Category: Four Things

four

Four Things I Learned This Week is a regular column published on Fridays, featuring four short entries of brief tidbits on Portland‘s food scene.

Posted on

Four Things I Learned This Week (March 24)

Yigebe Coffee’s grand opening this weekend. I stopped into Yigebe Coffee this week—this is the location formerly occupied by Sandino Brothers, which closed earlier this month. Yigebe is currently in soft-opening mode with no set menu but that will change this Saturday when they have their grand opening. Their coffee is made with beans from Ethiopia, baked goods are from La Provence. They plan to open the upstairs to the public, too, as a place to hang out. All the former Sandino’s staff has stayed on with Yigebe, too. Stop on by and give them some love. 5730 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland

Kornblatt’s Delicatessan is closing. Sorry to see the news this week on social media: “After 32 years, Kornblatt’s will be closing at the end of March. We truly appreciate all of our customers and we are sad about closing. Please come visit us before our last day.” 628 NW 23rd Avenue, Portland

Sayler’s Old Country Kitchen gets some love from the O. People around town have a variety of feelings about the closing of Cracker Barrel, a chain that I never could get very excited about (Lambert’s Cafe, however, with their thrown rolls and pass-arounds, is another story). It spawned a great article in The Oregonian about local country-style restaurants in the area, and it’s worth a read. Sayler’s Old Country Kitchen (“arguably more of a steakhouse than a diner or a country dinner eatery”), an east Portland stalwart for decades, is included in the roundup. 10519 SE Stark Street, Portland

Could the Cully Farmers Market return? The seasonal Thursday farmers market in Cully stopped operating summer 2022 for a variety of reasons, including “the actions of a few people have created an unsafe environment for the staff engaged with the market.” But this week on Instagram they posted that they have a big announcement coming soon with the hashtag, #startinginjune. I’m taking that as an indication that they will return for the 2023 season. I’ll keep an eye on it.

Posted on

Four Things I Learned This Week (March 17)

Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

Nico’s Cantina just keeps getting better and better. I stopped into the Cantina last night for dinner and tried two new-to-me tacos: fish and suadero. The fish was covered in a crispy breadding with a nice slaw and hot sauce on top; the suadero was extremely tasty tender beef. On our way out, the chef handed us a sample of a bean, rice, and cheese burrito with a kind of frico layer on the outside of one of the sides of the burrito. Very simple, very tasty. I hope it will make it onto the permanent menu. 4318 NE Cully Blvd, Portland

My-O-My has new hours. Now that we are in DST with more afternoon/evening light, My-O-My is open at 3pm these days. And did you know that Monster Smash makes his own pickles for the burgers? No wonder they are so good. Eater did a nice writeup this week on Sumner’s favorite bar, too. 8627 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland

BuzzCutt announces their launch party date. Over on Instagram, the BuzzCutt folks let us know when the app launch party is: Saturday, June 17 here in Portland. “Mark your calendar for an evening with us, your crew, your fave N/A brands, live DJ, amazing local food, giveaways, and MORE SURPRISES to be announced soon.” Specific location TBD.

The Middle Eastern Festival, one of Portland’s best, will be back this summer. I love this festival—great food, there’s dancing and music, and despite how many people attend, there is a relaxed feel to the event. Mark your calendars for Sunday, August 27. 2101 NE 162nd Avenue, Portland

Posted on

Four Things I Learned This Week (March 10)

Green Zebra Grocery will close at the end of March. Very sorry to hear of this news, which has been plastered all over food media this week. You can read the official press release on their website (or, via this PDF). I’ll admit: I only shopped at Green Zebra occasionally; their prices were higher than a lot of places around town. I didn’t realize they considered themselves to be a “healthy convenience store,” but in hindsight, that makes sense. The reasons for shutting down, from Lisa Sedlar, Green Zebra’s founder and CEO:

“We experienced 9 straight quarters of increases to our cost of goods, packaging, fuel, insurance, taxes, freight charges and well, pretty much everything. Combine that with supply chain and staffing shortages and razor thin grocery margins, we just couldn’t overcome all the obstacles. We definitely gave it our all and fought the good fight. We are thankful for the opportunity to have been in service to our community.”

Get moar zeppole! Last week I mentioned the availability of zeppole from Bella Italian Bakery in Lents; today I am telling you about the availability of zeppole at Sebastiano’s. They are offering these delicious St. Joseph’s Day pastries—“a pate choux pastry with pastry cream and ricotta filling”—via pre-order for pickup Wednesday, March 15 to Saturday, March 18. You can order 4-, 6-, and 12-packs of zeppole at the Sebastiano’s Tock page. Order soon; supplies are limited. 411 SE 81st Avenue, Portland

Food trucks for Argay? Project under review. Currently occupied by the Taqueriea Queretaro food truck and LadyBug Bikini Espresso Drive Thru, this lot has potential new plans in the works. Permits have been submitted to convert it into a full-blown food truck lot/pod for 10 food trucks, seating, and parking. Some of you may know this intersection from it being in your neighborhood; some may know it as just a little bit east of the turn for Costco; and for some as the location of the Sandy Hot Wings Cafe, which made into a roundup from PoMo last year of the best chicken wings in Portland. Taqueria Queretaro also gets a lot of love. NE 141st Avenue and Sandy Blvd, Portland

New salad at Fresh Love. I’m a big fan of the prepared food at Fresh Love—salads, soups, bowls, sandwiches. All have been excellent. They have a new salad on the menu that I am eager to try: “We are moving into spring with this crunchy munchy Little Gem salad with blue cheese dressing, hard boiled egg, crispy sour dough croutons, avocado and pickled mustard seeds.”

