Guide to the Belmont District Neighborhood

Location

The Belmont District located in Southeast Portland, runs along Belmont Street from about 31st to 60th Avenues. The Belmont District is actually located in the Sunnyside neighborhood, bordered on the North by Laurelhurst and on the East by Mount Tabor neighborhood.

Sunnyside Neighborhood Map

Belmont - Description

Like the Hawthorne District, the Belmont Street area is a very popular area in Southeast Portland. With a strong sense of Portland individuality, Belmont has many locally owned coffee shops, markets, and distinctive shops and restaurants. Belmont Street is a favorite destination for many locals, whether it's for an afternoon at the Avalon, a night at the Blue Monk, or a cup of joe at the neighborhood Stumptown coffee shop.  This area has a nice mix of urban diversity, with a funky feel, and local color.  

View our video of the Portland Belmont Street area to capture a sense of the neighborhood (featuring a song by local Portland band, Ende).

Homes

Sunnyside features older Portland style homes such as Victorian, Craftsman, and Bungalow styles.  There's lots of character in this neighborhood, and many houses have been restored to their original charm.   

If you are looking for information on buying or selling a home in the Sunnyside area, including mortgage rates, loan calculators, home appraisers, school report cards, and crime reports, please see the Portland Real Estate page. 

Hot Eats

Portlander's know that some of the best coffee to be found in P-town is Stumptown Coffee. Try them on 34th and Belmont. As is typical of excellent coffee shops, they are extremely popular (lines) but absolutely worth the wait.

Enjoy a great breakfast at the neighborhood favorite cafe, Utopia on Belmont. Utopia is a very cozy place--super friendly people and obviously a neighborhood staple (very busy). We tried the special du jour which was a caramelized onion scramble, and it was to-die-for!! Soooo good---hats off to the cook!

Shops

Movie Madness

This only way this picture could be any bigger is if DeMille made it.  And even then I’m not so sure.  At 33,000 DVD titles and 27,000 VHS titles, if Movie Madness isn’t the largest video store in the world, then it’s certainly a contender.  Officially recognized by the Southern California Motion Picture Council for its outstanding contribution to the entertainment industry, Movie Madness is to movies what Powell’s is to books.

Akira to Zanuck, we’re talking an inventory that is so vast it’s divided into categories like Classic Directors, Independent Directors, Psychotronic, and Diane Lane .  Overwhelming?  Not really.  This movie palace provides its own spiffy hands-on software as an usher that will locate a movie by either title or director and then indicate in exactly which room it can be found.  Movie Madness also appears to be staffed by more clerks at certain times than you might find in one of those mega-chains in several days.

And then there’s the museum.  Yup, museum.  In addition to the rental side of the business, owner Mike Clark – let’s just say a character in himself – has accumulated prop and wardrobe memorabilia from some of the biggest blockbusters ever to come out of the ‘wood.  What this means is that, in the very same store that you’re renting your Hitchcock, the knife from “Psycho” awaits you.  Or maybe you’re more interested in the alien head from “Aliens” or the time machine from “H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine.”  Costumes worn by Barbra Streisand to Diane Keaton to Mike Myers are displayed as are all the lead actors’ wardrobes from “West Side Story.”

Of course, all this requires a great deal of space, and Mike was delighted to show this film buff all around the current remodel that will be adding approximately 2000 more square feet to the current museum display and inventory area.  Gotta think big when you’re talking Hollywood .  And it should be grand.  But for my money, this place has long been ready for its close-up, Mr. DeMille.

Movie Madness Hours:  Sun-Thurs 10:00A.M.-11:00P.M, Fri-Sat 10:00-Midnight 4320 SE Belmont Portland , OR 97215 (503) 234-4363 www.moviemadnessvideo.com

Noun

Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never make me shop.  Yeah, right, whatever!  I parked my car on Belmont , strapped on my camera and grabbed my backpack complete with notepad, pen, and all the tools necessary to survive another gritty day of Gonzo, PortlandNeighborhood.com journalism.  Packin’ literary heat, I was ready to charge.  And then, what can I say, a little word stopped me right in my Hunter Thompson tracks.

