From Leslie Cole’s twitter @lesliecole1 via @grantbutler, Season 4 of Chefs A’ Field (PBS) to feature Vitaly Paley of Paley’s Place, Phillipe Boulot of The Heathman & Mac Club, and two Oregon farms. More info on the show here, and the OPB schedule here. (Those little “@” mean something to people on Twitter)
Stumptown Coffee was featured in Diners Journal today. The condensed version, someone in NYC finally likes it.
Burgerville is adding a bicycle drive-thru to each of its restaurants. They expect to have all their signage up by this Friday, September 19th. I think that’s just… cool.
Tour de Crepes has closed. It will be replaced by Suzette, run by Jehnee Raines. You may remember Jehnee from Nancy Rommelmann’s interview back in 2006:
“Before Jehnee Rains became a pastry chef, she was a painter, and to hear the thirtysomething Portland native tell it, the enthusiasms are the same: a fascination with color, with texture; a curiosity as to how elements might work together, and a character that finds inspiration in something as perfectly simple as a peach. After more than a decade in the Bay Area, many of those years as pastry chef at Chez Panisse and Quince, Rains launched her local career last summer at Gotham Building Tavern…”
From Jehnee:
Bonjour Suzette!
Suzette is a new creperie opening on Alberta St. Jehnee Rains is taking over the Tour de Crepes space, expanding the menu and the hours to 9 am 9 pm Wednesday through Sunday. In addition to sweet and savory crepes sold morning, noon, and night, we will be making scones and french almond teacakes, ice cream cones, and desserts.
Our dining room is an historic dairy carriage house, with lovely patio.
All the cooking is done in our kitchen behind the carriage house, in an airstream trailer. Come to the window to order, then relax and have a glass of Champagne, wine, or beer while we prepare your order.Friday night is film night, and for Sunday brunch we have an accordian player, carriying us back to the streets of Paris!
Jehnee has been making desserts for 15 years, much of it in the Bay Area at institutions such as Chez Panisse and Quince. Here in Portland she has been pastry chef for Ripe, Bluehour, and Clarklewis, all restaurants that work closely with local farmers.
Suzette sources ingredients locally and organically when possible, recycles, composts, and will grow our own veggies and flowers in our backyard garden starting next spring!
Grand Opening is Thursday, September 24th, last Thursday!, opening at 4 pm.
2921 NE Alberta St. between 29th and 30th
Jehnee is one of my favorite pastry chefs, and I look forward to her restaurant opening late this month.
For those who complain I never cover anything Beaverton, Salar’s Mediterranean Grill has opened on Cornell road in a new building a block or two east of Murray Blvd. It’s an expensive building, but the restaurant appears to be locally owned. Food is Middle-Eastern/Mediterranean. According to their website, the food is an “Old-world-style lamb, beef and chicken kebabs, along with fish and Cornish game hens are the mainstay, with 25 entrees on the dinner menu. Lunch items are under $10, dinners around $15. Desserts include homemade baklava, ice cream and rice pudding. They serve beer and wine, as well as coffee and black and herb teas and soft drinks.”
Anyone been?
It’s getting closer: an Ashland co-op has stopped selling bottle water. From the Southern Oregon Ashland Tribune:
“Citing waste of energy and resources, high cost and health concerns, the Ashland Food Co-op on Wednesday will stop selling bottled water in single-use plastic containers.”
This comes on the heels of an entire town in Australia banning bottled water.
“Stores will sell reusable bottles to be filled from filtered water fountains in the town, instead of commercially bottled water being trucked in. The local community and businesses overwhelmingly support the idea, said Huw Kingston, who is spearheading the initiative.”
Couldn’t come soon enough for me, and it’s oh so Portland!
Grüner, Chris Israel’s new venture is still on track for a November opening. As we discussed back in an July, Gruener will be an “Alpine Themed Restaurant at SW 12th and Alder”.
On the heels of “Localwashing”, here’s one that will push the hot-buttons: “For Your Health, Froot Loops”. According to the NY Times,
A new food-labeling campaign called Smart Choices, backed by most of the nation’s largest food manufacturers, is “designed to help shoppers easily identify smarter food and beverage choices.”The green checkmark label that is starting to show up on store shelves will appear on hundreds of packages, including — to the surprise of many nutritionists — sugar-laden cereals like Cocoa Krispies and Froot Loops.”
Sigh.
Wine Down on NE 28th expects to move at the end of this year. The landlord is not renewing their lease, so he can open his own restaurant. Sad, as the owner doesn’t know what he’s going to do, and has a severely disabled child with cerebral palsy. My heart goes out to him.
