Mississippi
Enjoy live music, local shops and popular restaurants and bars on this historic North Portland street.
North Mississippi Avenue features a long stretch of vibrant shops, unique bars, music venues and restaurants (and is only a half-mile away from even more acclaimed eateries and bars on North Williams Avenue). Read on for our favorite things to do and see in Mississippi.
Where to Eat and Drink on Mississippi
Fried egg sandwiches and fluffy biscuits headline at Gravy. The signature gravy, served veggie or “country-style” loaded with sausage crumbles, is almost a meal on its own.
Prost Marketplace provides a delicious introduction to Portland’s vaunted food cart scene, with mobile vendors serving inventive cuisine. You can enjoy your grub with a pint at on-site German pub Prost.
Local barbecue favorite Miss Delta runs a hefty smoker behind their restaurant, smoking meats for hours before they’re served.
Lovely’s Fifty-Fifty serves some of the city’s best wood-fired pizzas and homemade ice cream — the salted caramel is addictive. For plant-based and allergen-friendly options, Kate’s Ice Cream serves seasonal vegan scoops in gluten-free cones.
Portland mainstay Blue Star Donuts uses a traditional French brioche recipe as the base for classy pastries in creative flavors like blueberry bourbon basil and Cointreau crème brulee.
One of the district’s oldest businesses, Mississippi Pizza, serves its slices with generous sides of karaoke, trivia, bingo and live music — much of it geared toward kids.
Fans of Mee-Sen Thai can’t get enough of the Asian-market-in-a-warehouse vibe or the khao pad poo, a pungent combination of fried rice and sweet crab meat.
Things to Do on Mississippi
Urban gardeners love wandering through verdant Pistils Nursery, where they can find plants, terrarium supplies, glassware, pottery and apothecary goods, gardening books and more. The nursery hosts “Living Art Workshops” on activities like staghorn fern mounting, terrarium building and houseplant care.
A great first stop for lesbian, gay and transgender (LGBTQ+) visitors is Mississippi’s Q Center, a community gathering place and resource center that hosts regular events.
She Bop offers non-toxic, body-safe adult toys, plus classes and workshops, books and female- and queer-friendly wellness products in a comfortable, adult atmosphere. During store hours, the shop is 18+, but it accommodates binder fittings for teens after hours via pre-arranged appointments.
Sunlan Lighting the oldest business on bustling Mississippi Avenue, is a quirky specialty shop that carries light bulbs of all colors, shapes and sizes. Owner Kay Newell is also happy to share local lore and scrapbooks of vintage photographs and clippings with curious visitors.
At the homey Mississippi Studios, you’ll feel like you’re getting a private show — from major acts that could easily pack much larger venues. The attached BarBar rounds out the evening with a solid draft list and airy patio dining.
Learn the basics of insect pinning at Paxton Gate, which includes materials and hands-on instruction on how to hydrate, preserve and display your beetle, grasshopper or butterfly. You can also shop for exotic plants, taxidermy, crystals, animal skulls, curios and mounted insects.
Shopping on Mississippi
Gourmet chocolate, wine, flowers — The Meadow stocks everything you need for a romantic picnic, along with specialty salts from around the world. Worn Path equips wilderness wanderers with sleeping bags, beanies, slingshots and other woodsy essentials.
The analog era is alive and well at Mississippi Records, which specializes in international, blues and soul recordings. The shop has turntables, listening stations and even its own line of releases on vinyl and cassette.
The wide selection of comics and graphic novels at Rose City Comics attests to the number of comic book publishers and professionals in Portland — said to be second only to New York City.
Even if you’re not in the market for a new door or bathtub, stop into the 40,000-square-foot ReBuilding Center to marvel at the array of recycled home materials, as well as the impressive tree sculpture surrounding the front entrance.
For the discriminating toddler, there’s Black Wagon, a boutique that stocks high-end clothes and gifts for babies and kids.
Chock-full of locally crafted wall prints, tees and vintage-themed jewelry, Land makes it easy to curate a Portland aesthetic. (You may also recognize it as the place where over-zealous crafters “put a bird on it” in the first season of Portlandia.) Meanwhile, Flutter offers a “delightful disarray” of home décor, jewelry and fragrances.
For local shopping and fun, every July you’ll find the Mississippi Street Fair with live music on multiple stages, more than 150 local vendors, kids’ activities, a beer garden and more.
Mississippi Events
Explore what Mississippi Neighborhood has to offer at these upcoming events.
