Original Hotcake House

The urban legend surrounding the Original Hotcake House, located on the east side of the Ross Island Bridge, is that it serves as a late-night mecca for national hip-hop acts when they pass through the Rose City. Reports of rap mogul sightings from Ice Cube and Busta Rhymes all the way to Nelly and his St. Lunatics center around the 50-year old Portland all-night dining institution.

Atmosphere: If Tarantino's next film were based in Portland, this is the diner where the main characters would engage in a riveting and vulgarity strewn debate on some obscure nuance of pop-culture.

Must Orders: There is a reason 'Hotcake' is in the name of the joint. To round out their signature hotcake batter, they actually whip heavy whipping cream and then mix it into the rest of the batter. The results are plate sized airy hotcakes that go down smooth. Here, butter and syrup, (or strawberries and whip cream) are gluttonous overkill to a virtually perfect breakfast order.

On most nights, when you approach the five-acre skillet behind the counter, two of those acres are devoted to the house hashbrowns. Each order consists of two potatoes worth of thickly hashed, perfectly butter goldened browns. It is recommended that you smother them in a side of the homemade gravy.

Biscuits and Gravy. The biscuits are perfectly fluffed, deliciously buttered and amply covered in the aforementioned gravy. It is a near perfect breakfast order.

Worth going for: To witness the late night college study groups on study break as they approach the jukebox for a ten minute rock history debate, only to invariably end up selecting either 'Sweet Home Alabama' or 'Stairway to Heaven.' Every. Time.

To observe the street poets that line up in the booths along the far window clutching journals and notebooks with fingerless gloves, as they try out lines not quite audible enough to betray their genius.

To observe the social hierarchy of a pack of high schoolers, ascending in line from the loudest of the bunch to the eventual one or two wallflowers steadfastly focused on not talking to strangers.