Portland food news and views
My-O-My, which opened up in the Sumner neighborhood back in January 2023, has a new food cart on the back patio: Kona Kitchen. They offer Hawaiian food—from an ahi tuna poke bowl to kalua pork, teriyaki chicken to mac salad, and much more.
Continue reading “New Food Cart at Portland’s My-O-My: Kona Kitchen”Good chance: New food cart coming to My-O-My. I was by earlier this week and the bartender told me that they do have a new cart in mind, but could not reveal its name. Apparently the contract hadn’t been signed at that point. I’ve been keeping an eye on things on their Instagram to see if they have a name they can share. I’ll keep you updated. 8627 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland
Fremont Fest Marketplace is tomorrow. I usually just call it the Fremont Fest, but yeah—it’s happening tomorrow, Saturday, August 3 from 10am to 4pm. This year they have an 80s theme going on to celebrate the founding year of the Beaumont Business Association in 1984 (BBA produces the festival). “Wear those neon colors, get your shoulder pads out, and break out those leg warmers…” I’ll pass on the leg warmers in the middle of summer, but YMMV. Check out the vendors and more on the BBA website. NE Fremont Street from NE 42nd to NE 51st Avenues
Xin Ding Dumpling House on WW. Aaron Mesh at the Willamette Week wrote about Xin Ding Dumping House in downtown Portland. I loved reading about this place on the corner of SW Ash and 2nd with its Sichuan menu featuring dishes like XLB, fish in hot gravy, and dan dan noodles. Also enticing: “On Fridays and Saturdays, Xin Ding serves bao and bowls until 2am.” Love hearing about popular tasty late night spots in Portland. Definitely check out the article. 71 SW 2nd Avenue, Portland
Xiao Ye launches Summer Friday lunch service today. Today is the first day of “Summer Fridays” lunch service at Xiao Ye. They’ll offer their amazing eats from noon to 2:30pm for the last months of summer. “What to expect: a condensed menu with some of our dinner favorites AND a few special, lunch-only menu items & carafes of wine.” No reservations, walk-ins only and you put in your order at the counter. Xiao Ye made one of my favorite meals last year—highly recommended! 3832 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland
Stories you may have missed this week on Bridgetown Bites:
Capitol Is Closed + Historic Buildings on Broadway
The Wooden Chicken Pub Returns
Flour Bloom Has Closed, but Just for a Month
Lei Brilla Will Open in NW Portland
Also, the Chinese Festival is at Pioneer Courthouse Square is this weekend!
Apologies for the lack of posting this week—I had emergency eye stuff to attend to and it really threw me for a loop. Take care of your eyes, friends; your vision health is not something to neglect.
Chef Naomi Pomeroy has died. On this past Monday I was scrolling Instagram and saw this post from Portland Monthly. I was stunned—surely it was not true. But it was, it is, and it is a huge loss for her friends and family, loved ones, fans, and Portland’s restaurant and food world. Countless tributes have been posted, and much sadness and shock has been expressed.
The Benton County Sheriff’s Office reports that she “drowned shortly before 8:30pm on July 13 near river mile 132 in Corvallis about 100 yards upstream from the Mary’s River.” KATU reports that she was “pulled under the water and held by the paddle board leash. She was not wearing a life jacket and, unable to resurface, drowned.” Her body has been recovered.
I hope anyone who is reading this takes this awful tragedy to heart and chooses to wear a life jacket next time they’re floating on the river.
Read more about Naomi Pomeroy’s remarkable work, career, and influence in the world of food in this NY Times article (unlocked). I never met her, so I can’t speak personally about her, but I know she essentially changed the world—and many lives—with her work.
Indian food is coming to Argay. A Bridgetown Bites tipster alerted me to a new Indian restaurant opening up in that shopping center on NE Sandy Blvd and 139th Avenue (same center where the P-Town Pizza is opening). It’s called Best of India, and from what I can tell from when I peeked in the other day (I did not ask questions, as they were moving heavy things around), they are currently revamping the interior. Research as of today has not yielded much; I’ll look into it more next week. 13882 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland
Look at this cool map of Roseway. Illustrator Sunny Eckerle put together this sweet map of the Roseway neighborhood (she lives nearby), featuring some of the great eats you can find along NE Sandy Blvd and 82nd Ave, including Junior’s Roasted Coffee/Upright Beer Station, Denizens Cafe, the Sandy Jug, Fresh Love (who has a new vegetarian Muffuletta sandwich on the menu), Reeva and Pizzeria Otto, and the Mom & Pop Wine Shop. She also included Madison South’s The People’s Courts and Sumner’s My-O-My (she and I have a lighthearted agreement for joint custody of My-O-My and Roseway’s Cameo Cafe). Various
Belle Époque Pies opens in August. Pizza pop-up Belle Époque Pies will open their doors on Saturday, August 3 at 5pm at the 23rd and Alberta Food Cart Pod. “Join us for an afternoon of pizza and music with a wonderful acoustic performance by @caicedo_decia and a DJ set by mi hermano @_muertitos_.” They offer Sicilian/Detroit-style pies. 2231 NE Alberta Street, Portland
Stories you may have missed this week on Bridgetown Bites:
A Few Updates: Bobacat Teahouse, Pizza, and Greek Food
I thought I’d also tell you what festivals are coming up soon, listed on our Portland Area Cultural + Food Festivals page:
Fuji to Hood, Saturday, July 20, 2024 (Portland)
Portland Highland Games, Saturday, July 20, 2024 (Portland)
Four Days of Aloha Hawaiian Festival: Welcome Pāʻina, Thursday July 25, 2024 (Vancouver)
Sandy Jug to open this month. Over on Instagram, the Sandy Jug Tavern posted, “pushed back a week. hopefully this next weekend.” Sounds like they’ll be open not this weekend but the next, so that would be the weekend of January 26 (if you count Friday evening as part of the weekend). It’s exciting to think they’ll be open soon; I can’t wait to check it out. 7417 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland
Rescheduled collab between Nico’s and Pip’s. This crazy icy weather has thrown multiple monkey wrenches into multiple businesses this week, so the originally planned collab between Nico’s Ice Cream and Pip’s Original had to be postponed. They are attempting to do it this weekend: “We’ll be blending in Pip’s donuts into our vanilla base, then topping it with nutella, honey, and coconut flakes. We call it the Tropical Reggie Lee!” If you can, head to Nico’s Fremont location on Saturday, January 20 all day (noon to 9pm). 5713 NE Fremont Street, Portland
That “10 Places” bit on social. I’ve seen it mostly on Instagram, but people are sharing the 10 restaurants/small businesses they want to support after the ice recedes enough to get back out into the world. For me, I want to support the following:
If you have suggestions or favorite place you want to support, drop a comment.
Upcoming relevér popup. I recently came across the Instagram for relevér and have learned that the key element of the work of this popup is “spicy.” Last November their food was influenced by “Korean, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, French and Spanish cuisines.” This time, it’s …. TACO BELL? Yes, it sure looks like it. Whatever the inspiration, there will be food by Chef Han Ly Hwang of Kim Jong Grillin and natural wines by Chef Kyle Christy of Street Disco. Coming soon. 4144A SE 60th Avenue, Portland
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!
10. Yuginong Offers Gluten-Free Korean Fare in St. Johns
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.
Continue reading “Top Posts on Bridgetown Bites in 2023”