Food & Drink

At most farmers markets, you bring your own bags. At Gresham Farmer's Market, you bring your own bugs.

If you do the Portland Creep (someone please choreograph this, Thriller style) and make it out to the Gresham Farmers Market, you'll need some insects.

You'll be glad you did when you find yourself in front of Sarracenia NW, a stand devoted to carnivorous plants. The owner is Jeff "Snake" Dallas, a long-time employee of the Portland Outdoor School. As his second calling—because, let's get real, no money goes into outdoor school these days—he sells Venus flytraps and bladderworts. 

The bugs will come in handy if you want a demonstration. You will want a demonstration. Unfortunately, the stand doesn't keep a supply. But, if you've got your own kitchen fly in a zip-lock, they'll be more than happy to feed their hungry, hungry greenery. 

Besides your bugs, Gresham offers the chance to bring dogs. While most farmers markets ask that you leave your Chihuahua to shiver at home, the Gresham market is known as the four-leg-friendliest market in the area, provided you keep "head and tail ends" away from produce. (Their words, not mine.)

The market certainly caters to the dogs. Besides those vendors like Kiss My Biscuits and Be Bop USA Pet Products, which make it their mission to serve the furry, many vendors also have a stash of dog treats on hand. 

"I get tons of people thanking me every week, though I'll get a couple complaints, too" says Market Manager Jon Berlin.

Lowering his voice, he adds, "From the same two people, every time." 

So bring your dogs, just keep the small ones away from the flesh-eating foliage.

Location: NW 3rd St & NW Miller Ave., Gresham. 

Time: Saturdays, now until the end of October, 8:30 am to 2 pm. 

The crowd: The market's carnival-like atmosphere caters to suburbanite families. 

Senior sellers: Lamon Bee Acres. Try the Armaretto honey. And talk to Vicki. 

Freshman sellers: Olson Fine Designs. 

Trending: Asparagus and carnivorous plants.

Carts on site: "Pop-a-Bak", Baklava; Maria’s Tamales. 

Dog friendly: One purebred away from a dog show. 

Parking: Free street parking is easy to find. For more info, click here.

Food & Drink As is the case with most beer weeks across the nation, Portland's Beer Week buzz doesn’t really hit until 10 days after it starts—if you’re able to keep slugging them back that long. I advocate picking one event per day and drinking vicariously through Tweets through the rest.

Food & Drink

There are two good reasons to swing by the People's Co-op Farmers Market in Southeast Portland. The first is homegrown. The second is Hungarian. 

Reason number one is rhubarb—a little-understood vegetable fruit plant that's in season right now (look for freshly cut stalks to be firm and glossy) filling the stalls at farmers markets across the city. However, it is only at the Co-op where you will find the locally famous rhubarb pies from This n' That Urban Farm. 

The pies are made by the This n' That owner, but in a cross-vendor effort, the rhubarb is from Greenville Farms, just a couple stands down. It's a very happy union of fruits and labor. The pastry is flaky and buttery but light on the sugar, allowing the full, tangy flavor of the rhubarb to come through. 

The second reason to visit the Co-op is an endlessly interesting Hungarian expat named Tibor Szaiko. Tibor came to the United States with a deep-seated dislike of communists, a ruddy face and the name of the tank he drove in the Hungarian army tattooed on his right forearm. These days, he's selling Street Roots. 

The paper's vendors make their own routes, and Tibor has made the Co-op a part of his rounds ever since he moved here from Seattle a year ago. He likes the Co-op because it's small and friendly, and indeed, he has found friends (and regular customers) at the market. In fact, Tibor remarks proudly that if he doesn't stop by every Wednesday, market coordinator Anastasia Petrie will hear about it from his regulars. 

Actually, there are more than two reasons to visit this market, not the least of which is its showcase of small, organic farms. Vendors offer up a more limited assortment of produce than you will find at the larger Portland Farmers Markets, but if you can't find what you're looking for in the courtyard, the Co-op's grocery store is a few steps away. 

And, unlike the commercialized PFMs, if you're looking to grow your own, many Co-op vendors sell potted plant starts. The "teach a man to fish" business model doesn't seem to make much sense for vendors, but it is a perfect demonstration of their staunch commitment to mindful business practices. 

Location: The courtyard at People's Food Co-op, 3029 S.E. 21st Ave. 

Time: Wednesdays, year round. 2-7 pm. 

