Elements PDX: Cloud-Chasing

ELEMENTS PDX

Maybe you've been curious about those things people are sucking on around town. They look like a cross between a lightsaber and a dentist's drill and emit thick clouds of watery mist that smell like a candy shop. Vaping appears poised to become that rarest of trends, the one that ascends from the bottom of society. Or so it seems at Elements PDX (3340 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 971-373-8192, elementsjoose.com), a slick, new vape shop on Southeast Hawthorne. This shop is a lot different from the Gresham shacks advertising "E-CIGS HERE" on a yellow tarp. There's an etched glass door that leads into a room of rugged steel and wood lighted by exposed bulbs. You sit on metal taboret stools as a helpful clerk sets you up with a vaporizer, a rubber mouth guard and your choice of "juice" cartridges flavored like Starbucks drinks, Girl Scout Cookies and girly cocktails. Fruit flavors taste like fruit juice, not fruit-flavored candy. The Rice Krispies flavor tastes exactly like the cereal, but only when you exhale. It's bizarrely compelling. You're supposed to buy something to go, but people hang out shooting darts and sampling the more exotic juices. London just got its first dedicated vape lounge. Elements isn't quite that, but we're headed there fast. Barring a rash of fear-mongering and bans, look for a trendy vape joint in the Pearl by summer.

WWeek 2015

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