Tender Loving Empire

Super cute inexpensive local artist friendly shop! Lots of cute magnets, stationary, stuffed animals, fun music, friendly service — great place to pick up gifts to bring home if you’re vistinf

You know when you go into a store and you see all these unique, cool things that you want but then look at the price and it’s just a tad higher than you could reasonably spend on it? That’s what happens to me every time I go in this store. For those of you who don’t mind the price go crazy, but for me I just always hesitate.

Cute store selling goods made by local artists. I’m not a very frugal person, but this store seemed a little over-​priced even for me. I bought a bar of soap for $ 9. The employees were friendly and the store had a nice vibe to it. Would I come back if I am in the area? Maybe. Then again… maybe not.

Another one of my favorite stores to go to when in downtown Portland! This small store has so many cute and unique gifts. Definitely worth a stop in to check out the artwork, gifts, and more.

I could seriously live in this store. Handmade paper goods, jewelry, food items… Records and cd’s. Art. It’s all here. Love! Went to both stores! And both locations are amazing. A def for visiting Portland

The cutest little store! They have some awesome handcrafted items & lots of pretty/​cute cards.
Keep in mind that some of the stuff is hand made, thus the price.
I come here whenever I need to purchase a card :)

I love this place. Such creative goodies, great music, and generally cool stuff. I always find stuff I want for myself and stuff I want to give as gifts. I also love all the Portland centric stuff & that they support local artists and crafters and musicians. TLE is a very special shop!

Unlike the SE cousin, this TLE is just a little bit smaller and lacked a lot more variety. The store is still very well decorated, offering a multitude of… well useless, but oh so cute trinkets. If you are around the area and have a lot of money to burn (trust me, the stuff are expensive) then you’ll love this place.

Along with Crafty Wonderland, definitely a neat find of etsy curiosities, gifts, music, and more, especially for an out of towner like myself. I found great baby gifts last time, and bought a beautiful pair of wooden laser cut-​style earrings this time. Sometimes things can be a little pricey, but it’s great to see products made by actual people rather than mass produced in a factory somewhere.

I’m torn about this review. It’s a stylish little shop with many interesting handmade items and evidently some vintage and consignment mixed in. I did go in with the specific purpose of looking for something cute for a coworker’s new baby. When I picked up a onesie that was on clearance for $ 18 (originally $ 27), my fingers went nerveless and I dropped the small garment. I do like supporting local businesses, but unfortunately at that price point I could not. Yes, I understand handmade items involve more work and the price has to be higher so the craftsperson can make some money, but fortunately or unfortunately I’m my parents’ (read children of the depression) child and have a hard time parting with that kind of money for a piece of clothing worn by a child that will be outgrown relatively rapidly and on which the child spits up on, etc. (you know what I mean).
The gods of the craftspeople and local shopkeepers are going to probably strike me dead with today’s predicted thunder and lightning, but I didn’t spend much time going over things in the rest of the shop before heading over to City Target where I found a onesie with a little jumper-​type dress over the top for $ 9 (Carter’s, 100% cotton). New mom was thrilled with the outfit. I hope she takes a picture so that Baby Matilda can see she was a stylishly-​turned-​out baby.
I’m sure Tender Loving Empire will do just fine without my patronage as they have three locations in the Portland area, and I certainly do wish them well, and it’s strictly AOK, but simply not for me.

I was looking to shop at «Portlandy» stores during my time in Portland last week. Big surprise there, right? Potentially the most eloquent way to word my request for help at an Information Desk, too. Nonetheless, the response came that I should most definitely visit Tender Loving Empire.
What a great, eclectic, fun shop! At first I walked in and just kind of stared at everything in awe. I didn’t know what to buy! I loved it all! It was overwhelming.
Shortly thereafter, the guy working walked over and asked if I had visited before. I told him I was from out-​of-​town, and we struck up a semi-​long conversation about Portland and where else to visit (in addition to help in how to navigate the store, of course).
In the end, after listening to some of their record label’s artists with the provided headphones and perusing some more, I chose to purchase a Portland flask, a Portland magnet, a Portland post card, and Portland bee lip balm. I’d say it was a successful, and very Portlandy, visit.

Cat shaped donuts stuffed toys?
Okay!
This shop is chock full of quirky Portland-​made products and everything was pretty nominally priced.
I walked out the proud owner of a lumberjack-​themed temporary tattoo for a themed work event but also fell pretty hard for their button trios that highlight like-​minded individuals from history, like the Beastie Boys, Prince/​Madonna/​Michael Jackson, Salt N Pepa, etc.
The shop boy was sweet and took his time when interacting with customers to get to know them a little more. Again proving that Portland is the friendliest place on Earth.

