Best Evers: Corey Arnold, Photographer

Editor’s Note: While we’re in Portland over the next few weeks, we wanted to bring some local flavor to the blog by asking writers who live in the area to contribute Hotpot-style city guides: recommendations on where to eat, where to shop, where to hang. Below, locally based writer Audrey Van Buskirk sits down with Corey Arnold to discuss Corey's Portland Best Evers. Be sure to join the conversation in the comments below.

Photo courtesy of Corey Arnold

In addition to rating and reviewing businesses on Hotpot, you can give your 10 favorite businesses a "Best Ever" award. With thousands of businesses to rate and review, and only 10 Best Evers, it can often be tough narrowing down which 10 represent the absolute best of the best. We thought it would be fun to talk to a few prominent Portlanders to see what businesses they're giving their "Best Ever" awards to and why. Look out for more of these lists in the coming weeks.


We checked in with Portland-based photographer Corey Arnold in between his traveling the world, shooting magazine assignments and taking on personal projects. He also moonlights as a commercial fisherman in Alaska two to three months per year. His photographic chronicles of the commercial fishing lifestyle have been exhibited in galleries worldwide, and in publications such as The Paris Review, Artweek, Esquire and Outside Magazine. Corey has just released Fish-Work: The Bering Sea. He gave us nine Portland Best Evers and one from San Francisco.

Rontoms: This East Burnside bar boasts the cutest ladies in town, a huge space for outdoor seating and a good selection of booze. It’s big but it has the feeling of a cabin.

Charles A. Hartman Fine Art: The finest photography gallery in the Northwest is a tightly run ship with a super friendly owner.

Ned Ludd: Another Portland place with a cabin-like vibe, this Northeast Portland restaurant has great service and served me a smoked cod dish that was my most memorable meal of 2010.


Clyde Common: Find Portland’s best atmosphere, a great scotch selection, smart bartenders, and strange and tasty meals at this downtown restaurant in the Ace Hotel.

Flower of Life Massage: I don’t really want to tell anyone about the amazingly inexpensive and relaxing massages provided by Rebecca Ellis.

Digicraft at Udevelop: The best place in Portland to make large photo prints, this place is super cheap, handles large scale projects as well as small and overall provides just the best photo processing and service.

Deadliest Catch Food Cart: Go here for real Alaskan seafood served by a real Alaskan crab fisherman and his wife, an intimate atmosphere with indoor seating and incredibly tasty king crab burritos.

Glenhaven Skatepark: Looking for the best place to collide with a BMX bike while riding a skateboard? You’ll find it here. It boasts the best use of space in a Portland skateboard park and is overall the city’s best medium-sized concrete bowl.

Arleta Library Bakery and Café: This sweet oasis in deep Southeast offers amazing baked scones, homemade catsup and jam, and the friendliest staff ever. A quintessential Portland neighborhood place.

Paxton Gate: My favorite place to buy stuffed toads and giant beetles. This San Francisco place is like a giant science lab and the best place to buy a dead anything.

Which businesses will you give your 10 Best Evers to?

Posted by Audrey Van Buskirk. Audrey has written for dozens of local and national publications including Willamette Week, Portland Monthly, Northwest Palate, The Stranger, Nickelodeon and Everyday with Rachael Ray. She manages three boys from Southeast Portland.