The crowd: A neighborhood market in the best sense, the Co-op enjoys a steady stream of regulars. Old hippies and young families frequent. 

Senior sellers: Wild Things Farm. Pick up mushrooms, flowers and herbs. 

Freshman sellers: Townshends Kombucha is new this summer. Try the Lemon Ginger Cayenne. 

Trending: Rhubarb and sweet onions. 

Highlight: This n' That rhubarb pies. 

Food carts on site: Sarah's Tomales.

Dog friendly: Yes 

Parking: Free street parking is fairly easy to find. 

Find more information here.

Food & Drink Our weekly reading of the bureaucratic tarot cards that are OLCC liquor license applications:

Stumptown don Duane Sorenson has purchased the former Lauro Kitchen at 3377 SE Division St., where he will open a new restaurant called Ava Gene's. The application offers little else in the way of information—the old license forms used to make you write a bit about your menu, but the newer ones don't—except that it will be open 5-11 pm nightly. We expect that Sorenson and Andy Ricker will eventually purchase the entirety of Southeast Division, secede from the rest of Portland, and call it New Brooklyn.

Stark Naked Pizza has changed owners and will now be called Baby Doll Pizza.

Fujiyama Sushi Bar and Grill is opening at 4124 SE 82nd Ave.

K.A.C. Thai Fusion will take over 710 SW 2nd Ave. from Rivers Edge Cafe and Catering. It will serve "fusion Thai food" for lunch and dinner.

Freddy Sanjines is opening El Torito, a grocery store and bakery, at 7406 N Vancouver Ave.

Petya Kovatchev is opening Bravo Lounge at 8560 SE Division.

Fat-loving food cart Lardo has applied for a full license at its new bricks and mortar eatery, at 1212 SE Hawthorne Blvd., where Johnny B's used to be. 

Cleary's Restaurant & Spirits at 12429 NE Gisan St. is now Wu's Brother. Commence David Wu jokes... now.

Mudai Ethiopian Restaurant and Lounge at 801 NE Broadyway has been sold, and will now be Habesha Ethiopian and Bar.

Art studio and school the Loaded Brush has applied for a limited license so students can once again BYO to class.

Food & Drink

The scene at the farmers market starts long before the crowds show up.

On a sunny Wednesday morning, vendors at the Shemanski Park farmers market are setting up during the hour before opening, deftly arranging their fruits and vegetables into artistic displays and chatting among themselves.

A bit over-excited for my first go at beat reporting, I arrive long before the market opens. It's not a problem, though. At 9:30 am, the market is calm, the sun is warm and the vendors have an extra five minutes to talk about their wares and their family's long history in Oregon. Linger long enough by their baskets and they'll get around to your family history, too.

Food & Drink Suck it, hops.

Food & Drink

Our weekly glimpse into the future of Portland's restaurant and bar scene...

Das Beer, an upcoming online beer store, has applied for a license to offer on-site customer pick-up at 211 SE Madison two days a week.

Bill Hayden has applied for a full license to Pub @ The Yard, a bar at the Lumberyard indoor bike park at 2700 NE 82nd Ave.

Native Tap House has applied for an off-premises license in the space formerly home to Ellington Handbags at NW 1533 NW 24th Ave.

Tabla owner Adam Berger's upcoming meatball and milkshake concept, 24th & Meatballs, which is scheduled to open at developer Kevin Cavenaugh's "food cart incubator," the Ocean, at 2341 NE Sandy Blvd., has applied for a limited license.

The Elysian Ballroom will apparently replace the Crown Ballroom on the fifth floor of 918 SE Yamhill St.

More fresh produce in the Pearl? Yes, please. Local Choice Produce Market, a produce market and deli, has applied for an off-premises license at 830 NW Everett St. According to the application, the business will host "farmer dinners" and live music on first Thursday.

Thai restaurant Siam Society at 2703 NE Alberta will be replaced by a yet-to-be-named establishment from the owners of downtown's Paddy's Bar & Grill. The application says it will be "family friendly."

The Waffle Window is opening a second window at 2624 NE Alberta, for which it has applied for a limited license.

Rodney Dewalt of Dewalt Productions is opening Fontaine Bleau at 237 NE Broadway St. He has applied for a full license.

Daniel Huish has applied to open a bottleshop called N.W.I.P.A. at 6350 SE Foster Rd., in the former location of Guapo Comics and Coffee.

