New Year, New List: Zusman’s Best Restaurants in Portland – and the Overrated Ones As Jerome J. Garcia and Robert C. Hunter once wrote, “The winter was so hard and cold, froze ten feet ‘neath the ground.” Portland’s darkest season made me want to flee or sleep, in turns. But at last Springy things are – Read more…
Castagna Restaurant
More James Beard 2017 Finalists
No idea why the James Beard Foundation broke the finalists for 2017 into two press releases, but it’s my fault for not wanting to sit through the long streaming announcement – there just wasn’t enough wine in the house. Here are a few more: Best Chef: Northwest Portland Nominees: Katy Millard of Coquine Restaurant. Justin – Read more…
Best Meals of 2016 – Michael Zusman
Worldwide: Best Meals of 2016 – Another Year of Eating Furiously Ah, 2016. Another 10 pounds around the middle after another year of eating furiously. Portland remains my home base, but airplanes fly, frequently with me on them. I’ve managed maybe 150,000 BIS (butt-in-seat) miles and more than a handful of delicious destinations. I’ll share – Read more…
Top 10 Portland Restaurants – September 2016
My Top 10 Portland Restaurants along with my next 15 for September 2016 This is the first update to my Top 10 Portland restaurants list since it was originally published in March. It’s the only local list that’s immune from p.r. and advertising pressures and is actually written by someone who’s lived in Portland forever, has been eating out – Read more…
Oregon Loses 2016 James Beard Awards
Oregon is shut out of the 2016 James Beard Awards Is the bloom off the rose? Perhaps Portland is experiencing some backlash after years of good press. Here are the final results out of the 20 original 2016 James Beard Awards nominations that we started with: Justin Woodward of Castagna restaurant, and Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez – Read more…
Portland Falls Short on 2016 James Beard Nominations
The James Beard Foundation is once again stretching their yearly awards program to get as much publicity as possible. A press release this week lists the 2016 finalists. Only three Portland authors/chefs/restaurants have been retained from the original list of 18 local semi-finalists. The winners will be announced on May 2nd. American Cooking Book Award Jackie and Adam – Read more…
Zusman’s Top 10 Portland Restaurants
Michael Zusman goes to restaurants far more than I am able to, so I asked if he would be interested in an ongoing Top Ten Portland Restaurants list for the home page of the website. Fortunately he was happy to help, sending me 25. FD] Originally, my Top 10 Portland restaurants list was something I – Read more…
2016 James Beard Foundation Semifinalists Announced
The James Beard Foundation has announced the 2016 restaurant and chef award semifinalists. As usual, a bunch of Portland places made the list. Of course there will only be a few winners by the time this shakes out, but what the heck, I’ll list them all, bolding the Oregon nominations. For those of you who only – Read more…