Remember a couple of weeks back when Nancy Rommelmann, freelance journalist and spouse of Ristretto Roasters owner Din Johnson, counseled MeToo survivors to “move on” via a bunch of YouTube videos? Well, on Monday, she commandeered the coffee company’s Twitter account to settle scores with Heart Coffee (for blocking them) and a former employee (for calling her behavior out). As the Mercury noted, the tweets have since been deleted, and Rommelmann has fessed up as said tweeter (“Believe me, our media guy is not happy.”), but the damage had already been done, as, per the O, New Seasons has stopped carrying the Ristretto’s roasts—even though the grocer wouldn’t quite say as much.
What else? Our drinks writer guides you through a few new watering holes that recently popped up around town, and just in time for you Sober January/Party February types. And our food critic dropped by La Neta, the new Old Town Mexican restaurant that scores as many hits as it does misses. She wrote, “Ask yourself: Are you the kind of person who is okay paying $9 for chips and salsa? Does that answer change if the chips are freshly made, and the tamarind salsa is a sweet and spicy mashup so unique and delectable, it should be bottled and sold in stores? Are you okay with dining in what essentially feels like the extension of a hotel lobby? Does that answer change if it’s the coolest lobby in town, bursting with modern design, jewel-toned couches, and brass chandeliers?” It turns out she is that kind of person, but wrote that, so far, things have yet to hit their stride.
Oh! And our very own Alex Z scored a scoop on the junk food beat when she noticed that the 7-11 on SW Taylor and 4th has tuned its outdoor radio dial from classical music to a high-pitched noise to…keep homeless people from loitering. The building’s owner, Standard Insurance Company, explained it away to KGW by saying the sound was introduced to address the problems of “public drug use and menacing behavior.” Today, the whistle has gone silent. Oh, and Alex just politely declined to let Fox News use video that documented the noise because who knows what this propaganda outlet would use it for? (We know.)
This week, the O rounded up the best of the area’s barbecue food carts west of the city, from Beaverton to Lake Oswego. Don’t sleep on these smoked meats. The paper also reported that its favorite (or second favorite) barbecue cart, Bark City BBQ, will say so long to its NoPo home and will bring its pickled avocados and banana milkshakes to new SE digs at the Hawthorne Asylum pod at Madison and 11th.
PoMo had the news that Peter Cat, the “food and vinyl pop-up” from the folks behind SE Belmont’s Nodoguro, has found a permanent home for its “Japanese cafe by day and vinyl jazz salon by night” in the neighboring space just vacated by Accanto. The glossy also published a pretty inspiring piece about Portland’s once-rowdy and now “zero proof” sober chefs that’s well worth the click.
Willamette Week reported that right-wingers appear to have vandalized Cider Riot on SE Hawthorne, likely because the owner is Jewish, the pub is a “safe space,” or because it’s hosting a “Rock Against Fascism” music show this weekend, because apparently we deserve the dumbest timeline where “against fascism” is triggering to a small group the whitest of snowflakes who, coincidentally, don’t even live in the city.
Last but never least, Eater had the news that Wonderly, the new craft cocktail bar from the owners of the Aalto Lounge, will start serving up drinks, Scotch eggs, and steak frites up on Fremont this afternoon. The site also reported that SF’s build-your-own mac and cheese shop, Mac’d, opened a to-go shop this week on SE McLoughlin; that a pair of Teardrop Lounge alums are opening their own cocktail bar, Revenant, up on NW Thurman; and that health-forward Moberi will take over the old Rachel’s Ginger Beer spot on SE Hawthorne. The site also reported that the deli Chop Butchery will leave NW’s City Market for its own space in St. Johns, and that BORC, formerly Saffron Colonial, has rebranded as Fika, a Swedish-inspired tea bar and cafe.