Bleachers Bar & Grill at 575 SW Saltzman Rd. has changed hands and will become Cedar Mill Grill. Will it still be "the local home for 'Parrotheads,' the fun-loving fans of tropical rocker Jimmy Buffett"? Time will tell.

Dilly's Bar & Grill at 2002 SE Division St. has a new owner: Patti Lassell, who is renaming it Seven Corners Bar & Grill. According to the application: "Our family originally purchased this business in 1983 and in 1987 purchased the building. It has been an [indecipherable] gathering place in this historic neighborhood for over 75 years and we are excited!" Seven Corners will offer video lottery, karaoke and dancing.

Boogies Burgers & Brew is going into a former used-car lot at 910 E Burnside St. Sassy’s strip club proprietress Stacy Mayhood owns the biggest stake, although the shop’s liquor-license application says Boogies will be “family friendly.”

Both Hopworks locations have applied for full liquor licenses. A nice stiff whiskey should help drown out all those screaming kiddies.

Milwaukie's Casa de Tamales has also applied for a full liquor license.

Food & Drink

When last we checked in with Andy Ricker's expanding Thai food empire, he had unleashed Pok Pok Wing on New York City's Lower East Side, but was a little unsure when he'd open full-menu restaurant Pok Pok Ny in Red Hook.

Well, it opened. And, judging from this photo gallery at Gothamist, Ricker has given New York not only spicy mushrooms and mussel crepes, but the most adorable back patio in the history of the Big Apple. Seriously, we are shamelessly envying those hanging planters in the shape of gift-wrapped presents.

For those Ricker completists among you, there's also a recent interview with him in Paper magazine, where he says a lot of Portland restaurants "would be up shit's creek if they had to survive here."

Because they don't have hanging planters in the shape of gift-wrapped presents, that's why.

Fix this, Portland.

Food & Drink

Relive delicious memories of Eat Mobile 2012 with this lovely video from our friend Zach Smith.

Food & Drink

Portland breweries usually roll out a couple new beers every month. Some, like Cascade Barrel House, tap several kegs of new stuff every week, more than anyone not behind their bar can track. In the hype-driven craft brew market this makes sense, I guess, as there's no easier way to distinguish your product than to make hundreds of slightly different versions of it.

Logsdon Farmhouse Ales' approach is refreshingly different. The tiny brewery in the countryside near Hood River has only four products out right now. And they're all great. Willamette Week named the fresh hop seizoen Oregon's Beer of the Year for 2011. Brewvana readers said the same about its seizoen bretta. A few weeks back the brewery won the Cheers to Belgian Beers festival.

So when Logsdon roll out a new brew, like the Peche 'n' Brett dropped off at Portland stores on Thursday, it's actually kind of exciting. Having figured this out, it's nearly doubled the price on this one, charging $17.50 a bottle at BeerMongers instead of their standard $10.

I know what it looks like, but, seriously, this isn't at all unreasonable.

First, because it's an expensive product to make. Logsdon used a pound and a half of organic peaches per gallon of this stuff, which was kept in barrels after fall harvest until their once leaky bottling line could get it into glass without spilling too much.

Second, because it's really, really good beer. Like Logsdon's other bretted beers, the peche uses the special yeast that gives lambics and gueuze their distinct tart character. Working on the peaches, the result isn't as tangy as you might expect. This is a balanced beer, with less peachyness than, say, Dogfish Head's peche, but far more nuance. Think Cantillon, not Lindemans. All those additional fermentable sugars from the fruit did, however, pump the alcohol way up, to an imperil-grade 10% ABV, meaning this 750 ml has nearly as much go-go juice as a bottle of wine.

And would anyone think twice about paying $17.50 for a great bottle of Oregon wine?

Well, Archery Summit's 2009 pinot noir is $48.

Logsdon might not have reached Archery Summit yet, but they're climbing fast.

Other beer news from around Oregon...

Speaking of things vineal, the New School tells how Hop & Vine is creating its own private label collection of beer and wine. The Berliner Weisse made with Burnside seems interesting, though why would a cloudy, low-alcohol style like Berliner Weisse need wood? Woodruff syrup, yes. Aging in pinot and gin barrels? Hmmmmm.

Meanwhile, over at OregonLive, John Foyston has the scoop on Gigantic Brewing's opening in Southeast Portland. (Spoiler alert: this Wednesday.)

Oh, and in the interest of balance, since we don't want to be too pro-bretta, here's Beervana explaining how rogue yeast can cause problems for brewers.