You may have noticed that our blog isn’t written by just one author. We’ve been writing An Exploration of Portland Food and Drink for a while now, but we’re up to a lot of other things too.
Food Dude
Food Dude is a passionate guy – passionate about food, passionate about wine, and passionate about anonymity. He has a wide-range of food experience starting from growing up in a food obsessed family, working in the restaurant industry on both sides of the house, working in the wine industry, and traveling/tasting his way around the world. He also has a pretty good background in agriculture, and can back a bailer through one side of a barn and out the other without any problem.
While he’s a writer by trade, this site is a labor of love – Food Dude spends his own money reviewing restaurants and writing this site because he loves food and wants to share his experiences with others. Whether you agree or disagree, you can always count on his unbiased opinion. Use that as a general guide, but remember, everyone has their own palate.
Bernard Gehret and Eva Schmole
We love wine tasting and being the destination Portland, Oregon Wine Blog for all wine events in Portland, check every Thursday for the weekend wine tastings in Portland and other special wine events.
Bruce Bauer
Bruce Bauer has been helping fulfill people’s need for reasonably priced grape-based beverages at his wine store VINO (previously in the Sellwood neighborhood and now at 137 SE 28th Avenue) for the past 11+ years. He has been involved in all aspects of wine enabling including wholesaling and wine list consulting. He also hosts weekly tastings Friday evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays at VINO. In previous existences he has also co-owned two successful restaurants in Portland. He writes the popular wineguyworld blog, as well as ranting regularly on twitter about all manner of things. He has traveled extensively around the U.S. and various world destinations looking for new and exciting ways to satisfy his various appetites. He currently lives in SE Portland with his lovely, indulgent, and very understanding wife and his young son C-boy.
Catherine Cole
Catherine Cole wrote for Portland Food and Drink until relocating to San Francisco in fall 2010. Her work has also appeared in The Portland Mercury, OPB music, and Venus Zine. She currently writes for SFWeekly and can be contacted at catherine@ccole.info. She will love Portland forever.
Chris Angelus
Chris Angelus, devoted father of two sons and a Labradoodle, has owned and operated his own small ad agency for 18 years. He fell in love with Portland and the Oregon Coast after two life-changing summer-long cross country journeys with his boys. Chris relocated to Portland in 2005, and learned of the joys of eating at chef’s counters, wanting to share that experience with others. His idea of turning chef’s recommendations into unique food experiences spawned Portland Food Adventures, which has become a part of the Portland food culture in its three years of operation. In the process, Chris has blogged extensively about food and travel experiences and writes for About Face Magazine as its cuisine editor. Through those ventures, Chris has touched many in the Portland and food world, from the the city’s best chefs to the artisans to food lovers and bloggers. He is hoping to become more disciplined in touching the buttons on a treadmill. Listen to his Portland food podcast, Right at the Fork, or check out Portland Food Adventures.
Darryl Joannides
Darryl is the owner of cork • a bottle shop at 2901 NE Alberta Street, where he sells wine, beer, chocolate and olive oil and shares his passion for small, sustainable producers. Prior to starting cork in 2006, Darryl was the Chef/Owner of Assaggio, an Italian trattoria in the Sellwood neighborhood that was Willamette Week’s Restaurant of the Year in 1996 and received many accolades from local and national press during the 10 year period he and his wife ran the restaurant. As a chef, Darryl twice appeared on the Food Network and had a multi-page spread in Food & Wine Magazine all without ever winning a Quick Fire challenge! You can follow his regular musings on wine and food on Facebook or Twitter.
David Jenkins
David is the writer of the popular Haircut and Homily newsletter, where he takes a look at life growing up in a small town in Eastern Oregon.
