I'm firmly in the Portland camp of the Seattle vs. Portland catfights, but I was in Seattle this weekend and laid eyes on a place I'd only heard about in rumors that trickled down the train tracks to the Rose City. In the heart of one of Seattle's neighborhoods, there is a gourmet chocolate factory. Behind this chocolate factory is a dumpster. Saturday afternoon as the sun set, a friend and I made our way through the twilight, lifted up the lid of the dumpster and there, yes indeed, was a massive pile of chocolate shavings. Rooting through this pile of chocolate with our bare hands, we grabbed a few stacks of broken and rejected bars of solid dark organic chocolate, closed the lid and walked away much, much richer.

Does Portland have any dumpster that can compete? I've been to some fantastic dumpsters — mostly thanks to following around full-time dumpsterer the Holy Diver — but my best find here in PDX has been nothing more than two gingerbread house-making cookie kits behind our beloved Club 21. Unconfirmed dumpstering gossip abounds (cupcake stash on Belmont?) but no one I know is piping up about a dumpster to rival that of Seattle's chocolate factory.