After discontinuing regular dinner service in October 2018, Park Kitchen has officially closed the doors. There are few Portland restaurants which I’d call “icons”, but this was one of them. The restaurant was one of the first in Portland that I truly loved. In its heyday, the food coming out of the kitchen…

There are a few ramen places I frequent in Portland – Afuri and Marukin are my current favorites. But lately, I’ve been looking more on the west side. The best I’ve found as of this point is Kizuki ramen in Cedar Mill. If you are meeting people there, they may be confused by…

A few months ago, we were walking from the Max train to Syun Japanese Restaurant in downtown Hillsboro. Along the way, a bakery named Decadent Creations caught my eye. This was not unusual, every bakery catches my eye, and I filed this one away for a future visit. A month later I jumped…

The semifinalists were announced today for the 2019 29th annual James Beard Awards. Since many of you visit Seattle restaurants I have included them also. Best New Restaurant Canard, Portland Sawyer, Seattle Outstanding Baker Kim Boyce of Bakeshop Outstanding Bar Program Expatriate, Portland No Anchor, Seattle Outstanding Chef Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon, Portland…

A press release today brings notice of a second closure to hit the Portland beer scene. In late January Widmer Brothers closed their tap room which had been in business since 1996. Now comes news of the complete closure of Bridgeport operations. The last day of service will be March 10th. From the press…

In February of 2010, John Gorham, the owner of Toro Bravo announced he was opening a second restaurant called Tasty n Sons* in the old Nutshell space on North Williams Avenue. Yes, Nutshell, a short-lived and lousy vegan restaurant which had replaced the equally lousy Anju, an Asian Fusion noodle bar. Bonus points and…