Boke Bowl’s lamb dumplings. Photo credit: The Oregonian
Dumpling Week 2025 is almost here! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now: Dumpling Week is one of the best food weeks in Portland. This is the 11th year that The Oregonian has put it together, and it takes place from Friday, February 7 to Saturday, February 15.
Welcome to our end-of-the-year roundup of top posts on Bridgetown Bites in 2024. Aside from our Thanksgiving article, the top posts were about openings and closings—restaurant, cafe, bar, and food cart news. And topping the list this year is a double-header: East Portland’s Wooden Chicken Pub! It if hadn’t been for this duo, the closing of 3 Doors Down would have taken spot number 10.
From an analytics POV, traffic had a healthy increase from 2023 to 2024. With 205,100 unique visitors up from 106,000 last year, that’s an increase of 93.3%. Page views were 142,000 last year and 265,000 this year, which is an 86.6% increase. I’m proud of the hard work that has gone into nurturing this site, and serving as a quality resource for those interested in Portland food news—all as an independent shop.
And while Bridgetown Bites is run by one person, our tipsters and readers who pass on news are invaluable to my work here, so thank you very much, friends! Additional thanks to all who read the site, comment, share articles, and send feedback. I look forward to continuing to bring you Portland food news and views in 2025.
So without further ado, here are the top 10 posts on Bridgetown Bites in 2024.
This year I ate at a variety of places—some fancy, some more modest. But they all served me excellent, tasty, wonderful food. Here are my favorite bites in Portland in 2024.
Bison Coffeehouse: Cafe Latte
Located in Cully on Cully Blvd, this is one of two Native-owned cafes in Portland (the other being All Your Heart Coffee in South Portland). I was there for a meeting with a neighbor and ordered a latte. One of the things I was offered by the barista was a choice of espresso roasts, and I chose a medium roast—this meant the Shoshone Blend, a coffee bean from Honduras medium-roasted by Native Coffee Traders. It was lovely, with notes of chocolate and nuts; plus expertly streamed milk. This is one of the best lattes I’ve had all year. 3941 NE Cully Blvd, Portland. Bison Coffeehouse website
The other day—actually, it was on my birthday—I stopped in at Northport in the Kenton neighborhood in North Portland. I was eager to check it out, as I’d been following the progress of the restaurant for many months. An early July media tasting had to be postponed, so I caught up with them a couple weeks later, for a nice solo lunch.
Note: This meal was comped but opinions are my own.
This month I have better news than last month’s: we almost doubled our traffic in June. Over 17,000 unique visitors made it over to Bridgetown Bites, and they generated over 21,000 page views (vs 8,800 and 11,000, respectively). The strategies I put into place made a difference.
Top posts in June are mostly about restaurants (and a future food cart pod), but strawberry shortcake certainly grabbed attention. And why not? It’s delicious and wholesome.
A always, thanks to all who visited, read, and shared stories on Bridgetown Bites!
Earlier this week a Bridgetown Bites tipster emailed me news that Ole Frijole, located on the northwest corner of Killingsworth and NE 42nd Ave, has closed. They wrote, “My neighbor mentioned that she just read a sweet message to customers posted on their door saying that they closed and the property has been sold.” Looks like the closure was one month ago on May 4.