Elizabeth Lopeman
Elizabeth Lopeman recently earned an M.A. in writing from Portland State. She writes book reviews and regular articles for Eugene Magazine and has contributed to various other local and regional publications. She’s also been known to write cd liner notes, web content, press releases, and of course her passion — fiction. You can read more about her at ElizabethLopeman.com
Guest Writers
These are guest authors who have volunteered to write an article or two. Their name is directly in the post. (Nowadays I give guest authors a complete bio, so if you are have been guest author and would like one with your links, please let me know and I’ll be happy to add you!)
Ken Collura
Ken Collura has been around the wine scene for many years. His bio is rather impressive: a syndicated columnist for over five years (printed on the east coast in Tampa and Richmond and in Taos, NM.,) and writes for the trade magazines Cheers (on the Editorial Advisory Board) and Sante on a regular basis. Prior to moving to Portland, he was head sommelier for nine years at the restaurant with the world’s largest wine list, Bern’s Steak House in Tampa, which carried over a half million bottles in stock. He is currently sommelier at Andina, the highly regarded Peruvian restaurant in Portland.
Joanna Miller
Joanna Miller has spent her life sampling as many different kinds of food as she could get her hands on. As the youngest of three kids, she was the “Mikey” of the family, always game to try “new foods”.
The enthusiasm of her parents waned, however, when they soon realized that this meant their stash of lox, pickled herring and unsweetened baking chocolate was not safe from their eight-year old daughter’s exploring hands (and mouth.)
Though her educational and professional background is in Film, Communications and commercial photo production, she has never forsaken her original love of good-tastin’ vittles. She is a weekly contributor to Sugar Savvy, a candy blog on carpe-cookie.com, (which includes her cookie blog, in addition to other writing samples, etc.). And when she’s not writing about candy and cookies, she bores her friends and family by offering unsolicited opinions and recommendations on recipes, specialty grocery stores, bakeries and restaurants.
Jonathan Jenkins
Jonathan Jenkins (you know, J.J.) has spent his adult life dedicated to food and wine (and other consumables). He is a freelance writer who lives in Northeast Portland.
Kevin Allman
I’m a writer, journalist, and the editor of The Gambit, the alt-weekly newspaper in New Orleans.
Journalism: My work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Globe & Mail (Canada), The Times- Picayune (New Orleans), The Oregonian, and Willamette Week, as well as in magazines including Details, Vogue, Publishers Weekly, and Portland Monthly.
Publishing: Tight Shot, my first novel, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Its sequel, Hot Shot, was roundly ignored by everyone, but was a far better book. I’m also a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
KM
KM as I will remain for the time being, had the luck to be born into an Italian kitchen to globe-trotting parents. From there, the foundation was set for a life of discovering the world through my nose and palate. I don’t have any professional experience with food. But I have absorbed some information here and there from the constant talk about food that went on among my elders and, importantly, from the outrage they easily expressed over bad ingredients, food that was too cold or not hot enough, overzealous seasonings and mismatched pairings. (Whatever the conversation was about, it was irretrievable once someone starting talking about food, as in “Did you try the melons this week?” or “I was in Parma last weekend and tried the culatello”)
And there was something about that image of the cook in Rio sorting through kernels of rice spread out on the kitchen table, one by one, that I observed as a child, making me understand cooking was a serious endeavor.
One of the saddest things to my mind is the thought of so many Americans eating processed food stuffs alone, separately from parents and siblings, away from the companionship of the dining table, not even knowing how the food grows or where it comes from. This is not a sign of a healthy culture, for body or mind. A healthy culture about food is starting to set down roots, though, and Portland is helping lead the way. I contribute to portlandfoodanddrink as a matter of home town pride, and to be part of the solution. I also have a personal blog, KM-Clear, which mostly focuses on cultural issues, sometimes as they relate to food.
Lizzy Caston
Lizzy, also known as Cuisine Bonne Femme, writes about the types of food she likes to cook the most; simple dishes based on the freshest ingredients and gently coaxed to bring out their best qualities. Things like roast chicken with crackling skin, meat stews, all kinds of soups, and anything on toast. You know, peasant food like your French/Southern/Thai/Lebanese Mother might make.
