My wife and I had a couple of noteworthy restaurant visits during our quick trip to Portland. The first comes from TILT, a small local chain featuring handcrafted food with an emphasis on burgers and sandwiches. We visited with some friends who highly recommended this for our first meal of the trip.

Inside

Inside TILT the feeling is very industrial, and there are even pieces of old manufacturing equipment that the space is built around. The layout is cafeteria style with long counters where orders are placed, quick assembled, and picked up at the end. Draft beer and classic cocktails are also available for ordering at the same time, or there are a couple of bars where drink orders can be placed.

Shop Towels

This is a no-frills kind of place, with a tagline of handcrafted food and drink built for the American workforce. They also claim to be blue-collar inspired and feature shop towels rather than paper napkins. Meals are served on metal trays and silverware is minimal.

Freebird

My wife went with freebird sandwich featuring a southern fried chicken breast, bacon, Swiss, jalapeno slaw, and bacon honey mustard ($9). She also added an order of their original handcrafted cheddar tots (6 pieces for $4). I stole a few bites of each and her sandwich choice was excellent, as were the tots. I think this would be my go to order if I lived in the area. The sandwich was a bit spicy, but the honey mustard and bacon flavors helped to tame it down a bit.

Non-Union Club

I went with the non-union club featuring a grilled chicken breast, sweet ham, bacon, Swiss, avocado, lettuce, tomato, onions, and mayo ($10). This sandwich was massive! And while I enjoyed it I thought the freebird was a better choice. Perhaps the mayo needed a little something extra in it to really make this one shine. I also ordered some delicious beer battered onion rings on the side (6 pieces for $5). Serving sizes were very generous and this was more than enough food for a hearty lunch or dinner.