Category: Portland

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Portland! It’s where I live, work, and play. It’s where the food news happens (at least most of it). This category is one of the real constants on Bridgetown Bites and is probably a part of almost every post on this blog.

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Top 5 Posts On Bridgetown Bites, October 2019

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I love reviewing the previous month’s posts to see what readers are drawn to. For October it was restaurant news all the way—from burgers to bagels to bars. As always, thanks for reading!

5. Black Seed Burger Cult Does Not Take Itself Too Seriously

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While perusing the latest liquor license applications, I ran across the intriguingly-named Black Seed Burger Cult; they’ve applied for a limited on-premises license. They’re opening up in the old Verde Cocina space (3746 North Mississippi), which closed last January.

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Four Things I Learned This Week (November 1)

Happy All Saints Day, everyone! Hope you had a good Halloween and there were plenty of kids trick or treating in your neighborhood. One of my favorite stories from last night is by Sarah Kline of the @portlandsampler Instagram—she gave out big and small candy, bags of chips, and vintage Nancy Drew books! I feel inspired for next year. Now, on to Four Things I Learned This Week.

More pizza. That’s right—pizza. Earlier this year we published news of the pending opening of To The Moon, which was supposed to be a new bakery venture from Marius Pop of Nuvrei here on the east side (NB: I have unpublished that post since the details are moot at this point). Well, he’s changed his mind and is now opening a pizzeria called Pop Pizza. To be honest, I’m not sure Portland needs more pizza, but Pop really elevated the quality of croissants in this town, maybe he will bring something truly stupendous to Portland’s pizza game.

Brie butter sounds like magic. Pech of Pechluck’s Food Adventures tips us off to the existence of brie butter at OK Omens. It sounds amazing, and in her words, “It is unbelievable how incredible this brie butter is, seriously.”  See you soon, OK Omens!

Big’s is back. Big’s Chicken, which suffered a terrible fire in 2017, has returned to Portland with their delicious Alabama-style barbecued chicken. They opened on NE Glisan on October 25.

Brewvana and City Brew Tours. A mashup of east and west is here, as Brewvana, “showcasing the history and culture of Portland’s craft beer scene,” has sold a majority stake to City Brew Tours, “the nation’s leading brewery tour operator based on the East Coast.”

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Hollywood District’s Nectar Cafe Is Expanding

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“Pardon our dust.”

I was down in the Hollywood District the other day and noticed a bunch of changes have come to the little shopping center at NE Hancock and 41st Avenue: Portland Pastimes closed; Teal Flamingo moved into that space; and Nectar Cafe is moving into the space Teal Flamingo previously occupied, conveniently right next door. Continue reading “Hollywood District’s Nectar Cafe Is Expanding”

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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.

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A Look Back at the 10th Annual Portland Fermentation Festival

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A clever take on “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the 10th Annual Portland Fermentation Festival AKA Stinkfest. Sure, it was aromatic in there (Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center) but not offensively so (at least to my nose). The event started a little after 6pm with a keynote speech by David Zilber of the Noma Fermentation Lab. It was a really inspiring talk and got me fired up again about fermentation (I used to do it a lot). I think his assertion that humans would not have survived, thrived, and progressed as a species without fermentation is spot on. I ended up purchasing his book, The Noma Guide to Fermentation and look forward to spending time fermenting various foods over the next year. Note: I’m pretty much a mediocre fermenter right now but this book will no doubt make me a better one.

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