In her past she held many a food service job, from a high-end traditional Japanese restaurant to a grease-pit diner off of Interstate 5. And she claims to still have nasty case of espresso wrist from the 10 billion lattes she made during her barista years.
Lizzy has an educational background that includes food sciences and politics, and has been a past writer for both cultural and academic publications. She takes a big picture view of the role that all things gastronomic are having in shaping the economy, culture, identity, and ever changing food scene both here and elsewhere. She believes Portland is at a pivotal and creative time food wise, and is constantly amazed and surprised at the bounty our city has to offer. You can follow her Facebook page at facebook.com/lizzyc
Marshall Manning
My name is Marshall Manning, and I’m a wine geek. Forget those images of pocket protectors and taped up horn-rimmed glasses. And while I am a wine geek, I don’t carry an electronic Wine Spectator/Robert Parker guide into my favorite wine shops.
I’m hoping that I’ll be able to provide similar helpful information on wine. I’ve been drinking and studying wine now for nearly 20 years, and have been posting on online wine forums for over 10 years, and have developed a reputation (both locally and online) as an experienced, opinionated, and humorous wine geek. I’m not anonymous when I visit wine shops or restaurants, and many shops in town know me, and know my likes, dislikes, and foibles.
Michael Alberty
Michael Alberty is the owner of Storyteller Wine Company at 5511-B SW Hood Avenue in Portland’s Johns Landing neighborhood. He has been in the wine business in Illinois and Oregon for 12 years and has had previous incarnations in academia, baseball reporting and the espresso industry. He is proudest, however, of his time in the deli business, making sandwiches side-by-side with Dave Johnston of Yonder Mountain String band as well as his stint in the mid-1980s as the night barman at the Horsebrass Pub.
Storyteller Wine Company is open to the public on Fridays from 4PM until 9PM and on Saturdays from 10AM-7PM. We area also quite happy to accept appointments for other times in the week. Wine tastings are hosted in the store from 6-9PM on Friday and noon until 5PM on Saturday. Most of the action at Storyteller is to be found in the electronic newsletter that goes out twice a week to folks all over the United States.
Michael Charles
Bread baker, farmers market maven, and reluctant raconteur, with a laser-focus on fine food. These are the characteristics contributor Michael Charles brings to this blog. Mr. Charles is a Portland native who remembers Yaw’s, Mr. C’s Hippopotamus, and Henry Thiele’s. He likes to eat stinky cheese and almost all animal parts. Restaurants that don’t take reservations make him cranky, as do poor service, inadequate seasoning, and vegan pastries. His food-related passion extends to the works of the great food writers from Brillat-Savarin to Jeff Steingarten, both lawyers. By trade, Michael is a lawyer too. Coincidence? You decide.
Nancy Rommelmann
Nancy Rommelmann’s work appears in The Los Angeles Times, the LA Weekly, the New York Times Magazine, Bon Appetit and other publications. She is the author of several books of nonfiction, and is currently at work on a memoir. Some of her features and essays may be read at Nancy Rommelmann.com
Nino Marchetti
is a freelance food writer who covers the local food scene for a number of publications as a reoccurring contributor. His work has appeared in Northwest Palate, The Oregonian and PDX Magazine. He also wrote a weekly food column for a newspaper in the San Francisco Bay Area. More at Earth Techling.com
Paul Gerald
In his 10 years a travel writer, Paul has developed a theory that you can get to know a place from its breakfast tables. And since Portland is the most breakfast-crazed town he’s ever been in, he has written the definitive guide to Portland’s breakfast places – Breakfast in Bridgetown. He’s not a “foodie” so much as an observer of people and places, and a spinner of yarns — and really, that’s what breakfast is all about, right? He eagerly welcomes feedback on his writing and the places he visits, and he’s honored to be part of the Food Dude’s fine community.
