From Kezi.com,

Patrol Lieutenant Toby Bottorff reported that the incident occurred after 8 p.m., when three inner tubers were floating downriver from Crystal Lake toward Michael’s Landing. The inner tubes, which were tied together, encountered a snag on the Willamette River about 100 yards upstream from the Marys River.

Authorities said the female victim, who was not wearing a life jacket, went underwater and did not resurface. The other two tubers, one of whom was her husband, survived the incident.

Naomi had a long history in Portland, starting with dinners at her house, Gotham Tavern, Ripe Cooperative, Clarklewis, and Beast. In 2014 she won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest. Naomi was a judge on season 18 of Top Chef Oregon. She wrote Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking. Most recently she was in the process of opening Cornet Custard on SE Division Street in Portland.

According to The Oregonian, her husband, Kyle Linden Webster survived.

My best wishes to her family for this awful news.

I don’t post here anymore, but this shook me so much that I wanted to talk about it here. I will have more personal stories soon.

The post Renowned Portland Chef Naomi Pomeroy Dies appeared first on Portland Food and Drink.

The news this morning via local food writer Michael Zusman’s Facebook, was like a gut punch.

I met Sarah several times over the years, but can’t claim to have had deep insights into her personality. But over the years I’ve heard many good things from people who loved her. However, I can speak to her food. In my opinion, she was one of the finest chefs ever to grace the Portland food scene. When she and her fellow chefs Jasper Shen – now at XLB, and Kat Whitehead of Salt & Straw opened Aviary, it shot to the top of every Portland food critic’s list of best restaurants. When it closed in 2020, those who loved the restaurant were stunned by the loss. I still wax rhapsodically about dishes I’ve had at Aviary. I think the best tribute I can give her is to talk about some of the meals I’ve had at the restaurant, so I’ll quote a small part of my review to give you an idea of the cooking she was capable of.

The food they serve is executed with a rare degree of excellence. It is not merely to be consumed; it’s meant to be thought about, tasted with eyes closed, lingered over, and discussed with a good friend. This is modern dining, and the perfect way to do fusion; each cuisine enhancing the other without getting in the way. Dishes show the juxtaposition between the way Aviary can move between simplicity, and complexity bordering on molecular gastronomy without resorting to gimmickry.

A salad of warm snap peas and barley is a gastronomic puzzle, a clever brain tease on how to eat the dish. A large crunchy barley disk astride a brilliant salad hides the surprises beneath. Tender snap peas and un-hulled cooked barley line the plate with delicate hon shimejis Asian mushrooms and lily bulbs. Marble-sized spheres, one containing orange juice and rose-water, the other yogurt, act as little yolks of flavor. Pop them with a fork to change the texture and taste, mixing as you go. Switch to another dish and back a few minutes later, and you’ll find the flavors have bloomed. I was transported to a rose garden.

The brioche-crusted halibut stands out from anything similar in town. Three light brown and white stuffed spheres of halibut with just enough fat to feel sushi-like, stand alluringly in a vibrant green pool of butter-poached cucumber and dark green shiso. Each is topped with a tiny orange bump of sea urchin and a dot of paste made from umeboshi fruit as an accent. Smooth yet pungent greens with wasabi, toasty sesame oil and a hailstorm of sesame seeds sit to the side. If you take a bite from the edge of the halibut it tastes like fish sticks, but swirl one in the sauce and pop it whole into your mouth and a parade of flavors will be revealed, a synergy of rich fish, soft popping sea urchin, cooling cucumber and the complex umami of umeboshi and shiso.

A plate of seared octopus salad looks like a kitchen mistake… but the salad is a masterpiece, showcasing not only the technique but the art of construct and balance.

I loved Sarah Pliner for her cooking, pushing Portland food in a different direction, and her commitment to a quality far beyond the Portland norm. I was so looking forward to her next restaurant. My condolences to her friends, fellow chefs, and family.

From Michael Zusman,

The post Famed Portland Chef Sarah Pliner Dies appeared first on Portland Food and Drink.

Finalists to be announced March 16

After a two-year holding period due to the pandemic, The James Beard Foundation announced its list of finalists this week. Restaurant and Chef Awards nominees will be revealed on Wednesday, March 16, 2022, in Scottsdale, AZ.

Portland Semifinalists:

Outstanding Restaurateur

• Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom, Langbaan, Hat Yai, Eem, Paadee, and others

Emerging Chef

• Thuy Pham, Mama Đút

Best New Restaurant

• República

Outstanding Hospitality

• Coquine

Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific

• Carlo Lamagna, Magna Kusina
• Vince Nguyen, Berlu
• Thomas Pisha-Duffly, Oma’s Hideaway, Gado Gado, Portland

Salem Nominee

Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific

• Jonathan Jones, Epilogue Kitchen & Cocktails, Salem

Hood River

Outstanding Wine Program

• Hiyu Wine Farm

Congratulations to all the semifinalists! The 2022 Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony will take place in Chicago, on Monday, June 13.

The post James Beard Award Semifinalists for 2022 Announced appeared first on Portland Food and Drink.

The Biden administration hasn’t yet expressed support for replenishing the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) even though dozens of mayors, hundreds of members of Congress, and thousands in the restaurant industry have called for action. That’s why we launched an open letter last week urging the White House to support our industry and make replenishing the RRF a top priority.

Time is running out and we need their support to get this done. So far, more than 5,000 people from the restaurant community have added their names to demand action.

We need to reach 10,000 signatures to make sure that the White House understands just how important this issue is for small businesses across the country. Can you sign our open letter to the White House?

Once you sign the letter, please forward this email to all of your friends and family in the industry. Our voices are strongest together, which is why we need your advocacy. Thank you for supporting independent restaurants and bars!

