Small Bites: Update on Arrowood, Flock Food Hall, Cassoulet, and More

It’s a Bon Bánh Mì mystery.

Update on Arrowood. After I was asked if I had heard any updates from Arrowood (my emails remain unanswered), a neighbor indicated that they had seen a listing online for the Arrowood space. I checked it out, and found a listing on Crexi entitled, “For Lease: Turnkey Restaurant & Bar for Lease.” So, looks like we have the answer: They are done. Truly unfortunate for the neighborhood. 5846 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland

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Year of the Snake: Lunar New Year 2025 in Portland

Happy Year of the Snake: Lunar New Year 2025.

Lunar New Year 2025 in Portland starts on Wednesday January 29, when we will enter the Year of the Snake—more specifically, the Wood Snake. Here, you can read more about the qualities of this upcoming year with more insight than I could possibly give you. And, as a Monkey myself, it’s nice to read that “those born in the Years of the Rat, Monkey, Rooster, Horse and Dragon should experience good luck.”

Here are some ways to celebrate the Lunar New Year in Portland and surrounding areas.

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Landing Paper Planes Will Bring a Pay-What-You-Can Cafe To Portland

Landing Paper Planes logo.

Over the weekend, I learned about a new project called Landing Paper Planes. It is a nonprofit organization that was conceived to support a pay-what-you-can cafe supported by a fine dining restaurant. The organizers hope to open in the first quarter of 2025. I had a chance to chat over email with Jade Fenton, one of the founders, and here is what she told me.

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Hanukkah 2024 in Portland

Latkes from Lepage Food & Drink.
Latkes! Photo credit: Lepage Food & Drink

Hanukkah is one of the “big four” holidays in winter, along with Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Yule/Solstice. And this year it starts the evening of December 25, an unusual timing with Christmas. We also know it as the Festival of Lights (read more about its origins), with the menorah that is lit for eight nights, and its accompaniments: the dreidel (on which its four sides is written “a great miracle happened there”), gelt (chocolate money), and foods cooked in oil, like latkes and sufganiyot (jelly donuts).

Here are places where you can enjoy Hanukkah food, drink, and celebration in Portland.

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Win Big: Shop Small This Holiday Season in Portland

Win Big when you shop small.

You may have heard of Small Business Saturday, which is one of the three big shopping days of the early holiday season (the others being Black Friday and Cyber Monday). But here in Portland, there’s a local effort to encourage shopping at small businesses in Portland for a month, from November 14 to December 15! And that would be the Win Big campaign from Small Shops Big Hearts, part of Bricks Need Mortar, which supports Oregon’s independent retailers.

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