Speaking of restaurants thinking about moving, Little Red Bike may be doing the same thing in 2010. While they would “ideally love to take over an existing restaurant space rather than have to build one out from scratch”, they aren’t sure if they will find one. According to
owners Ali and Evan,
“while I would love more than anything to be able to continue to operate in our own neighborhood, and to continue to serve our amazing clientele whom have been so supportive towards us these past two years, ultimately we will try to put ourselves in a position which will offer us the best security to be able to continue to do what we love best, learning to cook food that people enjoy eat/trying to make people happy through food.”
They stress that “They have no desire to leave their current neighborhood”, but may not have a choice. If you have a good spot, you might drop by the excellent cafe (I ate there yesterday), and let them know.
A quick aside, Jack Yoss, formerly of Ten 01, is spending Christmas in Paris. I now officially dislike him, and will consider removing all mention of him on this site!
Yes, that’s a joke. Sort of.
I’m sure everyone knows, but Palomino Restaurant in the Pearl District has closed. Is it a cursed spot? Short answer, no, just the wrong restaurants with lousy food. It’s too big a space and too expensive for a local restaurant, but I bet a Cheese Cake Factory would do great there. Just sayin’. Speaking of closures, the same company, Restaurants Unlimited, also closed the Stanford’s down in Riverplace, and Kincaid’s (formerly Portland Steak & Chop House, in the old Multnomah Hotel downtown). Hat tip to Djonn for the information – I didn’t even know the Chop House had changed names.
There are several chefs in Portland who are battling major health issues. I’m not going to say who they are, but send some positive vibes out there. They could really use the good thoughts. Terrific people.
Latest rumor: Tommy and Nick of Bunk, are looking for a space to open “Bunk Bar“. Last I heard, they were trying to get a space across the street from clarklewis.
Based of website valuation and Google Page Rank, Cellarer.com has rated this site as #32 out of the top 500 food sites. I’m not too sure about their methods, but considering the competition, I’m kind of proud. (link no longer valid)
I spotted a “bottle-your-own” dispenser in Food Front this afternoon, but didn’t stop to check it out further. Wouldn’t surprise me if they stopped selling bottled water. Heck, for all I know they already have.
WHAT?? Stanford’s at Riverplace closed???? Oh, wait, I don’t care. Can’t wait to get my crepe on at Suzette. And big ups for the cellarer.com rating. Well deserved. Keep the appetite inducing news coming!
anyone know about Cafe Cubano on North Lombard near LBR? No one ever seems to be there, I ate there a while ago and have had zero urge to return. Maybe it could be an option for LBR? Or maybe I am grasping at straws?
Sorry to be a nit picker but Salar’s is technically in Portland and not Beaverton so you still need to work on your Beaverton presence.
I’d be happy to make a small donation but you didn’t give any information on how to make one.
Bad Gary, no biscuit.
If we’re really going to be technical about it, Salar’s is in unincorporated Washington County. It’s well outside the Portland city limits, and slightly north of Beaverton’s. Beaverton periodically makes noises about annexing various parts of the Cedar Mill area; so far none of them have actually stuck, but it’s likely that some time down the road Beaverton will, in fact, expand to cover parts of the Cedar Hills and Cedar Mill areas that are not presently incorporated.
The confusion arises because the ZIP codes in that part of unincorporated Washington County have been designated as “Portland” ZIP codes, and for many years were serviced out of the Portland post office jurisdiction. Nowadays even that has been changing — when my parents put mail on “vacation hold”, they now pick it up from a postal distribution center that’s technically in Hillsboro (out in the Tanasbourne area) — but the “Portland” mail designation has continued to stick.
Actually, I thought Gary was correct, but then I did some checking too. It seems that Los Angeles has been quietly buying up small tracts of land all over the northwest, with very long term goal of making Beaverton an area that would give them room for growth. ;)
Gary, there is a Donate box on the right side of the front page. Any and all are appreciated.
I’ll give you that Salar’s isn’t in Portland Proper but but the same analysis it isn’t in Beaverton proper either so technically I’m still correct that the review wasn’t Beaverton establishment so give me the damn biscuit. :-)
Thanks for the donate info, I’ll make a donation.
“There are several chefs in Portland who are battling major health issues. I’m not going to say who they are, but send some positive vibes out there. They could really use the good thoughts. Terrific people.”
As someone who faced a life threatening illness in March, I’d like to send out all my love and support to fellow chefs going through medical problems. This business is tough enough without having to deal with health issues. Get well!