You know how most of you vote with your dollars when picking a place to eat or drink? Well, now’s the time to vote with your VOTE, and we’re especially looking at you, service industry people. We know—and you know—that the industry suffers from political apathy for some reason (I haven’t forgotten you, my 2010 co-workers who said voting was a waste of time when then-gubernatorial candidate and now-outed Kavabro, Chris Dudley, was working with industry special interests to lower your own minimum wage—and it wasn’t just hosts and servers, but owner-chefs, too). But this year, it’s different. We are, in the words of the formerly worst president (I know, he’s still bad), going through some “pretty weird shit.” Punch a Nazi, boycott the O, but whatever you do, vote! I want you to vote, Oprah wants you to, and so does the Mercury, which has provided you with a Cliff Notes cheat sheet on how to get the best representatives who’ll hold accountable all these weird shitters for their quite deliberate and intentional cruelty.
Okay, on to some light housekeeping! Here are some things you should know about.
Tickets are on sale for Indie Chef Week (November 15 to 18). Vitaly Paley is throwing an all-you-can-eat beefsteak dinner ($99.95) on November 9 at Imperial. His Headwaters restaurant is also selling tickets to the Portland’s annual Beaujolais Wine Festival on November 16. Acadia’s bringing back its gumbo flights weekend on November 17 and 18. Also, on the 18th, Departure’s Gregory Gourdet is hosting his second “Haiti in My Heart dinner ($90). North Mississippi’s Quaintrelle is now offering a seasonal chef’s menu. Beast will offer casual four-course dinners on Tuesdays come December. The owner of Bowery Bagels lent his hand to help resurrect the recently shuttered food cart Bundy’s Bagels.
Okay, on to the news!
This week, the Mercury reported that Keena Tallman’s food cart-born nut-buttered and fruit-jammed burgers and sandwiches are back. Her new—and first—PBJ's Grilled brick and mortar is open for hand foods, beer, and cocktails at 611 NW 13th.
The person behind the proto-Portland Food and Drink blog was the first to report that Roost, the once popular brunch and dinner spot on SE Belmont, has gone dark. Days later, PoMo broke the news that Farm Spirit, the plant-based multi-course supper club is moving into it.
Speaking of everybody’s favorite glossy, the magazine also reported that BJ Smith is transforming his SE Morrison barbecue joint, Smokehouse Tavern, and turning it into Delores, an homage to his recently departed mother, featuring a bunch of the Polish dishes she fed him as a boy, as well as a bunch of globally inspired dishes and stoner desserts. And that ain’t all. The magazine also let us all know that on December 19, famed Spanish dessert maestro, Albert Adrià, is putting on a talk and demonstration at the Caitlin Gable as part of the school’s MeetheChef series.
The O reported that a group of food cart enthusiasts are prosing to make the blocks between Director Park and Bryant Square a “culinary corridor” full of, what else, food carts. As Brett Burmeister, perhaps this town’s enthusiest food cart enthusiast, says in the story, when a development claims 55 lunch spots, it also claims 55 small businesses.
Willamette Week dropped by Avid Cider in the Pearl and found, overall, that a “decent slice [of pizza] and some fruity booze is the key to most people's hearts”—but warns to stick with the toppings you know and skip those that you don’t (they’re looking at you, cider-braised pork pie on a chipotle-tomato sauce).
The Portland Tribune had the most enraging food story of the week, namely the Portland Clean Energy Initiative campaign (food tax stuff) had to rescind the opposition endorsements of two Portland restaurateurs, Eva Liu (Kings Omelets Restaurant) and Harry Lal (manager of Spice Kitchen), for the campaign’s Measure 26-301 after the measure’s wording was explained to them in their respective native tongues. Nice, right? And just yesterday, this very maddening and stupid thing happened. Boo. (Also, don’t boo. VOTE! It’s super easy! And sexy.)
Finally, Eater reported a bunch of news, including the news that Spice Thai Kitchen is opening in the old Baan Thai space down by PSU; that the couple behind Aalto Lounge are opening a new cocktail bar called Wonderly in the Beaumont-Wilshire neighborhood; that the couple behind a Cena are opening a New York-style pizza joint called Sunny’s Pizza right next door to their Sellwood digs; and that Maya Lovelace, she of the fried fried chicken pop-up Mae and the yet-to-open Yonder, is throwing a series of Korean fried chicken pop-ups at Dame, Mae’s current pop-up home base.
