Portland food news and views
Over the weekend, I learned about a new project called Landing Paper Planes. It is a nonprofit organization that was conceived to support a pay-what-you-can cafe supported by a fine dining restaurant. The organizers hope to open in the first quarter of 2025. I had a chance to chat over email with Jade Fenton, one of the founders, and here is what she told me.
Continue reading “Landing Paper Planes Will Bring a Pay-What-You-Can Cafe To Portland”Jubilee Hall’s grand opening is tomorrow. This new coffee house in east Portland been in soft opening mode and now they are ready to make it official with their grand opening! Stop by tomorrow, Saturday March 4 for a ribbon cutting at 10am. Door prizes and a raffle are happening as well as free drip coffee and chai all day. 12175 E Burnside Street, Portland
March is St. Joseph’s Day pastry month at Bella Italian Bakery. Many who know me are aware of my love of St. Joseph’s Day pastries—zeppoli and sfingi, which I first learned about from the Sicilian community in Astoria, Queens. So you can imagine my delight in seeing Bella Italian Bakery in Lents offering zeppoli all month long, not just on March 19 (St. Joseph Day). From the bakery: “Give us a call to pre-order (and it’s a good idea if you’re looking for a larger order of them). If we don’t have them available that day, we can probably arrange another day for you to pick-up!” Bottom line: yum. 9119 SE Woodstock Blvd, Portland
Madman Popup on Monday, March 7. Get your local Trini food on Monday from Madman Popup, who is popping up at Rangoon Bistro from 4pm to sold out. He’s making doubles (curried chickpeas), aloo pie (potato and curried chickpeas), and bake and shark (fried bread and skate wing). His food is delicious, so if you can check it out, do! 2311 SE 50th Avenue, Portland
Updates on the Doug Fir Lounge move. This week Jupiter Hotel sent a press release out (though it never made it to our inbox) confirming Doug Fir Lounge’s move. The Oregonian, Willamette Week, and Eater have additional info related to that.
We know that you will able to see shows at Doug Fir at its current location at 830 East Burnside until the end of the summer. Then they will move to the old Le Bistro Montage space at 304 SE Morrison. New to me: Live music will be their laser-focus, with little to do with food and drink. I was curious last week about what was going to happen in the vacated Jupiter space; Portland Business Journal via KGW wrote, “The [Jupiter] property is working with Urban Works Real Estate as it determines the next uses for the music venue and restaurant/bar above it.” There’s been some concern expressed online about accessibility with that Le Bistro Montage space, too, and it will be good to hear what the overall plans are regarding that and myriad other things, which should come out later this month.
Bonus: These crocheted spam musubi at Ohana Hawaiian Cafe on NE Sandy Blvd are freaking adorable. $10/each. 6320 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland
It was another strong month for the blog, with over 12,000 page views in February 2023. I’m delighted to see traffic still heading to this article about the My-O-My bar, a warm, cozy place where I took a break from the snow last week. Facebook was a huge referrer for the Three Fifty Cafe post—whose grand opening is this Friday, March 3 (stop in if you can!), delayed one week because of the snow. The story about the Heist food cart pod was at the top of the list, which I didn’t expect, but a broad range of referrers made it so.
Last Friday I broke the news about the Doug Fir Lounge moving later this year, and I’m grateful for the referrers—Eater, Willamette Week, and Reddit; @maccoinnich on Twitter shared the news, too. I saw the KOIN reported on it, too. It will be interesting to see how that all unfolds.
Thanks, as always, for reading!
5. The My-O-My Arrives on NE Sandy Blvd This Summer
Yesterday I published a speculative post about the old Rocky Butte Pub space on NE Sandy near 86th Ave. Fortunately, a reader tipped me off to what is actually going in there: the new place will be called the My-O-My ,”Your Favorite Bar East of 82nd.” The folks from the White Owl Social Club are behind it.
Continue reading “Top 5 Posts on Bridgetown Bites, February 2023”Bar Mame is coming to SE Hawthorne. Matthew Dooney, who has worked as a manager for McMenamins, and Nicole Nelson, an immigration attorney, are opening Bar Mame in SE Portland. It will be located on SE Hawthorne and 33rd Ave underneath The Hazel Room (looks like the Red Velvet Parlour was there for a while, but closed there late last year). Matt says, “I’m super excited (and of course terrified) to announce that we’ll be opening our own bar (Mame) on 33rd and Hawthorne. This has been a dream of mine for years and can’t wait to see how this comes into fruition.” 3279 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland
Barista (some of them) rebranding. A tipster told me that the Barista family cafes is changing up their name, but only for a couple of their locations. It’s the KOIN and Alberta locations that will be changing their name—initial research indicates “Enjoy Coffee LLC” is the corp behind them. These will be wholly owned by Billy Wilson; the Nob Hill and Pearl locations, which will remain Barista, will be under a partnership between Billy and Sortis (who owns the Barista brand).
Doug Fir Lounge will move a little to the southwest. Another tip that found its way to the Bridgetown Bites inbox is about Doug Fir Lounge—it will close at its current location, then move elsewhere this fall. And it seems that it will be reopening at the old Le Bistro Montage space—the new address on the documents filed with the state this year regarding Doug Fir is 301 SE Morrison Street. Look for a more official kind of announcement from the powers that be in March. And I’m seriously curious about what Jupiter NEXT will do with that space.
Free ice cream for a year. Nico’s is running a contest to win free ice cream for a year: “Beginning March 1st, make sure to buy all the half pints you can, because at some point in March, we will be putting a golden ticket inside one of our half pints (only sold at either of our two locations) and you will have the chance to win FREE ice cream for a year!” If you like to eat ice cream on the regular, this one is for you. Nico’s half pints can be found at various grocery stores in the Portland area, as well as his shops at 5713 NE Fremont Street and 1615 NE Killingsworth Street.
