Four Things I Learned This Week (December 23)

Welcome to a most frigid edition of FTILTW. I hope you are all staying safe and warm.

My-O-My bar to open January 2023. I got a message this week with a little more info on the opening of My-O-My, the new bar opening up in the old Rocky Butte Pub building (indeed it is past summer): “We are shooting for early January opening, but not sure on an exact date yet.” They will post about it when they have a more solid date and I’ll do my best to pass that on here on the blog. 8627 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland

Goodbye, FEAST. It appears that FEAST’s run is over. From an email this week: “In an interview with Karen Brooks at Portland Monthly Magazine today, I shared the news that our festival would not be returning—not in 2023 and not ever again. Such a message would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago, but a lot has changed since early 2020—both for our organization, and for the communities with which we are aligned.”

The article/interview at PoMo is worth a read, so head over there for more details. I only attended FEAST once, and that was as a volunteer. Real talk: it was too expensive for my budget (the less expensive events were always sold out very, very early on) to attend as a guest. I’m glad so many people enjoyed it over the years, though.

Rose Valley Creamery milk now at Fresh Love. I was happy to hear that Fresh Love is now carrying Rose Valley Creamery milk. I’m not sure how many of you reading know this, but I used to be involved with the raw milk community in NYC and drank a lot of unpasteurized milk for a half dozen years or so. I never got sick, but I understand how some recoil at the idea of drinking raw milk. It’s not for everyone.

A great alternative to raw milk is low-temp pasteurization, aka “low and slow.” Your milk is safe from bugs like listeria through the pasteurization process but a lot of the good stuff remains (nutrients, enzymes). It’s good for drinking, for yogurt making and cheese making; UHT milk is pretty much dead, for all intents and purposes. Rose Valley Creamery’s milk has a lot of pros: cream top/non-homogenized, organic, pastured, grass-fed/foraged. Head to their FAQ page for more info on their milk. 7434 NE Fremont Street, Portland

Ki’ikibáa open in the old La Parilla space. Back in November a kind Bridgetown Bites reader told me about Ki’ikibáa having opened in the old La Parilla Kitchen space, but I was under a deluge of editing around that time and it languished in my inbox. In that email he wrote, “I’ve only been able to taste a few of their Yucatan specialties, and was quite pleased and the owners are delightful.”

I was glad to see The Oregonian writing about this new Yucatecan spot, which you can read here. A key takeaway is that Manuel “Manny” Lopez of Angel Food & Fun fame is running things and people are pretty excited about that. A friend and I will be stopping by soon to check it out. 3244 NE 82nd Avenue, Portland

Sending each and every one of you peace and good will this holiday season! Happy Haunkkah, Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and lots of great health to us all!

Monster Smash to Open Second Cart at My-O-My Bar

Photo credit: Monster Smash

Yesterday as I was driving to my haircut, I saw the sign finally going up at My-O-My, the new bar opening up in the old Rocky Butte Pub space on NE Sandy Blvd near 87th Avenue. As you will see at the link above, the expectation was a summer 2022 opening, but gauging from their Instagram account, a winter 2022/23 opening looks to be in the works. And along with what I expect will be great drinks and good vibes, there will also be food—enter Monster Smash, home to quality smash burgers (and more).

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Top 5 Posts on Bridgetown Bites, July 2022

Data Analytics Chart

July was a month spent more or less in bizarro world for me because of stupid COVID, so real talk: I did not feel connected to the blog during that month as much as I usually am. So seeing the top posts for July 2022 feels a little like “it’s news to me.” But, nonetheless, it’s still fun to see what readers liked in particular—restaurant news, of course. It’s an interesting group of places. BTW, Bar Cala, Old Pal, and Sugar Hill are now open.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

5. The My-O-My Arrives on NE Sandy Blvd This Summer

my-o-my-bar-cocktails-sandy-blvd-portland-oregon

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.

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