Roger Porter
Roger Porter is a Professor of English at Reed College. He is the co-author of “A Food Lover’s Companion to Portland,” of “Self-Same Songs: Autobiographical Performances and Reflections,” and the forthcoming “Bureau of Missing Persons: Writing the Secret Lives of Fathers” (Cornell University Press). He has been a food writer and restaurant critic for Willamette Week and The Oregonian for 20 years, and was nominated for a James Beard award for best restaurant reviewing in the U.S.
Schlockstar
Schlockstar blogs about beer for us, but he also writes about Oregon history at LostOregon.org
Suds Sister
Suds Sister, a.k.a. Niki Ganong, is BJCP-trained and served on the tasting panel for The Beer Trials. A budding beer scholar and pilgrim, Suds Sister tirelessly seeks out beautiful combinations of four simple ingredients: barley, water, hops and yeast.
Tami Parr
The Pacific Northwest Cheese Project is a blog run by Tami Parr. I’ve always wanted a cheese writer, and prevailed upon Tami to bring some of her expertise to this site. She is the author of Artisan Cheese of the Pacific Northwest. I asked her to write a quick bio:
My family comes from a small farming community in southern Wisconsin. Growing up, I visited Wisconsin just about every summer and while there, spent a lot of time on my aunt and uncle’s dairy farm. Here I learned about the hard work that goes into creating the food that goes onto the dinner table, the relief of getting the milk check in the mail, and the joy of a good harvest.
In Wisconsin cheese is a way of life, much the same way salmon represents something essential about the Northwest….so perhaps some of my passion about cheese comes genetically. Mostly I’m fascinated by cheese as a living, breathing food and a complex intersection of animal, land and craft. This terroir, if you will, is what I’m exploring when I think about, taste, and write about cheese. In my blog Pacific Northwest Cheese Project, I focus exclusively on Northwest cheese and cheesemakers – here I hope to explore a wider range of cheese and cheese issues as well.
The earliest memory I have involving cheese occurred when I was about 5. A kid was riding his bicycle around our neighborhood with a silver packet in his hand – it was the packet of “cheese” from a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Look, he said, this cheese comes free inside the box of macaroni – as he gleefully poured bright orange handfuls of dried powder in the hands of anyone interested.
Toni Ketrenos
Toni Ketrenos is the beer and wine buyer for New Seasons Market, a locally owned chain of ten grocery stores based in Portland, Oregon.
Ketrenos’ love for wine began while studying abroad in Paris. When she returned, she worked part-time in an Oregon winery’s tasting room while completing her journalism degree from Linfield College. She was the first to write original news content for the internet in Oregon but when the dot-com she worked for failed, Ketrenos turned back to wine. After working crush at a Willamette Valley winery during the 1996 harvest, she turned in her reporter’s notebook for a corkscrew and entered the wine industry full time. She joined New Seasons Market as buyer in August 2001.
Ketrenos has earned her advanced certificate with distinction from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET), as well as the Certified Specialist of Wine certification from the Society of Wine Educators. She also enjoys judging for regional wine competitions including the Oregon State Fair, the Indie Festival and the NW Wine Summit. In pursuit of a deeper understanding of terroir, Ketrenos has traveled to many of her favorite regions, including Stellenbosch, Piedmont and the Languedoc, to see the soils and vines that yield her favorite wines.
When she’s not working, Ketrenos loves to garden, cook, knit and play games with her son. Her newest favorite spot for sipping wine is the deck of her Ranger 33’ (the Rhône Ranger), which she is currently learning to sail.
William T Campbell
I am a food person. A professional. I’ve been paying dues since I dropped out of high school at fifteen. I’ve washed your dishes, and catered your weddings. I’ve cooked your breakfasts, lunches and dinners (plus that meal that crave at two in morning for what ever reason). I’ve baked bread, and pastries. Made fine cakes, and peanut butter cookies. I’ve worked greasy spoons, supper clubs, fine dining, bars, bakeries and coffee shops. I’ve spent two years in school, done an internship and apprentice ship. But I have been in training since I learned to make Texas style chili when I was five. I love what I do.