breakfast an event, order the titular champagne.
Details: Champagne Poetry, 3343 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 9:30 a.m to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, champagnepoetry.biz
Kate’s Ice Cream
A somewhat ominous sign welcomes dessert-lovers to St. Beatrix.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian
When Kate’s Ice Cream opened in March on Mississippi Avenue, it had big shoes to fill. It took over a space that was once occupied by Portland ice cream darling Ruby Jewel.
But already the all-vegan, all-gluten-free ice cream emporium is serving up scoops that pair perfectly with a walk down Mississippi. Kate’s Ice Cream shop offers a wide variety of flavors, including blueberry lemon cheesecake, mint chocolate fudge and even “Blue Moon,” which is, in fact, blue.
Kate’s Ice Cream’s creator Kate Williams started her vegan ice cream journey in a Boston basement eight years ago, hoping to create delicious ice cream her sister could enjoy. Soon, she found a wider audience. In 2019, she began to sell Kate’s Ice Cream at the PSU Farmers Market and people loved it.
You don’t have to be a vegan to enjoy an ice cream cone from Kate’s. You probably won’t even notice it’s vegan.
Details: Kate’s Ice Cream, 3713 N. Mississippi Ave., noon to 10 p.m. daily, katesicecream.com
READ MORE: Vegan dessert shop Kate’s Ice Cream opens Friday in Portland
Rabbit Hole Market and Sweets
Rabbit Hole is a new version of Hungry Heart Bakery in Montavilla.Lizzy Acker/The Oregonian
In some ways Montavilla’s Rabbit Hole Market and Sweets is not new – it’s a rebranded and reopened Hungry Heart in its original location. In other ways, Rabbit Hole is completely different from its former incarnation.
Rabbit Hole will serve up dessert-style sweets at its counter and succulents (this is Portland after all) and other cute things will be sold on the shelves of its market, while the new Hungry Heart location a block or so away on Stark Street will serve coffee and pastries. Perhaps most excitingly, Rabbit Hole has soft-serve and Dole Whip, the frozen pineapple treat that is popular at Disneyland.
“When I originally started Hungry Heart in 2010 as a food cart, it was born from a love of tiny cupcakes and other small sweet things,” said Rabbit Hole’s owner Jax Hart. “As we grew and then moved into our brick and mortar in Montavilla, we evolved with the neighborhood and the space, which meant that we were no longer as focused on cupcakes and sweets as we continued to expand our menu.
“When we had the chance to go into the larger space on Stark Street,” Hart added, “I saw it as an opportunity to re-brand as White Rabbit and have that be the new identity for the larger bakery/cafe space. The market would then be called Rabbit Hole so folks would know that we are connected.”
The Rabbit Hole opened in mid-April and will soon add a topping dip bar to its soft-serve menu. They will also serve macarons alongside their cupcakes and daily special confections. And their market will feature locally made products created by Black, indigenous and other people of color. It will also include queer and female vendors.
Details: Rabbit Hole, 414 S.E. 80th St., 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, noon to 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday, rabbitholepdx.com
Kulfi
The wooden popsicle sticks at Kulfi in northeast Portland feature a special message. Pictured here is the Mango Lassi. Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
If you’re looking for the treat of the summer, it just might be the kulfis at Kulfi, which opened a small brick and mortar just off Alberta Street this spring.
Kulfi is the dream-made-reality of Kiran Cheema and her husband, Gagan Aulakh, who found Portland lacking kulfi when they moved to the city in 2017.
Cheema is from near Vancouver, B.C., and the daughter of immigrants from India. Aulakh moved to Seattle from India with his family when he was 5.
“I would be there making my root beer float and my mom’s standing next to me making her fifth cup of chai that day,” Cheema said of her childhood kitchen. “That’s what our homes were like. And that’s what our lives are like to this day.”
The couple has used these experiences to inform the flavors of their Indian iced dairy pops. The kulfi, all hand-made by Cheema, come in a wide range of flavors, including a blue Cookie Monster pop full of cookie bits and a classic pista (pistachio) flavor. But the highlight has to be the mango lassi kulfi, made with just three ingredients: yogurt, mango and sugar. It has the perfect texture and chew and is so refreshing and fruity, that you’ll probably want to get a punch card and come back for seconds, thirds and fourths.
Details: Kulfi, noon to 9 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday, 5009 N.E. 15th Ave., kulfipdx.com
— Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052 lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker
