Food and other edibles in Portland, OR
What you can expect to find at Rib City 29 Pub. Photo credit: Tim Cobb
This week I came across a new business opening in Portland called Rib City 29 Pub, located in the Parkrose neighborhood on NE Sandy Blvd. I’ve driven by this location many times and it’s always intrigued me. I’m glad to know what’s going on—here’s what I learned.
Continue reading “Rib City 29 Pub Is Coming to Parkrose”
I’m in the Hollywood District regularly and have been keeping my eye on the rebuilding of the Reo’s Ribs space, which has had the “opening soon” signs up all over it for months. Well, their Facebook page woke up this past weekend and posted “Opening soon…… 
REO’S RIBS WEBSITE NOW LIVE” with a new menu.
Photo credit: Homegrown Smoker
Homegrown Smoker, the beloved and trailblazing vegan barbecue spot in St. Johns, may have new life after all. It closed back in December; it was for sale; hopes were high for its return. Now, according to publicly-accessible city documents, it looks like a new person is involved, and is getting ready to re-open the restaurant at its most recent location in St. Johns.
Continue reading “New Life for Homegrown Smoker”Back on track and here with the news—here’s four things I learned this week.
Portland, Prince of Barbecue. Texas Monthly magazine proclaims it: Portland has the best Texas Barbecue scene outside of Texas. That’s pretty high praise. The article gives shout outs to Holy Trinity Barbecue, Mattâs BBQ, Podnahâs Pit Barbecue, Bark City BBQ, Bottoâs BBQ, and Bullard.
The Rock scoops Portland. This week we learned that Dwayne âThe Rockâ Johnson has purchased a stake in Salt & Straw, and has put together a couple new flavors for the holiday season “based on Johnsonâs âDwanta Clausâ character.” Here are the descriptions from Salt & Straw:
I Saw Mommy Kissing Dwanta Claus: We upgraded the classic kiss cookie with peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough and a milk chocolate caramel fudge swirl. Then we brought the naughty with rich whiskey ice cream.
The Rock’n Around the Christmas Tree: We hid one of Dwanta’s favorite “cheat day” gifts under the treeâgooey brownies made extra indulgent with buttery frosting. Pacific Northwest spruce ice cream gets decorated with raspberry jam and glacĂ© cherries, just like youâd find in fruitcake.
Peppermint Cocoa, Cinnamon Chai Spiced Eggnog (v), and Chocolate Gooey Brownie round out the holiday flavors this year.
Guide to Fish & Chips on the coast. Not really about Portland, but awesome just the same if you like fish & chips as much as I do (Bennett’s Fish Shack in WA is my overall fave in the PNW region), this is an exciting map of 14 fish & chips spots on the Oregon Coast from Jennifer Burns Bright. I know what I’ll be doing on the coast when I’m out there.
MasĂa’s Instagram woke up. New Spanish restaurant from Jose Chesa, MasĂa, published their first post on Instagram yesterday.
“Hello, friends! Weâre building and testing and cooking and getting ready to open very soon! In Spain a MasĂa is a rural home away from home, and weâre building our space in downtown Portland in that spirit: your Spanish home away from home here in Portland. A cozy and welcoming place to escape and enjoy all the very best flavors of Catalan cuisine with family and friends. Stay tuned!”
They’ll open on the ground floor of the upcoming Hyatt Centric hotel on SW Adler and 11th, hopefully in January 2020.
Here are another four things I learned this week in Portland food.
Columbia River Brewing Co. is making their barbecue more of a hook. Several months ago (truthfully, it might be more) Columbia River Brewing Co. in the Hollywood District (1728 NE 40th Avenue) started putting out a sandwich board in front of their entrance listing a wide variety of barbecued meat options. I asked them about it early on and they said they got a smoker and were taking advantage of it. This past weekend I noticed they had a new sign up on the northeast corner of Sandy and 40th Avenue with the words “Craft Beer & BBQ.”
You can get a great latte at Blend Coffee Lounge. On Sunday I was wandering around the Overlook neighborhood (with the aim of seeing the western end of N Kilingsworth Street; spoiler: it overlooks—get it?—the railroad tracks and what looks like the ports) and stopped in to Blend Coffee Lounge (2710 N Killingsworth Street) They made a gorgeous latte that tasted smooth and rich, with plenty of depth. The lounge part is super cute and stylish. What a gem in NoPo!
Gawd, she’s talking about those vegan cheeses again. This time it’s about what I wasn’t able to find—I was in New Seasons on 33rd Street in Concordia and looked for the two brands of vegan cheeses I’ve enjoyed—Miyoko’s and Treeline—and neither were to be found! For me, they are at the highest level of taste. There was plenty of Daiya and Chao but these spreadable cheeses I mention above are many levels of deliciousness above them. For now, I’ll do my supermarket vegan cheese shopping at WholeFoods until New Seasons ups their game. Also, where the heck do you buy a nut milk bag in this town?
Toum is magic sauce. This week, on the advice of a friend, I had dinner at Nicholas Restaurant (3223 NE Broadway) and ordered some kebabs, which were served with toum. Toum is a garlic sauce from the Middle East made with garlic, salt, olive oil and lemon juice. I’d had it once before in Queens but it was quite spicy and harsh in a way I don’t like, but the toum I had this week was smooth, garlicky, savory and fairly addictive. I was sad to when I got to the end of it. Looking forward to eating it again (and trying it at other spots around town).