People love the Pacific Northwest and Portland’s restaurant and bar scene is a favorite for many. Up-and-coming restaurants and old Portland landmarks here in Portland.
The fact that we even have Bridgetown Comedy Festival today can be owed to comedian Matt Braunger (and co-founder, Andy Wood). Braunger, who was born and raised in northeast Portland, describes himself as “…a lightning-rod of awkwardness…” in one of his specials. His humor is grab-a-beer-with-a-friend relatable, and he bursts with energy on stage.
I arrived in this weird Pacific Northwest city back in the early 2000s, settling into a house in Portland’s then-undesirable Northeast neighborhood. I remember being pretty dismayed with the food options in the area, venturing out one night, determined to find a great restaurant nearby. Thankfully, I stumbled upon a dimly lit corner spot on Fremont Avenue, where the menu at Acadia pulled me in, full of seafood and Cajun spices, and I stayed for both dinner and dessert.
The Multnomah Whisk{e}y Library, the long awaited cocktail destination from Alan Davis of Produce Row Cafe, is everything you’ve heard it to be. The selection of over 1500 pours from around the world, handpicked by resident whisk(e)y expert, Tommy Klus, is breathtaking, lining a full wall six shelves high. A rolling ladder is used to access it all, bottles of every color and size flooded with a warm yellow light that draws your attention despite the beauty and detail of the entire room. Every gathering around a table is punctuated with plush and leather seating, couches and chairs, tall custom drink trays awaiting your next choice off the extensive menu.
Oh, those bartenders, those “mixologists”, the ones we write about, the ones we admire from the other side of the bar. They gather regularly, you know. It’s not all tips and ten-hour shifts. Sometimes in New Orleans, sometimes in Kansas City, sometimes in New York. One shining week a year in the heart of Stumptown.
It’s been great fun following the growing careers of Chicago chef Stephanie Izard and NYC’s Sarah Simmons. Izard, a Midwest native, has not only created a perpetually packed collection of goat-themed ventures, including Girl & The Goat and the Little Goat Diner…
Food and wine festivals can often feel like a Catch-22. On one hand, they’re an awesome way to showcase chefs and restaurants from across the country, drawing higher tourism numbers to a city perhaps lower on the radar. On the other hand, however, tickets for festival events are often unreasonably expensive, asking for hundreds of dollars per person for high-end dinners, and thousands of dollars for an all-access pass, making them feel unrealistic for the average food fan to attend.
On a random weekday evening, as I was flipping through the channels, I came across a showing of Austin City Limits, a grand performance series on PBS showcasing some of the finest musicians in the country. The episode featured a Seattle ensemble named The Head and the Heart, and with their stunning ACL studio performance, I was instantly a fan. Formed in 2009 thanks to an open-mic night at a local bar, the folky, heartfelt tunes from Josiah Johnson, Jonathan Russell, and Charity Rose Thielen are touching but not overwrought, detailing the universal struggles between the head and the heart.
![Blind Pilot / Oregon Symphony - Portland, Oregon [DAILYBLENDER.COM]](https://dailyblender.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/bp_10.jpg)
By the time the first few notes of “We Are The Tide” began to swirl…
I cannot think of a better week for the Bridgetown Comedy Festival to arrive. Portland will welcome heaps of comics of all varieties this weekend, at a time when it feels as though we could all really use a good laugh.
Chris Martin and Chris Phillips of IAMDYNAMITE were still kids when they met, fusing their musical talents together in a various assembly of southeastern Michigan bands before finally honing in on the two-man magic their current IAMDYNAMITE collaborations produce.
When I first went to Firehouse in North Portland, I was only in it for…