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!
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.
The rare weekend post—I wanted to get this up before I forget. January 2024 on Bridgetown Bites was a good month: almost 12,000 unique visitors landed here and generated close to 16,000 page views. Here’s what you all enjoyed the most last month—the Sandy Jug got a lot of attention, in particular (it’s cool to see the before and after shots of the building further down this post).
As always, thanks for reading, sharing, and sending tips!
This morning I read an email from a Bridgetown Bites reader about a new food cart pod coming to NE Fremont Street. It will be in the old Barrett Automotive space there on the northeast corner of 44th Avenue.
Update: A new permit was set-up on February 13, 2024 with this description: “Request for dedication to be waived or contingent upon removal of existing building on NE 44th.” A “dedication” is explained on the Portland city website as so: “As part of a development permit or land use application, the landowner may be required to grant an easement to the City for public right-of-way purposes. This is often referred to as a ‘dedication.’”
We are comfortably into January 2024 and it’s time to take a look back at 2023’s most-read posts on Bridgetown Bites. They mostly involved openings and closings of restaurants and bars, but there was one article on an Asian market opening in SE Portland that made the list.
I’m happy to say that from an analytics POV, traffic almost doubled between 2022 and 2023 here on the blog. Regarding 2022 I said, “Over 55,000 visits were recorded, and almost 35,000 of those visits were new to the site.” In 2023 we had 106,000 unique visits, with 86,000 new to the site; these visitors generated almost 142,000 page views, too. Not too bad for this little independent blog.
I also read somewhere online that this blog skews toward NE Portland. That is a true statement. I also read in the same source that some readers would love to see more coverage of the west side of Portland. This is good feedback. will see what I can do about that, and diversifying geographically in general.
Thanks to all who have read, commented, sent tips (keep ’em coming!), and shared these articles/posts on social media and with friends. Here’s to another great year of delving into the Portland food world!
When I was at dinner the other night, my friends who live in St. Johns said “a Korean restaurant has finally opened in our neighborhood.” Of course, my interest was piqued so I asked more questions. The restaurant is Yuginong (or Yu Gi Nong), located in the space that was previously home to Sol Bowl and a Starbucks. They opened this past weekend.
Update: I hear only good things about Yuginong, with modifiers like “fresh,” “tasty,” and “very good.” I’m happy to know they are still going strong.
On the edge of the northeast corner of the Hollywood District lived Hot Lips Pizza. It closed back in March 2023 and a number of people expressed sadness about that. But according to city documents, a new pizzeria is opening in there: Fusion Curry Pizza. Update: They are open for business.
As I mentioned last week, I was off the blog for an extended time, but I still thought it would be interesting to see what was popular in April. Understandably, numbers were down but still there were about 9,500 page views and 6,500 unique visitors. Could be worse!
Some updates: Denizens Cafe is getting the old OG Ben & Esther’s space ready, and you can invest in them. Alux is up and running. Sandy O’s has applied for a liquor license. Locals have been posting about their love for the food and drink at Three Fifty Cafe and I enjoyed trying their food the other day. And The Heist is getting close to opening.
A few days ago, James Helms posted on social media the news that the Rocky Butte Espresso Bar, which closed in late 2022, has a new location … as well as a new concept and new name. Along with coffee there are plans for food, and a projected opening is unknown at this time. The new name is Denizens Cafe.
