Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema, recently paid a visit to Portland, and has nothing but raves about our food scene.
On the face of it, Portland, Ore., shouldn’t be one of the best places in the country to dine.
Unlike New Orleans or San Francisco or Chicago, Portland doesn’t claim any classic dishes. The ethnic presence in this city of nearly 600,000 people is small. Fancy destination restaurants tend to go against the cultural (read: casual) grain of the populace. As Karen Brooks, a longtime observer of the food scene here, puts it: “There are no Thomas Kellers out here, and there’s not going to be. The money doesn’t exist here.”
Food carts are mentioned in passing, but Tom turns his focus to three of the current press darlings: Grüner, Laurelhurst Market and Pok Pok. Nothing particularly interesting here, but still a nice article, and good for our tourist industry.
One strange quote – “Another plus for chefs and customers alike: Unlike so many cities, Portland boasts fairly easy access to real estate. “If you have an idea here, you just grab a storefront,” says Brooks”. I guess location, landlords, financing, etc. are not an issue in Portland.
I was going to go downtown and grab a storefront earlier today but I didn’t want to miss the Ducks game. Maybe next week.
Once gain, the typical uninformed Karen Brooks bullshit. Why this person is still considered a credible authority on food and the restaurant business is beyond me.
“Portland boasts fairly easy access to real estate. “If you have an idea here, you just grab a storefront,” says Brooks”. I guess location, landlords, financing, etc. are not an issue in Portland.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Seriously, are ya kidding me?? I know folks looking for space around town and having a helluva time finding it, folks who know what they’re doing, too. Wow.
If this is the same Tom Sietsema who used to write for the San Francisco Chronicle, perhaps it’s his Bay Area background showing. It probably is easier to “grab a storefront” here than it is in SF.
Seriously it seems like the only restaurants that get any media attention in this town are those sanctioned by Karen Brooks…yea we all know about Pok Pok at this point and we all know how much she loves Andy Ricker. It’s Thai street food, somebody could just as easily take the food from any non American region and bring it to Portland and be considered a great chef. I think its time for the other 50 or so restaurants in this town with talented chefs to get a bit of attention.
Unlike New Orleans or San Francisco or Chicago, Portland doesn’t claim any classic dishes. The ethnic presence in this city of nearly 600,000 people is small. Fancy destination restaurants tend to go against the cultural (read: casual) grain of the populace. As Karen Brooks, a longtime observer of the food scene here, puts it: “There are no Thomas Kellers out here, and there’s not going to be. The money doesn’t exist here.”
big time BS, karen!
I saw Karen Brooks being interviewed at a taping of Live Wire last weekend, and she made the same point about easy access to real estate, only in this case she was speaking about the food cart scene. Perhaps in her head she’s having trouble distinguishing between carts and buildings?
It’s ALL real estate whether it be buying a cart and placing it in a rented pod space, leasing a warehouse, renting office space, buying into a coop on the river to tie up your floating home, buying a condo or single-family home, or leasing a restaurant space in a building. It’s ALL tied together and interrelated as various components of the real estate market.
I would say out of the places I’ve gone and had food in our cities in the states, Portland by far has some the best variety and tasty dishes. We might not have professional market of named chefs but we do have our own brand of food here.