Neighborhood Notes

World Cup Coffee in the Ecotrust Building will close its doors on Saturday. The company said that the Pearl location wasn't performing as well as its other stores. The lagging performance, along with other factors, led to the company's decision to close the store. World Cup's other locations will remain open, including its nearby store and roasting plant at NW 18th and Glisan. The Ecotrust Building is a prime location and you wouldn't expect it to remain empty for long—it's not, it's already leased! Laughing Planet has leased the space and will open a new café later this year. If you're not familiar with Laughing Planet, here's an excerpt from their website: "The Laughing Planet Café is a quick-service restaurant that serves nutritious fare in the form of tasty burritos (aka "PNDs" or "Portable Nutrition Devices"), bowls, soups, salads, smoothies, juices and home-made cookies. We are dedicated to making wholesome food a
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The Tribune has a nice list of new eateries that have opened over the last few months. Included on the list are a couple of our recent favorites, 50 Plates , which we've talked about, and D.O.C , which we'll dish about very soon.

The restaurant that caught my eye, and that the Mercury talked about in great detail, is Tastebud . Chef-owner Mark Doxter has sold his rustic baked goods at famers markets around Portland for several years. After many customer requests, he opened a dining room at 3220 SE Milwaukie.

I like his story because he's someone who didn't gain a name by working in great restaurants or with "star" chefs—he gained a reputation by selling high-quality products at the local farmers markets.

Tastebud (Brooklyn) is high on my list of new restaurants to try.

Here are the other restaurants mentioned: 50 Plates (Pearl District) Belly Timber (Sunnyside) D.O.C. (Concordia) Belly (King) Lincol
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Good Morning Northwesties—how would you like an authentic NY-style bagel for breakfast this morning? I'm having an everything bagel with plain cream cheese, thankyouverymuch . Shush! I'm not being mean—I get that this type of temptation is torture. Fortunately for all of us, Kettleman Bagel Company has opened its second location at 2314 NW Lovejoy. Bagel-icious goodness is just a short walk, bike or streetcar ride away. Why are you still here?     Kettleman offers an extensive menu of bagels, schmears and Lox. YUM!
  Other goodies include Stumptown coffee, WiFi, and a quiet patio. Hopefully they'll add bike parking soon.     There's also a large community table and other seating options inside. And, best of all, there's room for a line at the counter. You don't have to stand halfway in and halfway out the doorway, you can keep cool and wait inside.
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As we've mentioned ( here and here ), we're shifting gears and trying to ride our bikes more and use our gas-guzzler less. Because I am traffic-phobic, we've been doing rides on low-traffic streets and multi-use paths to build up my confidence. (Big thanks to Jonathan Maus at BikePortland.org and Michelle Poyourow at BTA for the hand-holding and advice!!!) This morning, feeling particularly ambitious, we biked to Sellwood via the Springwater Corridor . (Thanks to Jo Carter for inspiring us to try this route. She commutes from her home in Sellwood to her shop in the Pearl via this trail, and couldn't say enough good things about it.) Good gawd—I can't imagine a better start to any day. The air was crisp, the ride was scenic and the commuters were SMILING. How's that for a change of pace??? We got a lot of enthusiastic "good mornings!" and smiles as we made our way down the trail—this just doesn't happen in a car—it was totally nice, and so unex
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We've been hearing about this for a while from PDC.  It would be awesome to have Uwajimaya in Old Town/Chinatown.  I make periodic trips to the Beaverton store when I need authentic ingredients for Thai cooking.  The place is amazing and has cheap prices.  A store in OT/CT would be a huge draw, bringing in people from all over the city.  This project has the potential of being a real anchor to the area, drawing more businesses and people, and contributing hugely to the revitalization of OT/CT.

I hope Sockeye Development and the PDC can come to terms on this project.  It is extremely important and would have a huge impact on the neighborhood.

From The Oregonian : Prospects of an Asian superstore generates excitement among neighbors and business leaders Uwajimaya Inc., a Seattle-based group of Asian superstores famous for crammed shelves of produce, seafood, delicacies and sundries, is considering a new apt outpost in Portland's new
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The Portland Tribune does an excellent job of describing the realities of the restaurant business these days. Dealing with rising food and labor costs, and a clientele that is spending less creates a difficult balance for our local eateries. Changing ingredients (who would have known that the price of rice oil has almost doubled recently), removing less popular items from the menu, and offering lower priced happy hour fare are some of the ways restaurateurs lower costs while retaining customers. We're all feeling it these days. So when you go out think local and remember that restaurants are working hard to provide a quality product that will keep you coming back. From the Portland Tribune : At ¿Por Que No? taqueria on North Mississippi, Bryan Steelman will switch from rice oil to corn oil in a few weeks, hoping his homemade chips will turn out as light and crispy as they’ve always been. The reason? Rice oil, known to be a healthier and tastier alternative for coo
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Great heads-up from the Oregonian on shortcake offerings at the Portland Farmers Market .
The only thing better than fresh Oregon berries are free fresh Oregon berries -- especially paired with shortcake and topped with whipped cream.

On Thursday, June 19, head to the Eastbank Market for live music and free shortcake with a $5 minimum purchase at the market, plus a cooking demo from Mark Doxtader of Tastebud Farm, who will make a rustic strawberry-port pie in his wood-fired oven.

Get another free shortcake the following week on Thursday, June 26, at the Ecotrust market. Enjoy live music and a cooking demo by Alfred Popp of Popp Catering, who will make a berry meringue dessert.

We stopped in Silk for lunch today and were surprised to find a special $8 lunch menu. The menu had a note of gratitude at the bottom saying that Silk appreciates its customers. Nice, huh? The new menu features an impressive selection of noodles and grilled items. As good as it all looked, I opted for my usual stir fried noodles with chicken. They had me at peanut sauce. sigh. So, if you're looking for a delicious Vietnamese lunch that is under $10, definitely head over to Silk. They have wonderful food, consistently good service and nice digs. I wonder if other restaurants are creating lower priced menus and if it's enticing to diners? Silk 1012 NW Glisan Portland, OR 97209