bb.q Chicken celebrates 30 years. The folks from Korean fried chicken chain bb.q Chicken reached out to me to inform me that this September marks bb.q Chicken’s 30th anniversary. And not only that, it’s also the birthday of their beloved mascot, ChiBBoQ. To celebrate, they are rolling out a nationwide promotion: free delivery September 4 to 7 and free ddeok-bokki (one of the best street foods ever) September 8 to 12. 2850 SE 82nd Avenue #2 and 917 SW Alder Street, Portland
Mayor Millie will be there at this Saturday’s event!
A new cocktail bar from Kachka is coming this summer. The Portland Business Journal reports that Kachka will open a “full bar concept” in what was the Aimsir Distilling space. Aimsir closed in early January; you may be aware of the tension between them and Jade Rabbit, who are now operating on SE Belmont and 23rd.
Anyway, the article indicates that “[Owner Bonnie] Morales had already leased 2,100 square feet in the same building for a production facility. Half of that space was earmarked for distilling Kachka’s horseradish vodka. The vodka production started in the new space in February, Morales said. By taking over the Aimsir lease, Kachka is adding another 1,500 square feet, but more importantly, the space comes with a fully built out kitchen and distilling equipment.” No name for the bar yet, but I’ll keep an eye on it. 2117 NE Oregon Street, Portland
It’s almost that time—Valentine’s Day 2025 is right around the corner. Lots of places are doing special dinners and meals, and we’ve gathered them together here for you. And don’t let V-Day just be for romantic couples! Loving yourself and your friends is just as valid on this day of love.
These listings all take place on Valentine’s Day, Friday, February 14, unless otherwise indicated.
Welcome to our end-of-the-year roundup of top posts on Bridgetown Bites in 2024. Aside from our Thanksgiving article, the top posts were about openings and closings—restaurant, cafe, bar, and food cart news. And topping the list this year is a double-header: East Portland’s Wooden Chicken Pub! It if hadn’t been for this duo, the closing of 3 Doors Down would have taken spot number 10.
From an analytics POV, traffic had a healthy increase from 2023 to 2024. With 205,100 unique visitors up from 106,000 last year, that’s an increase of 93.3%. Page views were 142,000 last year and 265,000 this year, which is an 86.6% increase. I’m proud of the hard work that has gone into nurturing this site, and serving as a quality resource for those interested in Portland food news—all as an independent shop.
And while Bridgetown Bites is run by one person, our tipsters and readers who pass on news are invaluable to my work here, so thank you very much, friends! Additional thanks to all who read the site, comment, share articles, and send feedback. I look forward to continuing to bring you Portland food news and views in 2025.
So without further ado, here are the top 10 posts on Bridgetown Bites in 2024.
I know I sound like a broken record, but it’s always interesting to see what the top 5 posts are the most-read in any given month. In October it was restaurant openings, the bread festival, and our list of Thanksgiving in Portland options (which has been updated multiple times with new places to get pies, turkey, and more).
Also In October we saw over 22,000 unique visitors who generated close to 29,000 page views. That’s an increase of 17% and 26%, respectively, from the previous month.
As always, thanks for reading, sharing, commenting, and for your tips. And I hope you cast your vote by 8pm today!
Haitian food lovers, you have something to celebrate—TAPTAP Cuisine is opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant on NE Sandy Blvd. They operated on N WIlliams as a food truck with a nice (covered) outdoor seating area for many months, but now they have leveled up into a building where they can create, prepare, and offer their beautiful Haitian and Caribbean cuisine in NE Portland.