Lutalo
Lutalo’s highly visceral folk goes electric on The Academy, the Vermont multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer’s debut LP. On The Academy, Lutalo embraces a literary approach to self-referential songwriting, turning memories from their adolescence into impressionistic folk and rock compositions that are equal parts searing and vulnerable. With their unique baritone and finesse for lyrical world...
Risley
Portland’s Risley (Riz–Lee) is a four-piece band that can be described as dreamy and nostalgic Indie Rock with a twist of 80s British influence. A web of guitar melodies often sits atop a driving rhythm section to stage the backdrop for soaring vocals and thoughtful lyrics. The record also notably features a guest appearance on...
NoPo Winter Beer Fest
Bring a Winter Beer Fest to Mississippi Avenue, you said. Well, you asked, and StormBreakr listened. Join Stormbreaker Brewing to celebrate local beers, cideries, and cocktails with all your favorite makers. The fest is split into three sessions. An entry pass will provide you with a branded festival glass, eight tasting tickets, a StormBreaker sticker,...
Ezra Bell Singalong Memorial
Ezra Bell was founded by Benjamin Wuamett and friends late in the summer of 2013. It was warm enough to sit on the porch into the evening and learn a couple of songs; a lap drum, a banjo and an out-of-tune guitar. Since then, the cast of characters involved have moved around a bit. Having...
Lady Lamb + Sima Cunningham
Lady Lamb From her early days, staying late after-hours at her video rental store job in Maine to record songs, to co-producing and arranging her four studio records, Aly Spaltro has remained focused on music that connects, empowers and builds community. She built her fanship the old-fashioned way, getting in front of audiences and projecting...
Damien Jurado
“Play on, there’s no such thing as better days,” Damien Jurado sings on “Roger,” the sweeping wash of a song that opens Reggae Film Star, his 18th full-length album and the second release from Jurado’s own Maraqopa Records label. But as he enters his 25th year as a recording artist, it’s clear these are, at...
The Builders And The Butchers
Portland-based folk rock band, The Builders and the Butchers, announce their forthcoming album, The Spark, due out May 19th. The band’s fifth LP will be released on Badman Recordings Co, which will be their third release with the label. Their last album was hailed by Consequence of Sound, who said, “The Builders and the Butchers...
Lo Moon
Although its nine songs revolve entirely around a single unifying idea of life and personality forged from the revelatory moments of lived experience, to describe Los Angeles band Lo Moon’s third outing, I Wish You Way More Than Luck, as a concept album wouldn’t be entirely correct. The songs dance around their theme, sonically bold...
Cay Is Okay
Cay Is Okay’s long-awaited debut LP, Housekeeping, comes from years-long efforts across sociopolitical landscapes and personal growth milestones. Through rock with punk and pop elements, the album addresses the queer brown experience in a cishet white world through the lens of frontperson Cay Davis’s birth chart. ‘Housekeeping’ references the astrological houses and individual participation in...
The Happy Return & The Grinns
The Happy Return is an Indie Alternative Rock band from San Diego, California. Brothers Davin and Bryce Eagleston, Dagan Stagg, and Gage Clisby. They find influence from events occurring in their lives, and the lives of people close to them. From young love, to post breakup pettiness, to the transition into adulthood. Depending on which...
Porridge Radio
Porridge Radio is a London-based band from the UK, formed in Brighton in 2015 around band leader Dana Margolin. The band’s powerful live performances and rawly emotive lyrics have garnered a dedicated following, with their previous two albums Mercury Prize shortlisted ('Every Bad') and entering the Top 40 ('Waterslide...'). In October 2024, Porridge Radio —...
The Mother Hips
Founded nearly 30 years ago, The Mother Hips caught their first big break before they’d even finished college, when legendary producer Rick Rubin signed the band to his American Recordings label. In the decades to come, the group would go on to release ten critically acclaimed studio albums and cement themselves as architects of a...
Wunderhorse
Wunderhorse is Jacob Slater, Harry Fowler, Peter Woodin and Jamie Staples. In 2022, they released their debut album Cub, a collection of songs that found fans in Zane Lowe, NME, and BBC Radio 1. The band went on tour with Fontaines D.C., Pixies, Sam Fender, and Foals and sold out their headline slots along the way. ...
