Halloween 2024: Food and Drink in Portland

This is a vintage Jack O'Lantern.

Spooky season is upon us! Halloween 2024 in Portland offers plenty of things to do: decorate your home, trick-or-treat, tour a haunted house, go to a costume party. But for us, we are focused on the spooky food and drink treats for this time of the year. There’s plenty out there to enjoy, too!

I’ll continue to update this post over the month of October as new treats make themselves known.

Caseus Diem

Through the end of October, Caseus Diem presents the Boo-Brie: President-brand Brie with Divina sour cherry spread for $13.

3320 SE Division Street, Portland. Caseus Diem website.

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Treats for Halloween 2022 in Portland

Who here wants to ride in a watermelon vehicle driven by a pumpkin?

Halloween is almost upon us! And while October 31 is the apex of “spooky season,” it pretty much starts the “sweet season,” with candy for trick-or-treaters, themed baked goods, and pumpkin everywhere. Check out some of the local treats you can claim to make your holiday delicious.

Bee’s Cakes. Bee’s is offering a Halloween pastry box, with items like eyeball cupcakes, “cookies and scream” cake slices, and a vampire-killer brioche buns. Pre-order until Tuesday October 25 at the link on the website. “We will have some of these items in store, but to make sure you get what you want please pre order!“ beescustomcakes.com, 7137 NE Fremont Street, Portland

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Four Things I Learned This Week (April 1)

It’s Poisson d’Avril today. Sure, it’s April Fools’ Day today in America, but in France (via Portland) it’s April Fish (Poisson d’Avril) Day. Over at Pix Patisserie‘s Pix-O-Matic vending machine you can get your chocolate and paper versions of April Fish 24/7, while they last. The chocolate fish are found all over France on this day each year and the trick part of the deal comes with children slapping unsuspecting adults on the back with a paper fish and yelling, “Poisson d’Avril!” while running away. No doubt the chocolate fish at Pix are going to be seriously delicious. 2225 E Burnside Street, Portland

10th Annual Greekster at The Side Yard Farm. The good folks at Cully’s Side Yard Farm are hosting a Greek Easter feast on Sunday, April 24—the day of Orthodox Easter. It will be an AYCE (all you can eat) affair on site, and in a very short time tickets sold out. But there is a takeout option for those who still want to enjoy the food. The meal includes a whole bunch of things including spanakopita and tiropita, pastitio, a Greek village salad, souvlaki, and baklava. Find more details, here. 4800 NE Simpson Street, Portland

Cheesemonger Sam from Cowbell wins gold. Great news from Cowbell: “Many of you will recognize Sam from behind the counter in our shop, and from wholesale sales calls and deliveries. We’re thrilled to say Sam brought home the gold earlier this month at the Cheesemonger Invitational in San Francisco—a national competition among the best cheesemongers in the country!” Big congrats, Sam! This is a fantastic achievement. 231 SE Alder Street, Portland

Support Nam Phuong Market. Roseway’s Nam Phuong Market, a wonderful Asian/Vietnamese market, was attacked this week by two people destroying their big picture window. I have no confirmation as the reason why they did it. From a neighbor: “The owners are very nice and they do not deserve this!! I always fill up on my condiments there. They also have a wonderful meat selection and lots of veggies!” You can see the two dudes breaking the front window via a security video posted over on Reddit. This really stinks and I hope you can stop by and support Nam Phuong Market with a purchase. 6834 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland

Valentine’s Day 2022 in Portland

Love Valentine's Day Holiday Valentine Cookies

If you can believe it, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner—three weeks from today. A number of places in Portland are offering special prix fixe dinners, some are preparing to-go meal boxes, and pre-order sweets are being prepared by bakeries around town.

Unless otherwise specified, these meals are available only on February 14, and getting your reservation set sooner that later is recommended. Unfortunately, weather (see: 2021) and COVID can thwart things, so please double check the place you want to celebrate at before you head out.

Menu details are included where available. We will update this list as new information becomes available.

Restaurant Meals

Bar Casa Vale
Four-course prix-fixe menu—three courses of tapas plus dessert. $75 per person.
Reservations via OpenTable. 215 SE 9th Avenue, Ste 109, Portland

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La Fête du Macaron is Almost Upon Us

Photo credit: Pix Patisserie

If you’re like me, Thanksgiving food is on your mind this week. And while turkey (roasted or deep fried?), cranberry sauce (canned or homemade?), and pie (pumpkin or pecan?) are easy to obsess about, for a change of pace consider the French macaron—and La Fête du Macaron at Pix Patisserie that starts on Thanksgiving day and lasts through the weekend. I’ve had Pix’s macarons and can say with assurance that they are some of the best in Portland.

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