We’re All Gonna Die! – Someday. First it’s bagged salads, now it is restaurant tomatoes, or so says an article on MSNBC.com. “Contaminated fresh tomatoes served in restaurants were the cause of a recent salmonella outbreak that sickened dozens of people in 21 states, health officials said Friday.” That will teach people to eat tomatoes out of season.
In case you missed it, the spinach contamination a few months back, was most likely caused by a wild boar that got into the field through a downed fence. Save yourself, eat wild bore!
Phil Stanford over at the Portland Tribune talked about this way back in the Summer of ’95, and now it looks like his story is coming true. From KGW (I’d link, but darned if I can find anything on the site), Yaws Top-Notch Burger is going to open once again, courtesy of Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders (bet you haven’t thought about them in a long time), and Gerry Frank from Meier and Frank. It is going to be located at 42nd and Sandy, just a few blocks from the original location. The new venture will be called Yaws Rock and Roll Cafe. For those who weren’t around Portland in the old days, Yaws was a Portland institution. Expect it to open next Spring. Note: It did open, but then closed a year later
I heard a rumor about his last week, now comes confirmation from Oregon Live: [link no longer valid]
“Last spring, when the Gotham Bldg Tavern financially bled to death, a big question loomed. What would happen to talented chef and co-owner Tommy Habetz, known for his powerful rustic cooking and impressive stints in New York with Italian-American food god Mario Batali and a pre-famous Bobby Flay. Habetz surprised diners when he decided to make pizza for five months at the wildly popular Apizza Scholls, and recently, he had seriously considered bailing from the restaurant world altogether.
Now comes another surprise: Habetz is the new executive chef at Meriwether’s, a big, attractive but mainstream restaurant at 2601 N.W. Vaughn St., known mostly for it’s stunning backyard garden filled with terraces, overhangs and a 12-seat fire pit.”
This is great news, as Meriwether’s is a nice space, and Habetz is a great cook. Can you say chicken liver ragu?
I knew I should have run with that story!
Speaking of The Oregonian, they mentioned this morning that Podnah’s, Rodney Muirhead’s barbecue at 14th and Prescot is finally going to open November 10th. Rodney is an expat of the original, much loved LOW BBQ, which was sold months ago. I’ve gotten lots of emails asking when the new joint was going to open. I’m glad he’s finally made it. One question looms large: will he be able to live up to the LOW reputation? time will tell. He’ll be open Tues-Sun 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Here’s an interesting ad that appeared this last week on Craigslist.
Chef needed to reinvent restaurant
Reply to: job-227118474@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-10-28, 5:05PM PDTRegional restaurant group seeks brilliant chef who wants to make a name for his/herself. Beautiful new, 70-seat restaurant wants to change direction to meet the needs of uber-upscale clientele. Get the credit you deserve, along with excellent compensation package and profit sharing. 5+ years experience with Italian/mediterranean cuisine is preferred. Confidentiality assured.
Uber-upscale. Hmm. Spelling errors theirs. Anyone care to guess?
Willamette Week set off a firestorm when they announced they are starting a new online feature, that’s not a blog (though they’ll be using the same blogging software that creates the content you are reading now), by which any would be writers out there can now submit stories directly into their website. For free. As in, we won’t pay you anything, but we’ll sell advertising!
But it ain’t a blog, dammit. It’s breaking news, cultural commentary, multimedia and other stuff done daily with the same attention to detail and rigor that you’re used to in the print WW. (Finally!)
And we’re inviting a handful of choice freelancers to have the option of posting on wweek.com too.
As it stands, it’s a no fee operation, it’s more a chance to have a larger audience view your writing and reporting on a more frequent basis. It’s also our way of covering topics that get short shrift in the print edition of WW. If the website starts attracting more ads and traffic then we may reevaluate the compensation question in the upcoming months.
As a person whose voice we already love and respect, we’d be excited to have you be part of our new daily WW. There’s no minimum time commitment or word length or anything. Just the promise that when WW gets you free tix to an amazing arts event, you consider posting a short live review later that night or the next morning.
It’s one thing to ask people to write for a blog… err site, that not for profit (such as PortlandFoodandDrink), but another thing entirely when you are a for profit corporation. The sad thing is, folks will take them up on it, WW will make money, and ‘try out’ new writers at no risk to their bottom line. Lynn over at Oregon Media Insiders broke the story, and the comments have been.. interesting. Now the Portland Mercury not-a-blog has picked it up further, and in Mercury blog tradition, the comments have been all over the place, including a tirade by Matthew Stadler – you may remember him as Gotham’s in-house writer. Good reading.
I remember that the second incarnation of Yaws was less than a success so I hope this one does better. Mmmm, fries with gravy, I can’t wait!
In regards to the WW “blog,” I think it’s a great opportunity to use it solely for self promotion. Every entry can be “I just posted about ____ on my blog.” If you want to have even more fun, use it as a forum to trash WW at every opportunity. If you’re not going to get paid at least have fun!
It will probably be moderated. I don’t think it’s any different than any multi-blog out there, like this one, if FD was to make some real cash off the site, or Slashfood, or a forum like Chowhound or eGullet, both of which make some money from their site. In college I worked for several publications I never got paid for. Hell, every paper out there has a letters to the editor section which is essentially free opinion writing. I don’t see why anyone would get their panties in a bind over it. No one has to submit for it.
Oooo, good thing Ken doesn’t read this site or I’d have to put up with a hissy fit tomorrow while preparing comida para dia de los muertos. LOW BBQ is NOT closed. It was purchased by Ken Gordon and is open every Tuesday night at Ken’s Place.
Are you sure about Tommy? I recently heard that he will rep for Mt Hood.
Tommy working for Mt. Hood would be Like Jordan playing for a White Sox AAA affiliate.
&0 seats restaurant in need of a redo:
My Guess is Gracie’s…or Three Degrees…
The compensation package sounds corporate enough to be attributed to a hotel.
Tommy Habetz:
Finally that someone got smart!
I can confirm that Mr. Habetz is indeed the new chef at Meriwhether’s. It came as sad news to me, although glad to see he has landed somewhere, the owners had no prior foodservice background and bought the old L’ baurge (sp) location after winning the lottery or something. They have gone through front of the house managers like water and Tommy is their 4th or 5th chef they have hired since opening (not counting the one they hired and fired before opening). I wish him well and maybe eating some of his wonderful food will wash the taste out of my mouth left after they opened.