Benjamin Booker
The last place you’ll find Benjamin Booker is where he was yesterday. The artist grew up in a woodsy trailer park on the outskirts of Tampa overlooking a sewage plant, surrounded by rebel flags and religious fanaticism. “The neighbors burned a cross in my yard when I was six. We didn’t really socialize with a lot...
Ogre
Pre-crash bunker wave earth tone noxious metal rubber tone mathscape grass-fed conglomerate bass post-ego brown noise premeditated deathcore punk rock jazz hands from Portland, OR. It’s true, they are Ogre, but so can you. Simply adhere to the strict regimen of wildebeest stage antics, pummeling alt-rhythms, and double-stacked bass distortion, soaring higher and higher into...
Eggy
Song by timeless song, Eggy reaches out a hand, inviting you along as a great story unfolds. Eggy’s music traces the full spectrum of emotions evoked by a life well-lived alongside friends well-loved. Eggy formed from a high school dream into a full-fledged reality. Aligning together in 2016, the lineup of Alex Bailey (drums, vocals), Jake...
Grizfolk
Grizfolk initially emerged out of Venice, CA, in 2012. Threading together a patchwork of alternative, indie, rock, country, and electronic, the group carved out a distinct niche with various releases, including Waking Up The Giants [2015], Rarest of Birds [2019], Grizfolk [2021], and Sign of the Times EP [2024]. They generated over half a billion...
The Wheel of Chaos: A Comedy Game Show
From the twisted mind of Portland’s 17th or 18th favorite comedian (Clancy Kramer) comes the unholy union of Wheel of Fortune, WrestleMania and that thing where the guy has to push a rock up a hill over and over again forever. Comedians, Drag Performers, and maybe even you are pitted against each other, the audience,...
Liz Longley
Liz Longley is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter who is celebrated for her stop-you-in-your-tracks voice and deeply emotional music. Known for her distinctive blend of folk, pop, and Americana, Liz has earned accolades from prestigious songwriting competitions, including the BMI John Lennon Songwriting Scholarship Competition. Her self-titled debut album was praised as “stunning” (HuffPost) and marked by...
Lomelda + Tomberlin
Lomelda is Hannah Read's musical project. In swampy, sweaty, Silsbee, TX, she first formed the band with her high school best friends. Throughout the next decade, Lomelda mad a habit out of stretching to fit new friendships and shrinking down to solo strummings. Four albums and a never-the-same live show chronicle these shifts in shape...
May Erlewine
One of the Midwest’s most prolific and passionate songwriters, Erlewine has a gift for writing songs of substance that feel both fresh and soulfully familiar. Her ability to emotionally engage with an audience has earned her a dedicated following far beyond her Michigan roots. She shows us her heartbreak, but she also shows us her...
Maddie Wiener
Maddie Wiener is a stand up comedian with a style described as “irreverent humor…with a streak of brazenness,” and “abrasive and likeable at the same time. Maddie was selected as a “New Face” at the 2021 Just for Laughs Festival and filmed a stand up set for Comedy Central. She has appeared on You Up...
Rose City Band
Rose City Band’s music is sun-kissed timeless country rock whose seemingly effortless momentum carries the joy of its creation without ignoring the darkness pervading our consciousness. Led by guitarist/vocalist Ripley Johnson, the music of Rose City Band is rooted in his love of private press records of the mid to late 70’s. The band, in...
Biamp Portland Jazz Festival: Rogê
Latin Grammy nominated & Brazilian Music Awards granted artist, songwriter, composer and musician in his own right, considered to be a principal part of the Brazilian popular music scene revival (MPB), Rogê has released 7 solo albums and 2 collaborations - with samba legend Arlindo Cruz (Na Veia, 2016, Warner Music) and with Seu Jorge...
Mercury Rev
Since forming in 1989 in Buffalo, New York, Mercury Rev has made a career of boldly exploring the fringes of artistic perception, channeling colors and sounds and visions that always seem just beyond our mortal reach. The Guardian hailed the group as “a rarity in indie rock: a band who have continually evolved their sound,...
Biamp Portland Jazz Festival: Immanuel Wilkins
Alto saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins burst onto the musical scene in 2020 with the release of his Blue Note recording debut, Omega, featuring his longstanding quartet. Although just 22 at the time of its release, his quartet had already been together for over four years, and their cohesiveness and musicality are reflected in both...
Winona Fighter
The Nashville-based punk band Winona Fighter is breathing new life into the resurging punk scene and is on a mission to create punk music that is accessible and accepting to all music lovers willing to listen. Coco's (front-woman of Winona Fighter) introduction to the Boston punk rock scene at an early age was the catalyst...
