Food News Showers

From the Desk of Cuisine Bonne Femme:

National Public Voodoo Donut
Two weeks ago everyone’s favorite road food trippers Jane and Michael Stern did a focus on Portland donut darlings Voodoo Donut. As everyone else does when they report on this unique Portland donutateur (or shall we call them a donutery?), the Sterns freaked out over Voodoo’s signature Bacon Maple Bars and vast vegan donut selection. You can listen to it in all its deep fried sugary glory here.

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The Splendid Table Goes Back to the Hebb Future
In case you really miss Michael Hebb the mastermind of Family Supper fame, and we know you do, you can listen to him wax poetic about his new Seattle venture One Pot on the NPR radio show The Splendid Table. Radio host Lynn Rosetta-Kasper sends reporter Julie Sabatier on the scene to uncover the (really, it seems quite retro at this point doesn’t it?) phenomena of “underground dining” in Seattle. You’ll get to listen to Michael introduce one of his underground One Pot dinners (“you’ll need to share the food” and “you only get one plate tonight” he admonishes diners), and Chef Morgon Brownlow talks about what the Spanish inspired menu for that evening was all about. Seattle, is lucky to have such a “cutting edge” concept in “underground” dining (cough-cough). You can listen Michael Hebb and the One Pot gang here. With this “underground restaurant concept” getting such huge non-underground attention we just hope the Seattle Health, Liquor License, and Business License Departments weren’t listening in as I’m sure they would be very interested in learning more about underground dining in Seattle too.

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Zilla Sake
Now open for business. NE 18th and Alberta St. We took a peek inside and it looks kind of cute and kind of funky, and very much fits in on NE Alberta Street. Promising a full bar, a decent variety sakes of course, and Japanese inspired tapas, we’ll stop by in a few days and keep you posted.

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More Mexican in North Portland
This as taken from a recent press release put out by the fine folks at Por Que No on N. Mississippi:
“There is a new restaurant joining our community, and it is Mexican! Can’t wait for it to open. I have not met the owners/chef yet, but the name of the restaurant is “Trebol” and I believe that the chef is the former sous chef at Higgins. It looks like they are close to being open, and will definitely be worth checking out. 4835 N. Albina Ave.” Sounds good to us. We love Por Que No, but their closet size space and long lines, we do not. It will be nice to have another option in the neighborhood if Por Que is too busy.

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Nighthawks Blogging at the Coffee Shop
In an incestuous display of round-about-Portland food blogging Allison Hallet from the Mercury laments the lack of coffee shops open at night, Nancy Rommelmann posts it adding her own commentary, and a bunch of other comments follow. Can Portland really support more late night coffee shops? It seems most coffee places make their money on the morning to-go trade and not on table hogging slow sipping bloggers like yours truly. I’ve taken up going to a couple of the more mellow bars, drinking coffee and tipping the bartender really well. Tiga on NE Prescott, Vendetta on N. Willams, Pix on N. Williams, Coffee Time on NW 21st next to Cinema 21, and the World Traveler’s Cafe on NE Broadway are but a few places I know that are good for writing and coffee drinking past 6PM. Anyone else out there have any ideas? Anyone out there want to open one?

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News from Food Dude

One of my regular walks takes me across the Broadway Bridge, down Interstate, and up Russell St. I’ve was watching the renovation of the building next door to Wonder Ballroom wondering if a restaurant was going to be moving in, but hadn’t made it by for a while. Now the liquor license is up, and most of the construction seems finished. The restaurant will be called Toro Bravo. A construction worker told me it would be Spanish. Seems like a strange location, but I wish them the best.

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From their PR people “Due to construction delays, Michael Bazzani’s Pinocchio Bar and Restaurant in downtown Portland’s cultural district won’t open as planned tonight, May 3. Michael and Chef Nelia are looking forward to an opening date of May 10th, for dinner. Lunch will follow a few weeks after. Pinocchio’s now has a phone number ~ 503-595-2227.”
They still have the same horrible website art.