Okay, English 101 refresher.  A noun is any word that represents a person, place, or thing.  Name a thing, and you’ve got yourself a noun – and basically you’ve got Noun.  In the business of taking variety to adorable levels, owner Stephanie Sheldon has created a “person’s place for things” with no real set of rules but yet with a grammar of its own.

Stephanie likes to emphasize that she’s not an antique dealer, but the place is full of vintage.  Another very strong emphasis is new and local.  And most of the nouns Stephanie stocks have to be functional – ‘cause I guess a lot of nouns just don’t get very far without their verbs.

So, from old typewriters to dishes, jewelry to aprons – Noun is a language of its own. 

But if you come across something edible in the showroom, interestingly it’s not Noun. 

It’s…

Saint Cupcake

Okay, technically a cupcake is a noun – but not at Noun.  Confusing?  See, at the showroom that is home to both Noun and Saint Cupcake, typewriters and dessert might sound like strange bedfellows, but they make great roommates.

Housed behind a wooden counter near the back of this building that has, since the 1800’s, been shared over time between the likes of a post office and a trolley stop, a “cupcake boutique” now shares this great old space with the eclectic array that is Noun.

And it all makes sense in that Belmont kinda way.

You see, Saint Cupcake, the bakery, located on NW 17^th is a multi-layered, wedding cake of an operation that met with demands large and lines long.  Owner Jami Curl’s cupcake runneth over, so she decided to open another location, an outlet boutique selling nothing but her cupcakes, made and delivered fresh daily, ordered by the single or in any number of combo arrangements to take to a party or those pesky PTA meetings.

A true Gonzo never separates herself from her subject, so, when the salesclerk, Omi, offered a tasty looking sample, it was incumbent upon me to put research first.  So now my cupcake may be runnething over my thighs – but at least this journalist indulged a serious capacity for yum!

Noun and Saint Cupcake Hours:  Tues-Sun 10:00-6:00ish 3300 SE Belmont Portland , OR 97214 Phone number for both: (503) 235-0078 www.shopnoun.com www.saintcupcake.com

The Arts

Theater! Theatre!

Shared space seems to be the norm on Belmont .  As the name implies, Theater! Theatre! is home to two distinct theatres or stages as well as three different theatre companies.  In addition, The Tao of Tea, a wellness clinic, Sister Spirit, and a lawyer occupy this same building.  So it only seems appropriate when greeted by the artwork in the lobby - several human hands reaching as if through the wall - since this operation appears to be a fine example of classic Belmontian, combined individual effort.

Theatre Noir, at 95 seats, is home year round to Profile Theatre, one of only two theatre companies in the entire country that showcases one playwright per season.  This season the spotlight’s on Wendy Wasserstein, and the current production is “The Sisters Rosensweig.”

In that ongoing spirit of the building, and the neighborhood, the Arena Stage at Theater! Theatre! is likewise shared during the year between two different theatre companies.  The first, Theatre Vertigo, is a not-for-profit ensemble of theatre artists, and the second, Integrity Productions, emphasizes the feminine perspective.

Theater! Theatre! 3430 SE Belmont Portland , OR 97214 Profile Theatre phone #:  (503) 242-0080 www.profiletheatre.org Theatre Vertigo phone #:  (503) 306-0870 www.theatrevertigo.org Integrity Productions phone #:  (503) 286-3456 www.integrityproductions.org

Community Event Calendar

Know about a concert, meeting, gallery showing, or other event in your neighborhood? Click the ADD button on the calendar below, to add your events to the community calendar!

Note - While you can add new entries to the events calendar, only we can modify and delete entries. If you need a calendar event modified or deleted, please contact us.

Belmont - More Information

If you would like to share your experiences of living or working in the Belmont Neighborhood, please fill out the Submissions Form!

BELMONT DISTRICT

(Photo script provided byJavaScript Kit)