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 (October 18)

It’s Friday, so it’s time for Four Things I Learned This Week!

Update on Rocky Butte Coffee Roasters. Remember that contest from Business Impact NW that Rocky Butte Coffee Roasters participated in? They did well—here’s a summary of what happened:

“The business competition you all graciously supported us in took us to Seattle for a final round including a live 6-minute pitch about how our business blesses our community and how we’re going to do that even more! The three of us all presented and answered questions from the judges. We came home to Portland with a giant $2,000 check in our pocket! (figuratively) We’ll put that money towards opening our first coffee shop.”

And now on Saturday, October 26, James and his protegé Lily Helms will be competing in the Cascadia Roaster’s Competition at Buckman Coffee Factory.

Congratulations, Pix! Portland’s own Pix Pâtisserie won the award for Best Champagne & Sparkling Wine List (the winner for the sixth year in a row) in the World’s Best Wine List Awards 2019.

The future of Kitchen Share SE. You’ve heard of book libraries, tool libraries, and now there’s the kitchen tool library. Located at 2800 SE Harrison Street,  it’s “a library for kitchen, dining and entertaining tools. You can borrow appliances, gadgets, pots, pans, and prep tools for free. Try out a tool before buying, or just borrow when needed.” They’re having an event on Sunday, October 20 fro 3:30-4:30pm to talk about the future of the library and how to sustain it as a visitor, volunteer, or donor. Cider donuts will be involved.

Culture + Food festivals resource. After seeing so much PR cross my desk for various festivals and events produced by the broad number of cultural communities here in Portland, I wanted to put the info in an easy to reference list, which you can find here: Portland Area Cultural + Food Festivals. It’s a Page, not a Post (in WordPress speak), so the URL won’t change from year to year. I will continue to update it, as well as publish an archive of the year prior when the new year starts. If I’m missing any events you think I should include, just shoot me an email.

Posted on

Four Things I Learned This Week (October 11)

Welcome to this edition of Four Things I Learned This Week!

New yums at Muji. Oyatsupan, Beaverton’s celebrated Japanese bakery, announced that they have a presence at Muji in downtown Portland: “Guess what?! We’ve starting selling a small amount of our pastries inside the café of #mujiportland! Come see how cute their store is, and stay tuned for more exciting things coming…”

Little Bird flies away. The popular bistro Little Bird will close; Sunday, October 27 is its final day of service. I’ve had some good food there—including some delicious dumplings during Dumpling Week. It’s a lovely spot and I will miss it.

Captain Obvious is writing for WalletHub. No surprise to us that Portland is a top “foodie-friendly” town. Here are some stats (1=Best; 91=Avg):

  • 6th – Restaurants per Capita
  • 1st – Affordability & Accessibility of Highly Rated Restaurants
  • 10th – Gourmet Specialty-Food Stores per Capita
  • 1st – Craft Breweries & Wineries per Capita
  • 1st – Coffee & Tea Shops per Capita
  • 25th – Number of Grocery Stores per Capita

Progress with Collective Oregon Eateries. The 82nd Ave. Business Association posted a photo on Instagram with this caption: “This development is picking up steam. Nice to see progress on the future food hall and cart pod!” The Farm House Restaurant is gone and the new structure is on its way to completion. Willamette Week reported back in 2017 that CORE food hall “will draw from cuisines across the spectrum. In addition to at least nine indoor mini-restaurants in the an 8,500-square-foot space—a bit similar to the Pine Street Market—the parking lot will house 15 or so outdoor food carts, a covered patio and parking for both bikes and cars.” The location is SE 82nd Ave and SE Lafayette.

Posted on

Four Things I Learned This Week (September 27)

We’re back with four news tidbits in Portland-area food this week.

Happy in Happy Valley. Loved learning about this place for hand-stretched (and hand-cut) noodles in Happy Valley, Noodle Man.

Puffy pancake alert. The fluffy, puffy Japanese-style pancakes are available in Beaverton at La Rose Patisserie.

RIP Rip City Grill. Rip City Grill closed last Saturday  9/21 on SE Division at 60th. Good news, though: their truck and SW Waterfront cart are still in business.

Also closing: Laurelwood Brewing. The Sellwood-Moreland/Westmoreland location of Laurelwood Brewing is closing as well; their Sandy Blvd brewery will stay open. This weekend is the end of the road. It comes down to a hike in rent, something we will likely continue to see for some time and that could spell the end for restaurants throughout Portland. Competition will only get more intense.

Conventional wisdom says that the reason Portland’s food scene was able to flourish years ago was cheap rents and cheap land (property) prices. It’s not a surprise that those days are over, for the most part. Plus, some food carts will no doubt close because of new requirements re: cleanliness. Change—it’s the only constant.

Posted on

Four Things I Learned This Week (September 20)

It’s here! Here are four things I learned this week in Portland food.

Old news, with an update. It was reported a little while back that The Sudra, a vegan Indian restaurant—that makes some of the most flavorful food in town— is going to open up in the Revere building on N Mississippi. The new detail is that they plan to be open there around November.

Changes at Nonna. Italian comfort food resto Nonna will close its doors on September 28 as a restaurant. Then the transition:  “After more than five years of happily dishing up creative Italian comfort food and cocktails in the Concordia neighborhood, Nonna Tavern will stop serving nightly dinner and re-boot as a multi-use catering kitchen, parties, educational workshop and collab pop-up event space.” To get your last plates of their delicious food, head over on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights, 5pm till close. I look forward to seeing what the changes bring to the neighborhood.

Cider Riot is for sale. Sounds like a sad but sound financial decision. “Goldman-Armstrong said a costly expansion in 2016 coupled with cider sales below what he and his investors had projected left them with little choice other than to put their facility, equipment and brand on the market.

Bankrupt but not closing. Kenny & Zuke’s deli will file for bankruptcy—Chapter 11. They will reorganize and pay off their mountainous debt… but they are not closing. According to the owner, they are “absolutely [in] no danger of closing, or curtailing operations in any way.” The yums will keep coming.

Posted on

Four Things I Learned This Week (September 13)

Back at it—here are four things I learned this week in the world of Portland food.

The Mid-Autumn Festival starts today. Here are three local bakeries where you can find Chinese-style mooncakes for the annual Mid Autumn Festival. Also: I learned that there are regional differences in mooncakes, which makes total sense. In the past I’ve only had access to Chinese-style mooncakes, and now I wish I’d sought out other styles. Wikipedia has a summary of the different styles throughout Asia.

Say cheese(burger). Wednesday, September 18 is National Cheeseburger Day, and Burgerville is offering $1 cheeseburgers that day. Maximum five burgers per transaction, and a two transaction limit per vehicle.

The donut breakfast sandwich is a thing. Delicious Donuts, celebrating 14 years in the business this week, offers many things, including a breakfast sandwich made with a glazed donut. Redditor @afeld explains, “They flip the donut inside out, so you’re holding the dry inners, and glazed part is with the egg.” That would be Aiden’s Sandwich, made with egg, cheese, and choice of meat—bacon, ham, or sausage.  Their Grand Avenue Burger also comes on a glazed donut.

Zapapizza is in soft open mode. Nick Zukin of Mi Mero Mole fame has been working on his newest project, Zapapizza. Offering thick-crust pies with Mexican ingredients for toppings. From twitter: “We are now soft open 11am to 9pm with thick crust pizza slices, beer, booze, wings, and even salad. Limited menu. More coming soon. 503 W. Burnside.” P.S. The Zaparoni,  a pepperoni pie base with the addition of pickled jalapeños, queso fresco, and fresh avocado, is basically my dream pizza.