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What? As mentioned in our forums this week, Clarklewis and Naomi Hebberoy have gone separate ways. Now a reader tells me Bruce Carey and company have replaced all the chairs! Has hell frozen over? Anyway, as we reported a few months ago, Naomi has plans to go into the space next door to Yakuzia over on NE 30th, also owned by Micah Camden. Don’t think she expected to be leaving CL quite this early, and when Nancy Rommelmann toured the space a month ago it wasn’t near ready. Guess they’ll be speeding up the timetable on the new restaurant.

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According to the Salt Lake City Tribune, a group of companies is trying to get our government to change the ‘definition’ of chocolate.

Would chocolate containing trans fats and sugar substitutes taste as sweet as the real thing? Hershey Co. and other candy makers say yes.
The Chocolate Manufacturers Association, whose members include Hershey, Nestle SA and Archer Daniels Midland Co., has a petition before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to redefine what constitutes chocolate. They want to make it without the required ingredients of cocoa butter and cocoa solids, using instead artificial sweeteners, milk substitutes and vegetable fats such as hydrogenated and trans fats.

”They are trying to pull one over on us,” said Cybele May, 40, publisher of CandyBlog, on which she has encouraged more than 200 people to write the FDA to protest what she calls ”mockolate.” ”What they are asking for is permission to confuse the consumer for what we readily accept as chocolate.”

I guess I’m just an old fashioned kinda guy, but I hope they don’t get away with this. You can read the whole article here.

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From a McMinnville reader: “It is official, Red Fox Bakery here in town is for sale. The owner’s mother is ill, etc. I have heard that they are asking $75K for lease and equipment, more for recipes, blue sky etc. I love having a good bakery in town. Unfortunately, Red Fox has so many issues, it hasn’t fit into the “good” category for a long time. Many of these problems stem from the current owners, who I think really are gifted bakers, but are shitty managers and have lousy people skills. This bakery could be a gold mine for someone. It is right next to the Hotel Oregon, we get lots of weekend wine traffic and people love to get their bread, pastries and coffee there. They could do a fabulous wedding cake business and a great wholesale and winery business, but they have pissed off a lot of wineries. Currently they offer a small lunch menu that is mostly sandwiches, that is another great outlet. I could go on and on.”

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Dish of the week: Not really a dish, but the best darn sandwich I’ve had in ages. Foster & Dobbs Mole Salami (seasoned with chili & chocolate) with a Mahon, Red Tomato & Chili Jam, and greens ~ $7.50. I made the mistake of taking a bite to hold me over until I got home. Ended up pulling over and devouring the entire thing. Top notch ingredients from the Pearl bread to the Salumi Salami, the chili jam giving it a sweet note against the spiciness of the salami. Just terrific. If you haven’t been there, Foster & Dobbs is a little boutique food store in NE at 15th and Brazee. Nice little selection of wines, great cheese, and enough little foodie temptations to keep you occupied for a while.

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The 2007 ‘Alt Weekly’ Awards finalists have been announced. Willamette week is up for three, two of which are food related. Zack Dundas for his article on coffee fanatics called “Bean Town, and Byron Beck’s Restaurant Guide”. The Portland Mercury’s Matt Davis is up for “There’s nothing finer than sharing a pig’s head with your loved one”, an interesting article that I had missed somehow. Congratulations to both, and good luck!

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Openings: Leather Storrs much heralded Rocket. Adam Sappington’s Country Cat is now open – we’ll try to get by this weekend for a quick hit.

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Blue Joe Coffee Company, a micro roaster based in Lake Oswego which may well be best known for having their logo on the sign out front of the Nob Hill Old Pharmacy Café at the corner of NW Glisan and NW 21st, led it slip to one of our writers recently they are now holding on site coffee cuppings with some of their fresh roastings at 10:45am each Wednesday. Blue Joe, located at 5775 SW Jean Rd, Ste 102, is in the back of a small office complex. Since space is small, they ask you call ahead at 503-636-2583 to confirm if a seat is available.

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If you haven’t done so, don’t forget to vote for your favorite fooku! The poll will close on Sunday.