Category: Top Five

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This is a fun post to create that shows me what readers especially like on the site each month.

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Top 5 Posts on Bridgetown Bites, June 2024

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This month I have better news than last month’s: we almost doubled our traffic in June. Over 17,000 unique visitors made it over to Bridgetown Bites, and they generated over 21,000 page views (vs 8,800 and 11,000, respectively). The strategies I put into place made a difference.

Top posts in June are mostly about restaurants (and a future food cart pod), but strawberry shortcake certainly grabbed attention. And why not? It’s delicious and wholesome.

A always, thanks to all who visited, read, and shared stories on Bridgetown Bites!

5. Ole Frijole Has Closed

Ole Frijole's exterior in the Concordia neighborhood in Portland, OR. It closed as of May 4, 2024.

Earlier this week a Bridgetown Bites tipster emailed me news that Ole Frijole, located on the northwest corner of Killingsworth and NE 42nd Ave, has closed. They wrote, “My neighbor mentioned that she just read a sweet message to customers posted on their door saying that they closed and the property has been sold.” Looks like the closure was one month ago on May 4.

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Top 5 Posts on Bridgetown Bites, May 2024

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Google’s “helpful” content update continued to wreck havoc on the blog, but the good news is that it put a fire under me to implement an alternative strategy. Good news: things are better in June. The numbers for May? 8,800 unique visitors and a little over 11,000 page views.

As for the top five posts May, it was a fascinating mixed bag: the real estate angle on food cart pods, some openings, closings … and Salad Week post from 2022 about where to get a big salad in Portland!

Thanks, as always, for reading and sharing stories from the blog.

5. Where to Get a Big Salad in Portland

The Hercules Salad at Garden Monsters food cart in Portland, Oregon.

Over the years, I’ve heard people ask, “So where can I get a big salad in Portland?” If they are a New York transplant, they are probably thinking of those chopped salad and panini spots that were (are?) ubiquitous in Midtown Manhattan. Or the kind of “Big Salad” referred to in Seinfeld. But really—sometimes you just want a big salad, no matter where you come from. 

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Top 5 Posts on Bridgetown Bites, April 2024

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“Meg, you’re really pushing it!” I say to myself about the delayed posting—almost to June—of the blog’s monthly top 5 posts roundup. Truth be told, traffic was affected a lot after the March 2024 adjustment in Google’s “Helpful Content Update,” and … well … it’s been a real bummer. So, it means devoting some time to re-strategize. Still, over 9,300 unique visitors made it here and generated just under 12,000 page views for the month.

I appreciate your reading, sharing, and enjoying the content here on Bridgetown Bites—many, many thanks. You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook, as well as X/twitter, and aforementioned re-strategizing will affect the social channels, too. Now, onto the top posts from April (plus some updates).

5. Get Ready for Fallow’s Restaurant, From the People Behind Bastion

A salad you might find on the menu at Fallows Restaurant.

The folks behind Bastion, a restaurant in Sellwood that shows you that food can be both healthy and delicious, are opening up a new restaurant, Fallow’s, just up the street in the old Relish Gastropub space. They will offer dinner service (Bastion closes at 4pm the days they are open). As a fan of Bastion, I’m pretty excited about this.

Update: They have launched a Kickstarter and it has a whole bunch of new information in it about the restaurant.

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Top 5 Posts on Bridgetown Bites, March 2024

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A lower-content month (unexpected disruptions) and the relatively recnet Google algorithmic changes finally hit the blog and there was less traffic in March than February. It happens. We saw about 14,000 page views generated by about 11,200 unique visitors—25% less traffic than last month. For those of you who visited, read, and shared, thank you so much!

Here’s to working on improvements. As for what was popular in March, it was restaurant and bar news, with an older post on the Silk Road in the Pearl popping up in the middle of the popular posts. Always interesting to see what the month presents.

5. Bar Loon To Open in the Old Sweet Hereafter Space

3326-se-belmont-portland-oregon

Folks were dismayed to learn that about the closing of Sweet Hereafter, a vegan bar on SE Belmont. But good news for those looking for new places, who like bars, and who dislike having storefronts empty for an extended time: Bar Loon is opening in this space. [Note: this post has been updated.]

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Top 5 Posts on Bridgetown Bites, February 2024

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Posting this in a “better late than never” approach, I’m happy to say that February 2024 was another good month on the blog with about 19,000 page views generated by over 14,500 unique visitors—and for a shorter month than January! As for what was popular, it was heavy on the bars, with a couple of eatery news stories. The opening of new places is always something fun to read about.

As always, thanks for reading, sharing, and sending tips!

5. Mokdong Gimbap to Open in Old Frog & Snail Space

Vegetable_gimbap

As you know from reading this blog, Frog & Snail closed earlier this year, ending easy access to crepes and the magnificent French onion meatball sub they were known for. But a new place is opening up there, Mokdong Gimbap, offering sushi and—you’d expect—especially gimbap.

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