Geographer
Formed in San Francisco, Geographer is the moniker for the now Los Angeles-based Mike Deni. Part social scientist, part troubadour, if Geographer is an expert at anything, it’s precisely chronicling life’s imperfections. He has headlined many national tours, played Outside Lands, Just Like Heaven, Firefly, Treefort, and other festivals, released four critically acclaimed albums, including...
Maruja
Artists in the truest sense of the word, Maruja’s ferocious combination of punk, harsh noise, and transcendent cosmic jazz is fast marking them out as one of the most exciting new acts in the country. The years spent relentlessly honing their craft are paying off in style, driven not just by passion but rather an...
Portland Mardi Gras Parade
Each year, the Mysti Krewe of Nimbus hosts a free, family-friendly Mardi Gras parade for everyone. The parade steps off at 7:00 p.m., starting near Humboldt St and proceeds down Mississippi Avenue to Cook St., just past Fremont. This community event invites all to dress up and dance in the streets — joining the second...
Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets
Nick Lowe has made his mark as a producer (Elvis Costello-Graham Parker-Pretenders-The Damned), songwriter of at least three songs you know by heart, short-lived career as a pop star, and a lengthy term as a musicians’ musician. But he has no equal in his current ‘second act’ as a silver-haired, tender-hearted but sharp-tongued singer-songwriter. Starting with...
Jackshit
Ninety miles south of Bakersfield is a small town called Cochtotan. It’s no different than any other small town; people worry about their jobs, send their kids to school and occasionally marry their cousins. On the weekends, they want to put their troubles behind them and cut loose with a couple of long-necked bottles of...
Cari Cari / Sugar Candy Mountain
Cari Cari is Stephanie Widmer (Vocals, Drums & Didgeridoo) and Alexander Koeck (Vocals, Guitars). The duo lived in London, Hamburg and Madrid before releasing their debut album “Anaana”. They were called “the lovechild of The Kills and The xx” (IndieShuffle, US), “with the raw grit of a Cat Power record” (BestBefore, AUS) and “a pinch...
The Bevis Frond
If there is any artist who could be considered as having followed a tangential path from Hendrix to Big Star to Spacemen 3, that would be The Bevis Frond… and that’s not hyperbole, the evidence is to be found in countless albums over 30 years of thrilling musical innovation that few have matched. Filtered through...
The Cactus Blossoms
At its best, harmony duo singing can transform simple math into a magic trick. One plus one, instead of equaling two, suddenly yields an unexpected third thing. An upper-case ONE. A universal hum. A deep vibration that encompasses two different points of view. On their latest release, Every Time I Think About You, brothers Jack...
Eric Hutchinson
For over a decade and a half, Eric Hutchinson has been mastering the art of his unique, personal songwriting while exploring diverse musical genres like pop, soul, Americana, folk, alt-rock, and jazz. Known for his melodic pop song craftsmanship and witty, heartfelt lyrics that combine pop, rock, soul, and reggae, Eric is hitting the...
Oneida
A song is a song until it isn’t, until it’s pushed to its limits and beyond to become harder, faster and more dissonant. The music on Oneida’s 17th full-length album, Expensive Air, all started as tightly structured, melodic rock songs then broke open these structures through the instinctual, improvisatory interplay, honed to razor sharpness in...
Lady Blackbird
In every Lady Blackbird song is the unmistakable sound of freedom. Harnessing a mighty voice that effortlessly embodies buffeting power, heart-rending yearning and soft, whispered balladry, Lady Blackbird has imbued her compositions since 2021’s critically acclaimed debut Black Acid Soul with a journeying independence. Hers is an instantly recognisable sound capable of evoking joy one...
John Francis Flynn
John Francis Flynn is a singer and multi-instrumentalist who creates contemporary music using traditional and folk material. His debut album “I Would Not Live Always” was released on Rough Trade imprint River Lea Records in 2020, earning rave reviews and winning 2 awards at the RTE Folk Awards. His second album "Look Over the Wall,...
Victoria Canal
For almost two years, singer-songwriter Victoria Canal used her gift primarily as a way to process grief. The result of this transformative period was 2022’s Elegy EP, a bittersweet collection of tracks. After experiencing creative and emotional catharsis, Canal is turning the camera back on herself and zooming in further than ever before. Grown from...
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