shanghai'd in paris

shanghai tunnel

a few years ago when i was in paris, i was staying in montmartre for the last two days of my trip before coming back home to portland. my last night, i walked around the neighborhood and at the very top of montmartre popped into this little irish pub to have a beer and write some things down. i sat there, writing for a few hours and when i got up to pay, the bartender struck up a conversation with me and wanted to know where i was from. he was a really sweet kid from scotland who had recently moved to paris and had begun bartending while going to school. well, when i told him i was from portland, his face lit up and he asked me if i had ever been to the shanghai tunnel. i laughed and said yes i had been to the shanghai tunnel many times as it was in the neighborhood where i worked. he just thought that was so cool that i been there and he said to me that he had wanted to come to portland just to go to the shanghai. how funny was it that there i was in paris, on montmartre and the person i had met wanted to visit the shanghai in portland. it turns out that he had recently watched the insomniac episode that featured portland. i wonder if he ever made it here?

if you have never been to the shanghai, check it out. although i don't make it there very often any more, it's still one of my favorite bars.
it's located at 211 sw ankeny 503.220.4001. http://www.shanghaitunnel.com/

if you don't live in portland and would like to check out the shanghai, there is a movie called bigger than the sky that features great interior shots of the shanghai, as it's the bar the characters frequent. it's a very sweet, simple little film but you can see a lot of portland in it.