• Home
    • About
      • Home
      • About the Site
      • The Authors
      • Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
      • Email me
    • Reviews
      • List of All Reviews
      • Best of Portland by year
        • Reader Survey: Best of Portland Food 2017
        • Best of Portland 2015
      • Steakhouse Roundup
        • Steakhouse Reviews Introduction
        • El Gaucho Steakhouse
        • Morton’s Steakhouse
        • Ringside Steakhouse
        • Ruth’s Chris
        • Steakhouse – Results
      • Product/Business Reviews
        • Retailer Reviews
        • Product Reviews
    • Topics
      • Food Writing
        • Alcohol Related
          • Beer
          • Wine
          • Spirits
        • April Fools Stories For Portland
        • Contests and Competition
        • Food Memories
        • Travel Writing
      • Authors / Book Reviews
      • Cheese information
      • Interviews: Honest dialog with people in the Portland food industry
      • Portland Food and Restaurant News and Discussion
      • Recipes
    • Guides
      • Guide to Portland coffee
        • Portland Coffee Guide
        • A Map of our favorite Portland coffeehouses
        • Reader Survey: Best Coffeehouses in Portland 2017
      • Guide to Local Wine Shops
      • Guide to Portland Bakeries
      • Guide to Portland Distilleries
      • Guide to Portland’s Beer Shops
    Portland Food and Drink

    Portland Food and Drink

    Restaurant News and Information For Portland Oregon Area Restaurants and Bars

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Send me email!

    A Holiday Buffet of Restaurant News

    By PDX Food Dude Last Update September 28, 2018 4 Comments

    Imperial by John Valls
    Imperial. Photo ©John Valls

    Do you like Stephen Tobolowsky, actor and writer of The Dangerous Animals Club? All the cool kids do, so I’m going to shamelessly promote a special Live Wire brunch at Bar Bar this Sunday. @Tobolowsky will be there along with Dana Gould, John Gorham, Liz Crain and the entire Live Wire cast and crew. Stephen has been in many movies, I guarantee you’ve seen his work. He is also writer/actor of The Tobolowsky Files Podcast which have made me think, laugh and cry (sometimes all at the same time if I’m chopping onions). His book, best read by him in audible form, was my favorite of 2012.


    In this new world of social media, it seems like restaurants which are not strongly proactive in promoting themselves don’t make it. This week, Eater wrote that SE restaurant Township & Range by Laurelhurst Theater co-owners Prescott Allen and Woody Wheeler has closed. The name didn’t ring a bell with me, so I checked the PR branch of this website – nothing. Nothing on the main site.

    I’m sure this won’t be the first place you hear this, but as a new business, you’d better be willing to jump into social media, find reasons to send out PR, etc. I can’t quantify how strongly I dislike Facebook, but I’m there. Twitter I enjoy, though I’d rather be reading a book. Anyway, though the food received lukewarm reviews, media could have been stronger at Township & Range. R.I.P.


    Luc Lac Vietnamese Kitchen will close for renovations from December 16th until about January 20th. During that time the owners will be “taking a trip to the motherland as our contractors put in some super-duper upgrades to our space”.


    Remember Ted Charak, one of the opening owners and bartenders at Teardrop Lounge? It turns out he moved to Saint Louis and has opened a restaurant/bar called Planter’s House. The local food magazine Feast gave it a big spread – it looks like a nice place. Good to see he has landed on is feet.


    Make what you want of this, but the restaurant guide Zagat sent me a note that The Painted Lady, technically in Newburg, is the Best Restaurant in Portland.

    “You’re in for a remarkable” evening (and the Portland area’s top-rated Food, Decor and Service) the “minute you step inside the picket fence” at this wine-country “jewel” set in a “romantic” Newberg Victorian, where the “world-class” Pacific NW tasting menus are “fascinating in their variety, seasonality and freshness”; “well-orchestrated” service and “fabulous” local vinos add to the “stellar” experience; P.S. rezzies required and closed Monday and Tuesday.

    This puts the restaurant in the same class as Uchi, Joël Robuchon, Le Bernardin, Gary Danko, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy The Painted Lady, and have eaten there several times, but this list points out the reason why we press should quit posting results like this. That’s why I’m not going to mention that Apizza Scholls made the USA Today list of best pizza in the US, ranking 14th in the nation.


    Feast Portland has announced that nearly 10,965 people attended the festival this year, raising more than $52,165 for charities. Next year, Feast will take place on September 18th-21, 2014.