I visited this place several times during a business trip to Portland, to dig through all of their treasures. A great shop to find local artist goods (music and crafts). Loved it so much, after returning home to the East Coast, I continue purchased gifts every now and then for friends online.
Definitely stop in for a Portland-​saturated experience.

Cute store — right by the ACE hotel so if you are staying there and need a quick place to go and grab souvenirs for friends, this place is it. They have a lot of Portland made items including cards, small bags, buttons, jewelry, toys, etc. This was my back up place if I weren’t able to find anything else in Portland… a hard task of course but good to have them so close by! The stuff wasn’t that expensive either.

Reason for visit: it’s awesome here.
Visit date: October 2, 2014
First time? No.
I love it here! I visited this place for the first time three years ago and I remembered it to be a cute store that sold locally made products that made me smile. When I visited again today — pure excitement! I’m in Portland for business this time around so after my meeting I convinced some colleagues to join me. We arrived just minutes before they were going to close the doors and I felt kind of bad because we stayed for a good twenty plus minutes after closing, but the guy working didn’t rush us at all. Super nice!
They have a great selection of jewelry, soaps, paper goods and prints, knick-​knacks, housewares, and kid stuff. Some items can be on the pricier side, but they have quality goods and you’re supporting local! On this visit I picked up an in-​house screen printed tote (and its totes adorbs!).
So, in short, friendly staff and awesome goods!

This is by far the best place to go get souvenirs!!!
A ton of cute portland stuff here, the prices aren’t outrageous either!
I would recommended this place to anyone new to the city or here on vacation!
Especially if you have kids or want to buy a kid something cute!

This place is great.
great for tourists who are roaming the mean streets of Portland,… Yanno,. Lookin for a good local, crafty, knick-​knack.
And great for the pure-​bred portlandians, too. Especially since 80% of their Merch is made by the hands of local artists.
I walked in recently and was immediately greeted by the sweetest, coolest chick ever. She was very helpful.
Even though the store was closing, and she was wrappin up her register, she still stopped what she was doing to discuss where I should eat dinner after my shopping spree :)
I ended up getting some cool dish towels and «Salt-​n-​pepa magnets» !!!
Good find.
Go in. Look. Buy. Don’t buy. Listen to the cool tunes. Ask for dinner suggestions.
Hang.
You’re missing out if you don’t.

Neat little crafts and hand made goodies boutique. I stopped in to pick up some Portland-​related knick knacks as gifts for friends and found a little thing of «bottled Portland rain» ($ 9) and an elegant four-​page writing set ($ 13). There were t-​shirts, CD’s, bags, wallets, greeting cards and all kinds of other little things, all seemingly high quality and hand crafted in nature. Good place to go gift hunting for something unusual and fun.

Do you have those moments where a piece of art comes along and hits you? Hits you in a way that it just has to come home? Unfortunately for my sister/​roommate, that art tends to come in a freak-​ish package, this time, it was a piece of white painted wood with a miniature alpaca, a tiny man on the alpaca and pile of crayon shavings. Let’s call it «WTF art.» I am attracted to WTF art. As soon as I walked in to Tender Loving Empire, I chuckled and pulled this piece of work down off the wall. $ 40 seemed like a steal for a piece of crazy Portland art.
Tender Loving Empire is oozing with creative and unique local creations. You’ll especially find homemade/​printed stationary, jewelry, wall art, books, and other decorative items. The best part, in my opinion, is that these items are priced in a way that allows you to purchase without pings of guilt and buyer’s remorse. For out-​of-​towners such as myself, it’s the perfect place to buy signature Portland/​Oregon gifts and souvenirs minus the kitsch. This will be my go-​to spot when I hopefully return next year with my family.

After eating at the food trucks on a blistering afternoon, my lady and were walking back to our car and she noticed a small shop that perked her interest. I didn’t mind going in because of how cold and windy it was outside to any excuse to get warm was good enough for me.
After entering the store I realized why she was so drawn to Tender Loving Empire. This small shop is basically a brick and mortar of my lady’s Pintrest page. The store is filled with little trinkets made in Oregon that you won’t find at the airport. As visitors to Portland is was a perfect place for us to pick up some unique souvenirs that weren’t massed produced in China or ordered off Amazon. My lady ended up purchasing a hand painted coaster and some locally made jewelry. Both of the items were intended as gifts but ended up becoming gifts to herself.
Tender Loving Empire might not be the biggest shop in Portland but if you’re looking for some cool and unique forget-​me-​nots then this place is worth a stop. Heck, just another reason to stop at the vast field of food trucks!