Before we get to the news, some announcements! Jackrabbit has a new executive chef (Brett Uniss) who’s put in time in the kitchens of The French Laundry, Per Se, and José Andrés’ é. Disjecta’s first Culinaria dinner goes down on October 6 at the contemporary arts space with the folks who run the burners at Smallwares. Representatives from NYC’s Momofuku announced that they’re traveling to Sisters’ Suttle Lodge for a three-course Christmas Eve meal (tickets are just $80). If you’re looking for a weekend getaway, head out to wine country, specifically to Abbey Road Farm, which is throwing an open house called Silobration that will feature food, live music, craft classes, a 16-team cornhole tournament. and naturally, plenty of wine tasting. Finally: To celebrate National Coffee Day, Coava Coffee and Car2Go are teaming up to showcase car sharing services and quality roasts. Head over to its SW Jefferson store, show your barista the app and treat yourself to a free drink. Post a photo of that drink on social media with the hashtag #car2goperk and you’ll be entered into a contest to win $100 worth of Car2Go driving credit.
Okay, on to the news!
Man, representatives of Portland’s food media were busy bees this week—and that includes us! We were the first to report that N Williams’ Life of Pie pizzeria fired up its wood fired oven over on NW 23rd, and we thought we were the first to report on the recent opening of the new Avid cider bar in the Pearl—until we realized just before publication that Brewpublic beat us to it. We also examined the burgeoning Kachka/Kachinka mini-empire and came away with the takeaway that we’re blessed to have both, but that the new, bigger and improved Kachka is the better place for big celebrations, while Kachinka, its sassier sister, is still the better go-to happy hour and late night spot. Finally, we paid multiple visits to Blackheart, the new punk bar where it’s brunch all day long. Think chicken and waffles and jello shots. Is brunch punk, though? “What is more punk-as-fuck than breakfast for dinner? Its baseline contradiction aggressively flaunts centuries if not millennia of tradition, and calling it ‘brunch’ is a perfect middle finger to polite society. Especially because Blackheart is very good at brunch. And not some fancy new twist on brunch, but an honest-to-god traditional brunch menu.”
The folks at the Oregonian were also very busy. The paper <a href=”https://www.oregonlive.com/expo/news/erry-2018/09/91f3f682793797/former-owner-of-poor-
richards.html#incart_river_index”>reported on the passing of “Hal” Hulbert, the man behind the Old Portland restaurant Poor Richards, which opened in 1959. It wrote about the impending closure of Beaverton Bakery, which has been in the game since 1925. It reported that the Bark City BBQ food cart makes some of this city’s best smoked meats (which is also why it’s one of the paper’s best carts of 2018). Also, making the list? @La’s food cart, which is the Pacific Northwest’s sole purveyor or Hmong cuisine. Finally, the paper informed us that ground beef contaminated with a deadly strain of Coloradan e. coli has crossed the Oregon border, so if you buy your ground beef at Safeway or Sam’s Club, you may wanna take note.
PoMo paid a visit to Woodblock Chocolate Manufactory and reported back that chocolate maker Charley Wheelock is a consummate chocolate ambassador and a charismatic real-life Willy Wonka—you know, minus the child abuse. It also mused why any Portlanders would ever pine for an In-N-Out now that we have Micah Camden’s Super Deluxe, and it wondered whether Camden, a known chain-maker, might initiate a West Coast burger war.
And Eater had a very busy week, too. The eagle-eyed website noticed a statement by chef Andy Ricker via Instagram that he’s taking ownership of Humdinger’s Drive-In on SW Barbur where he’ll install a new version of Pok Pok Wing, focusing on (you guessed it) wings, the restaurant’s flagship dish. It reported that Outrage, a new gamer bar, is open on SW 4th; that Moberi, the bicycling-juicer is breaking in its brick-and-mortar digs up on NW 23rd; that MILK + T, a California-based boba shop will start selling teas in Beaverton; and that a mysterious restaurant called Jinx, will take over the old Cup & Saucer space on Killingsworth following the recent closure of two of its three cafes (there’s still a version over on Hawthorne).