Four Things I Learned This Week (May 6)

Plants, vegan baked goods, and cats. Tomorrow, Saturday, May 7, is the House of Dreams’ 2022 Spring Plant Sale and Vegan Bake Sale. From 10am to 3pm, head out to get some indoor and outdoor plants, baked vegan yums (held as part of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale), an good feelings knowing you are supporting a sale where all proceeds go to care for cats at the House of Dreams shelter. More details on Facebook. Should be a great event! 7634 SE Morrison Street, Portland

Kann update. Gregory Gourdet’s new restaurant, Kann, featuring Hatian food, will open this summer. PoMo has the details: “Kann will open mid-July at 548 SE Ash St, with 80 seats and an eight-foot hearth at the center of a wide-open kitchen that will occupy nearly half of the space.” Read more about it on the Portland Monthly website. 548 SE Ash Street, Portland

Current favorite dry drink. I made it over to Gabbiano’s recently and had their sparkly lemonade with an oregano syrup and a little salt. I loved it so much, I had two of them. Great fresh flavor and the oregano syrup adds something special. Truly delicious. 5411 NE 30th Avenue, Portland.

Daily Fuel opens brick & mortar restaurant. On their Instagram this week they announced their new restaurant: “We officially have the keys & finalized all legal paperwork today. We’ll be working on getting the restaurant ready for open in June for y’all!” They’ve had a cart at the Hawthorne Asylum pod, offering “healthy vegan comfort food” for a while; it will be fun to see what they do with the restaurant. Big congrats to them! 3342 SE Belmont Street, Portland

Four Things I Learned This Week (April 29)

Update on Upright Brewing. I reached out to Alex Ganum, owner and head brewer at Upright Brewing, to get an update on the Cully location. He says there have been challenges with the speed of city permits, but they are still on target to open. The exact date, though, is unclear, but they are working as fast as they can within the city’s permitting constraints, and would love to be done as soon as possible. They’re committed to Cully. And as Alex says, “We’re all looking forward to having a nice little neighborhood spot!” 7151 NE Prescott Street, Portland

Montavilla Food Co-op + Montavilla Farmers Market. Great news from the Montavilla Food Co-op: “The Montavilla Food Co-op has partnered with the Montavilla Farmer’s Market. We’ll be appearing at the market each week over the summer season to bring staples and other foods starting on May 8th, 2022. We’ll also be there on May 1st, 202 raffling off some sweet MFC swag and tasty treats from the store. If you’d like to enter the raffle, come on down to the market and say hello! We’re looking forward to seeing you all soon!” 7700 SE Stark Street, Portland

Feast Portland’s live events are cancelled. Big news from Feast about their live events, which are no more for 2022: “With all the challenges the hospitality industry is still facing, we want to be mindful of what we can do as a community to be more helpful and impactful and return at a time when we’re all ready to celebrate again.” Feast is not dissolving, though, and the hope is that they will return for live interactions in 2023.

James Beard Awards finalists include Portlanders. Check out who made it to the finals!

  • Outstanding Restauranteur: Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom, Langbaan, Hat Yai, Eem, and others
  • Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific (AK, HI, OR, WA): Carlo Lamagna, Magna Kusina; and Thomas Pisha-Duffly, Oma’s Hideaway

Congrats to these finalists—they are well-earned recognitions. According to the James Beard Foundation website, “Winners will be celebrated at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony on Monday, June 13, 2022, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.”

Rocky Butte Farmers Market Hires Market Manager

Photo credit: Rocky Butte Farmers Market

As I have mentioned previously, I write for the Market News section on the Rocky Butte Farmers Market (RBFM) website. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m particularly happy with a recent interview I did with Marcy Eichner, the new Market Manager for the RBFM. This is a huge step forward for the organization and I am sure good things are to come for the market and its supporters with Marcy joining the team.

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