Memorial Day Weekend 2026 in Portland and the Willamette Valley

If only Memorial Day Weekend 2026 had a real leader to give the speech.
President Joseph Biden speaks at the 154th National Memorial Day Observance in the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., May 30, 2022. (U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser / Arlington National Cemetery / released)

Memorial Day Weekend 2026 starts Saturday, May 23—Friday, May 22, if you want to be fancy. But the day itself is Monday, May 25. It is, of course, a day to remember and mourn those who have died in service to the country. I, myself, often remember my great uncle Monroe, who was killed in the Vietnam War (also known as “Kháng chiến chống Mỹ,” or “The Resistance War against America” from Vietnam’s standpoint). 

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Small Bites: Lunch at Sunday Sauce, Burgers, Alpenrausch, and More

Lunch at Sunday Sauce includes sandwiches.
New sandwiches for lunch at Sunday Sauce. Photo credit: Devin White.

New lunch service at Sunday Sauce. It started Wednesday, May 6, and on the lunch menu you’ll find hot heroes, cold subs, salads, sides, and desserts. They use bread from Dos Hermanos Bakery, and you can get your subs in a half or a whole configuration.

Nice to see their eggplant parm turned into a sandwich, and this sure sounds good, the “Fresh Mutz”: fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil, arugula, prosciutto, balsamic glaze, extra virgin olive oil, and pesto spread on house focaccia. Lunch is available at Sunday Sauce on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 11am to 2pm. 902 N Killingsworth Street, Portland

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Departure: New Chef, New Menu, and Great Eats in Portland [Photos]

Looking out the window onto Portland's east side.
The views from Departure are absolutely gorgeous.

While I was at the Churchill Nines media preview, you may remember that I mentioned meeting Brian Woolley, the Director of Food and Beverage at The Nines hotel. He mentioned that they had a new chef and a recent menu change at Departure, and asked if I wanted to learn more. Heck yeah, I did! Their PR firm helped arrange a tasting for myself and Judith—which means that this meal was comped, but our opinions are our own.

Here’s what we tried and a few tidbits of info about what’s up these days at Departure.

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Get To Know Stone Soup and Their Café in Montavilla

The Stone Soup signage in the front above the entrance to the cafe. You can see the Candelight restaurant in the background.

Have you been to the Stone Soup café in Montavilla? I remember reading about it on Montavilla News last year, but hadn’t made it in. That all changed when I recently connected with Julia Granet, the Marketing and Communications Coordinator there, who let me know about their upcoming event, Jam Jam, over at the Midtown Beer Garden.

We got to chatting about the organization itself, the cafê—which I later visited and got a tour of the building—-and the good things they are doing to help folks who need assistance managing their lives in this crazy world we live in. Here are some of the things we talked about.

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