Okay, here's some info on Portland:
The Comedians of Comedy had mixed feelings about the Jupiter Hotel. I've never stayed there, but I've heard mixed reviews. If you're going to be in town multiple nights, I'd recommend staying there one night and then going to a Motel 6 or something for the rest of your stay. The Doug Fir Lounge is right next door, and they might have a show worth seeing when you're in town. PBR mentioned the Doug Fir when he was in studio with PFT.
Speaking of vegan taco trucks, Portland's got 'em.
Taqueria Los Gorditos serves vegan options, and they are about to open a second truck that is all vegan. Just don't make the mistake of getting the burrito. It's okay, but the other options are so much better. I recommend the regular vegan tacos, the nachos with soyrizo, or the mulita.
Nutshell is a really great all-veg place. Some of the best vegetarian food I've had. There is some controversy in the vegan community about them because owner has another restaurant that serves foie gras, so a lot of vegans boycotted Nutshell, and b/c of that, Nutshell stopped being all-vegan. It's a shame, because it's a great restaurant and it's not the chef's fault that the owner has some other restaurant that is lame.
The Farm Cafe has this really great herb-crusted tofu that is so good. Even if you hate tofu.
Portland also has some great breakfast places. Juniors, Jam, and Laurelthirst Pub are my favorites.
A divey bar that has really strong drinks, pool, and darts is The Triple Nickel, but their veg options are limited. Other good bars: Tube, Bye and Bye, Laurelthirst, Goodfoot.
Barfly is a great resource for finding the perfect Portland bar for your needs. Their searchable directory is really great.
A fun place to go is the
nickel arcade. You pay an admission fee of $2, and all the arcade games accept nickels instead of quarters. Even the really new and fancy arcade games cost no more than 20 cents per game. They also have skee-ball and other Jersey Shore boardwalk-type games. There's also a retro arcade that serves alcohol in downtown. It's fun, but not as much bang for your buck.
You should check out the
vegan mini-mall. There's an awesome vegan bakery (they have a vegan buffet on Sundays, $10 for all you can eat) called Sweetpea, a store called Herbivore that sells clothing and cookbooks (including Joanna's cookbook), an all vegan market called Food Fight with loads of junk food, and a vegan tattoo parlor.
If you're interested in touristy stuff, you can check out the Rose Garden (free!), the Japanese Garden (kinda pricey), and the Chinese Garden (a little less pricey). I've heard that the Chinese Garden is best in the rain. There's also the Shanghai tunnels, but you have to call at least a week in advance to get a tour of those.
Finally, before I end up writing a Fodor's on Portland: Powell's, Voodoo Donuts, the Aerial Tram, Velveteria (velvet painting museum), Stark's Vacuum Museum.
There's loads of other stuff that I'm not covering, but I think this post is already too long. Check out
The Dirt Cheap Guide to Portland and the
Zinester's Guide to Portland for any info I didn't cover.
I know I mentioned a lot of stuff and you're only going to be in town for a day or two, but I wanted to cover all your bases. Sorry if I was a bit vegan-centric. Portland is such a veg friendly town, and almost every restaurant has vegetarian options.
