In what feels a little like a shock to the Portland’s restaurant system, three restaurants/bars have announced closings in the last week: Bar Asha, Zula, and XO Bar. Honestly, I cover closings throughout the year but this seems like a lot.
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.
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, is almost upon us! It’s the start of the High Holy Days, and a joyful time punctuated with delicious food and drink, celebrated by Jews around the world, from the US, to Argentina, to Ethiopia. And while in Portland we’ve lost a number of Jewish food outlets over the past few years—e.g., Kenny & Zuke’s, Kornblatt’s, Sweet Lorraine’s, and the one that still crushes me, the modern Jewish deli and market Beetroot—there are still some great options. Here are places that both Jews and gentiles can go to enjoy the foods of the holiday.
Rosh Hashanah starts after sundown on Wednesday, October 2, 2024 and lasts until nightfall on October 4, 2024.
Wonderlove is open (partially). This is good news—the SE Portland food cart/bar/entertainment venue Wonderlove is open! A post on Instagram about a week ago goes like this:
“So excited to partially open! 11am-7pm. The first stage of our amazing journey starts now with opening (a few )of our fantastic food carts! And that’s not all—we’re also serving adult beverages out of the Wondercat Pizza Cart! Stay tuned because the Wonderlove Bar is the second act, and it’s coming soon!” 262 SE Main Street, Portland
The original oatmeal pecan raisin cookie that started it all. Photo credit: Nate’s Oatmeal Cookies
A new bakery, focusing on the world of oatmeal cookies, will open tomorrow, June 7 on SE Belmont and 33rd. Nate’s Oatmeal Cookies will offer a number of variations on this American staple of a baked good—and is a kind of “pandemic success story,” if you will.