    Oregon Live has the scoop on the new chef for Clyde Common. Momofuku alum Johnny Leach will be filling the vacancy left by outgoing chef Chris DiMinno. “Leach, who was born in Beaverton, brings a sterling resume back with him to Oregon, including a recent stint as chef de cuisine at Momofuku Má Pêche as well as earlier stops at Chang’s Momofuku Ko and at Mario Batali’s four-star Italian restaurant Del Posto.”

    Clyde Common has been in desperate need for some new blood, so this is great news.


    Oregon Live also posted “Breaking: Fogo de Chao plans Portland location in the former NikeTown space”. (Breaking!!! – makes it all that more important1). Fogo de Chao is a Brazilian churrascaria (Brazil Grill had better cinch up their belts), with locations across the USA, along with eight in Brazil. I dined at one in Southern California, and was surprised – pretty good. It’s no OX, but on the other hand, it probably won’t have a hour-and-a-half wait for a table. I know Brazilian food really well, so am looking forward to this one – and Brazilian food is the hot new thing. The restaurant will be downtown at SW Sixth Avenue and Salmon.

    1I need to come up with a good breathless buzz term – everyone else has one. Maybe “Holy Cow Batman!”?


    Finally, researchers have found a direct link in the public’s perception of how coffee tastes, and whether it has “Eco-Labeling”. From the journal PLOS ONE,

    Experiment 1 was designed to test whether participants tend to prefer the taste of, and be willing to pay a higher price for, ‘eco-friendly’ coffee in relation to ‘not eco-friendly’ coffee (even though the two cups of coffee they taste are objectively identical). A more specific hypothesis was that the tendency to demonstrate a preference for the ‘eco-friendly’ alternative would vary with the participants’ attitudes. Participants who report positive attitudes toward sustainable consumer behavior (i.e., buy eco-friendly products, pre-separate waste at source, and feel guilt when not buying eco-friendly alternatives) should be more biased toward the ‘eco-friendly’ alternative. Participants were requested to taste two separate cups of coffee. Unbeknownst to the participants, the two cups contained coffee from the exact same brew and brand. Before tasting, they were told (in lure) that one of the cups contained ‘eco-friendly’ coffee and that the other cup did not and they were told which of the two cups that contained the ‘eco-friendly’ alternative.

    The results showed a strong positive correlation between eco-friendly coffee and perception of taste.

    I’m shocked! Shocked, I tell you! Think what the results would have been if they had had a third cup, made from the beans that come out of a civet’s colon! (Ristretto Roasters never got back to me on my civet ranch idea, so that project is still on hold).

    Related

    Category: Portland Food and Restaurant News and Discussion. Related posts about Apizza Scholls Restaurant, Clyde Common Restaurant, Fogo de Chao Restaurant, Luc Lac Restaurant, The Painted Lady Restaurant. More about Johnny Leach.

    Previous Post: « “Eat with Security” a Whole New Level of Stupidity
    Next Post: Interview: Chef Jason French of Ned Ludd »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. RJ says

      December 11, 2013 at 8:48 am

      Ned? Ned Ryerson!?

      Reply
    2. Mary Sue says

      December 11, 2013 at 10:06 am

      I ate at Township and Range once and thought it was good (but not great enough to go back at the prices). The dining room was oddly shaped and echoing.

      Reply
    3. Jonathan Jenkins says

      December 11, 2013 at 1:01 pm

      I had some of Johnny Leach’s food at Ma Peche for a Riesling dinner. It was next level. Clyde Common couldn’t have made a smarter decision. Portland’s lucky he came back.

      Reply
    4. mczlaw says

      December 13, 2013 at 8:06 am

      Township & Range received a good deal of initial publicity right after opening. The problem I discovered after several meals is that the food was mediocre to lousy…desserts excepted. A predictable dropoff in patrons followed the rush of hopeful neighborhood types and explorers who kept it crowded during its first few weeks. The restaurant biz is ruthlessly Darwinian, social media presence or no.

      The breathless tone of new restaurant announcements, chef changes and even closures is new media at its tabloid finest. Understandable for Eater–that is its intended function–but just another unseemly loss of integrity at the daily via Mikey R. and the Keystone Cops that run the rag. The most telling Big O news, btw, was the WW piece disclosing that #2 goon, managing editor Peter Bhatia, was a finalist for the dean of journalism position at the University of Nebraska. Talk about rats jumping off a sinking ship…BREAKING…no hire yet @ ‘Husker U.!!!

      –mcz

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    © 2023 · PortlandFoodandDrink.com • See Terms of Service and Privacy Policy