The Ace Hotel and Powell’s Books are anchors of Portland life, and the anchors of this once very grungy, now on the border of rough edges to gentrified stretch of Central West Portland, where the main artery Burnside divides the Northwest and the Southwest. Between 10th and 11th Avenue, Powell’s is truly a city ofContinue reading “Monday’s Neighborhood: Central-West Burnside, Portland, Oregon”
Category Archives: Cities
Portland: The City of Coffee
I’m still wide awake a week later from all of the espresso I enjoyed when comparing one barista’s shot to another at a dozen different cafés across Portland. Seattle may receive the fame when it comes to coffee thanks to a certain empire with headquarters there. Seattle may also receive the fame because the cityContinue reading “Portland: The City of Coffee”
Rose City Eating Round Up
We have already covered the icons of dining in Portland– Gabriel Rucker’s gutsy, bold cooking at Le Pigeon’s, Andy Ricker’s eccentic, captivating Pok Pok, and the brilliant innovative Alpine cuisine of Chris Israel at Gruner. Later this week we’ll add a fourth for a quartet of icons courtesy of the Lyonnaise bistro that Lyon itselfContinue reading “Rose City Eating Round Up”
Two Innovative Portland Icons, Two Iconic Dishes
It’s hard to say what dish truly represents the eclectic nature of Portland, Oregon’s dining scene. It could be a bacon maple bar from Voodoo Doughnuts, an cult favorite long before bacon in desserts was in vogue. It could be a salmon dish prepared in the capable hands of Greg Higgins, quite possibly the fatherContinue reading “Two Innovative Portland Icons, Two Iconic Dishes”
Tasting Notes From The Willamette Valley
It was a spectacular Mother’s Day Sunday in the Willamette Valley, the Pinot noir heartland and all around world class destination wine region about an hour’s drive southwest of Portland. Yes, Pinot noir is the beloved grape of the region, as symbolic here as malbec is to Mendoza, Argentina or shiraz to Southeast Australia. TastingContinue reading “Tasting Notes From The Willamette Valley”
Tales of Seattle’s Cocktail Bars
Coffee by morning, beer by day, cocktails by night is how the drinking rolls in the Emerald City. Or so it seems with their impressive number of espresso baristas pulling top notch shots, mighty micro breweries such as Fremont and Schooner Exact providing refreshing and bold ales and lagers, and at night the cocktail shakersContinue reading “Tales of Seattle’s Cocktail Bars”
Cocktail of the Week: Ginger Rogers at Needle & Thread, Seattle
Make a reservation days in advance. Then arrive at the Capitol Hill gastropub and bar Tavern Law and find the hidden telephone to call upstairs. Climb the wooden stairs up to the secret parlor upstairs and you have arrived at the pinnacle of the Seattle cocktail world: the speakeasy of Tavern Law, known as NeedleContinue reading “Cocktail of the Week: Ginger Rogers at Needle & Thread, Seattle”
Restaurants: Le Pigeon, Portland, Oregon
Is the name of this exceptional bistro along East Burnside pronounced with a French accent to the pigeon or as a mash up between French to start and English to finish? It is not an important question, seeing that the reservationist who called to re-confirm used the latter and the waitress leading us to theContinue reading “Restaurants: Le Pigeon, Portland, Oregon”
Sleepless But Not Hungry In Seattle: The New Legends II: Almost There…
Continuing along from Sitka & Spruce to… Cascina Spinasse Up Capitol Hill from Sitka & Spruce, chef Jason Stratton is cooking some of the most intensely focused regional Italian cuisine anywhere, at his little slice of Piedmont, Cascina Spinasse. The bustling pair of dining rooms and adjoining bar and patio were filled on a strangelyContinue reading “Sleepless But Not Hungry In Seattle: The New Legends II: Almost There…”
Sleepless But Not Hungry In Seattle: The New Legends
Seattle is quite possibly the most unheralded dining city in the country. Most of the Pacific Northwest attention goes to that Rose City to the south and is never talked about in the same sentences as the big boys of the Northeast, California, New Orleans, and Chicago. In fact the most talked about Seattle restaurantContinue reading “Sleepless But Not Hungry In Seattle: The New Legends”
Trev's Bistro 