Portland food news and views
Black Water, an established local record label, performance venue, and vegan bar, is coming to Rose City Park. They will set up shop in the old Laurelwood Brewing pub space. This feels like a big deal, as locals have lamented the absence of a tenant in that location since the pub closed in 2023.
Continue reading “Black Water Will Bring Food, Drink, Music to NE Sandy Blvd in Portland”
Çoban Salata at Lokanta
Welcome to a new edition of Small Bites, filled with tidbits and short news items. I’ve felt a little distracted lately, so this post serves, in part, as a place to store recent Portland food news. First, we’ll start with closures.
Closing or Shuttered. It’s hard to say goodbye to quality restaurants in this town, but it happens. Already closed are Grain & Gristle, Rabbits Cafe Killingsworth, and previously reported Rockabilly Cafe. Lokanta is in process of closing.
Continue reading “Small Bites – Closings, Openings, Dumplings, and More”We’re back with four news tidbits in Portland-area food this week.
Happy in Happy Valley. Loved learning about this place for hand-stretched (and hand-cut) noodles in Happy Valley, Noodle Man.
Puffy pancake alert. The fluffy, puffy Japanese-style pancakes are available in Beaverton at La Rose Patisserie.
RIP Rip City Grill. Rip City Grill closed last Saturday 9/21 on SE Division at 60th. Good news, though: their truck and SW Waterfront cart are still in business.
Also closing: Laurelwood Brewing. The Sellwood-Moreland/Westmoreland location of Laurelwood Brewing is closing as well; their Sandy Blvd brewery will stay open. This weekend is the end of the road. It comes down to a hike in rent, something we will likely continue to see for some time and that could spell the end for restaurants throughout Portland. Competition will only get more intense.
Conventional wisdom says that the reason Portland’s food scene was able to flourish years ago was cheap rents and cheap land (property) prices. It’s not a surprise that those days are over, for the most part. Plus, some food carts will no doubt close because of new requirements re: cleanliness. Change—it’s the only constant.