Let me tell you about pickled mustard seeds—I first tasted them on an unusual dish back in Astoria at the long-gone Queens Kickshaw. The dish was a cold poached egg with miso butter and pickled mustard seeds. I was a bit dubious at first, but these tangy seeds were a great mix of flavor and texture, and I’ve never forgotten them. Looking forward to trying the ones from Fresh Love in this salad. 7434 NE Fremont Street, Portland

Posted on

Four Things I Learned This Week (March 3)

Jubilee Hall’s grand opening is tomorrow. This new coffee house in east Portland been in soft opening mode and now they are ready to make it official with their grand opening! Stop by tomorrow, Saturday March 4 for a ribbon cutting at 10am. Door prizes and a raffle are happening as well as free drip coffee and chai all day. 12175 E Burnside Street, Portland

March is St. Joseph’s Day pastry month at Bella Italian Bakery. Many who know me are aware of my love of St. Joseph’s Day pastries—zeppoli and sfingi, which I first learned about from the Sicilian community in Astoria, Queens. So you can imagine my delight in seeing Bella Italian Bakery in Lents offering zeppoli all month long, not just on March 19 (St. Joseph Day). From the bakery: “Give us a call to pre-order (and it’s a good idea if you’re looking for a larger order of them). If we don’t have them available that day, we can probably arrange another day for you to pick-up!” Bottom line: yum. 9119 SE Woodstock Blvd, Portland

Madman Popup on Monday, March 7. Get your local Trini food on Monday from Madman Popup, who is popping up at Rangoon Bistro from 4pm to sold out. He’s making doubles (curried chickpeas), aloo pie (potato and curried chickpeas), and bake and shark (fried bread and skate wing). His food is delicious, so if you can check it out, do! 2311 SE 50th Avenue, Portland

Updates on the Doug Fir Lounge move. This week Jupiter Hotel sent a press release out (though it never made it to our inbox) confirming Doug Fir Lounge’s move. The Oregonian, Willamette Week, and Eater have additional info related to that.

We know that you will able to see shows at Doug Fir at its current location at 830 East Burnside until the end of the summer. Then they will move to the old Le Bistro Montage space at 304 SE Morrison. New to me: Live music will be their laser-focus, with little to do with food and drink. I was curious last week about what was going to happen in the vacated Jupiter space; Portland Business Journal via KGW wrote, “The [Jupiter] property is working with Urban Works Real Estate as it determines the next uses for the music venue and restaurant/bar above it.” There’s been some concern expressed online about accessibility with that Le Bistro Montage space, too, and it will be good to hear what the overall plans are regarding that and myriad other things, which should come out later this month.

Bonus: These crocheted spam musubi at Ohana Hawaiian Cafe on NE Sandy Blvd are freaking adorable. $10/each. 6320 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland

Posted on

Four Things I Learned This Week (February 24)

Bar Mame is coming to SE Hawthorne. Matthew Dooney, who has worked as a manager for McMenamins, and Nicole Nelson, an immigration attorney, are opening Bar Mame in SE Portland. It will be located on SE Hawthorne and 33rd Ave underneath The Hazel Room (looks like the Red Velvet Parlour was there for a while, but closed there late last year). Matt says, “I’m super excited (and of course terrified) to announce that we’ll be opening our own bar (Mame) on 33rd and Hawthorne. This has been a dream of mine for years and can’t wait to see how this comes into fruition.” 3279 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland

Barista (some of them) rebranding. A tipster told me that the Barista family cafes is changing up their name, but only for a couple of their locations. It’s the KOIN and Alberta locations that will be changing their name—initial research indicates “Enjoy Coffee LLC” is the corp behind them. These will be wholly owned by Billy Wilson; the Nob Hill and Pearl locations, which will remain Barista, will be under a partnership between Billy and Sortis (who owns the Barista brand).

Doug Fir Lounge will move a little to the southwest. Another tip that found its way to the Bridgetown Bites inbox is about Doug Fir Lounge—it will close at its current location, then move elsewhere this fall. And it seems that it will be reopening at the old Le Bistro Montage space—the new address on the documents filed with the state this year regarding Doug Fir is 301 SE Morrison Street. Look for a more official kind of announcement from the powers that be in March. And I’m seriously curious about what Jupiter NEXT will do with that space.

Free ice cream for a year. Nico’s is running a contest to win free ice cream for a year: “Beginning March 1st, make sure to buy all the half pints you can, because at some point in March, we will be putting a golden ticket inside one of our half pints (only sold at either of our two locations) and you will have the chance to win FREE ice cream for a year!” If you like to eat ice cream on the regular, this one is for you. Nico’s half pints can be found at various grocery stores in the Portland area, as well as his shops at 5713 NE Fremont Street and 1615 NE Killingsworth Street.