Thanks,

The IRC Team

Copyright (C) 2022 Independent Restaurant Coalition. All Rights Reserved.

Independent Restaurant Coalition
P.O. Box 82744
Portland, OR 97282
United States

The post Save Restaurants – Send a message to the White House appeared first on Portland Food and Drink.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Feb. 22, 2022

Statewide Release – The Oregon Small Enterprise Fund (SEF) — a fund that is administered through  Oregon Worker Relief  (OWR), will reopen Tuesday, February 22 to provide a one-time relief grant to Oregon businesses who have been excluded from federal relief assistance programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program due to the owners’ immigration status.

The reopening of the SEF was made possible in part by a contribution from the City of Portland to Oregon Worker Relief (OWR). The fund has $1.5 million available in one-time grants to eligible micro, very small and small businesses impacted by COVID-19 or the related health and safety restrictions. Immigrant-owned businesses are vital to the well-being of Oregon’s  economy. Oregon is home to 29,857 immigrant business owners accounted for 11 percent of all self-employed Oregon residents in 2018 and generated $766.4 million in business income.

The one-time grants range between $7,000 to $25,000 per business. To be eligible for this grant, small business owners will have to meet the following requirements:

• Be owned by an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)  holder or similar

• Be a for-profit business operating in Oregon

• Not have received federal funds from the Paycheck Protection Program or have been impaired in applying for benefits from traditional sources

• Be a business that has suffered a negative impact caused by the pandemic or related public health orders, such as a decline in revenue, loss of opportunities, or similar negative impacts

• Still be active and plan to remain open

“The Small Enterprise Fund has been critical to helping immigrant small business owners and their families stay afloat during the pandemic. The additional funding is a step towards a more equitable solution that includes all Oregonian business owners,” said Jenny Pool Radway, Executive Director of Causa.

“The SEF has already helped about 746 Oregon businesses and distributed over $9 million throughout Oregon. With these additional funds, many more migrant-owned Oregon businesses will be able to receive the help they desperately need to continue with their businesses during this pandemic,” stated Andrea Gonzalez, Program Manager Innovation Law Lab.

Call center agents have already begun contacting those who have been on the fund’s waitlist since it first opened back in March 2021. The SEF will begin taking new applications  on Tuesday, Feb.  22. Eligible immigrant-owned small businesses owners will need to call 1-888-274-7292 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday to apply for the fund.

To learn more about the fund or support these efforts, please visit the OWR website. For the latest news on the program, please visit the Alivio Laboral de Oregon Facebook page.

About Oregon Worker Relief:

Oregon Worker Relief is a non-profit organization designed and implemented by directly-impacted communities and more than 100 community based organizations. To date, the organization has efficiently and effectively distributed over $90 million in pandemic relief to immigrant Oregonians excluded from federal safety net programs based on immigration status. OWR’s Small Enterprise Fund provides relief to micro, very small and small businesses in the state, and its Quarantine Fund offers financial support to undocumented workers who must quarantine due to COVID-19.

The post Oregon Small Enterprise Fund Set to Reopen appeared first on Portland Food and Drink.

Rumors started swirling a month ago that Ken Forkish, owner of Ken’s Artisan Bakery and Ken’s Artisan Pizza would be retiring.

In an interview with Portland Food and Drink, Ken said both the pizzeria and bakery have been sold to long-term employees, and he would be fully engaged to consult if he’s needed. When I asked why he was selling, Ken stated, “I’m just getting tired. I’m in my 60’s and it is time for me to retire. This change has been three years in the making and I feel really good about the future of the restaurant and bakery. They are both in very good hands.”

Forkish stepped back from day to day operations of both businesses earlier this year. “I’ve had a dream for many years to move on from city life. I’ve just been shadow managing. It is important to me that I can retire with the right people in place. I love to be able to pop in, have a bite to eat, and take off without worrying about the details. I’m lucky to have great people who can take over and keep them going with the same standards we’ve always had.”

The new owners of Ken’s Artisan Bakery are Theo Taylor who started with Ken in 2002, and Pastry Chef Randy Dorkin who started in 2005. Melissa Joubert, another long-term employee who ran the now-sold Ken’s Checkerboard Pizza in Pine Street Market, will be returning to run the front-of-the-house at the bakery.

Ken says,

“Everything will be pretty much the same. They have no interest in changing recipes. We have worked really hard to establish ways of making these things better every time. For example, the croissants are a little bit flakier than they were a year ago; constant incremental improvements. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been thinking a lot about my legacy. I really want it to continue, and it wouldn’t be the same if I sold to an outside business group. Even the business names won’t change.”

Ken’s Artisan Pizza will also see little change. Peter Kost a partner at Carina Lounge and previously Lucy’s Table has taken over day-to-day operations, with current chef Vince Krone staying on in his current position. He feels the restaurant will continue to thrive. “I’ve been working with a team of mostly new people over the past few years. I feel like the pizzeria is the best it has ever been.”

Although the burgeoning pizza scene has brought a ton of competition lately, Ken’s Artisan Pizza has been considered by many to be the best in the area for years. The bakery is at or near the top of every best bakery list in town.

In 2013, Ken Forkish won a James Beard Foundation Book Award for Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza, followed by a nomination for The Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home in 2017. Ken was a semifinalist for The James Beard Foundation Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013 – finalist, and 2018. In 2017 he was a named a finalist for JBF Outstanding Bakery.

In a recent Facebook post, Ken talked about the 20th anniversary of the bakery –

Exactly 20 years ago to the day, Ken’s Artisan Bakery opened its doors for the very first time. It started with a dream to have my own bakery that would hopefully remind me and others of the great bakeries I loved in Paris. I wanted to make big round boules of country bread, crusty and airy baguettes, brioches, butter & ham sandwiches, croissants that shatter when you bite into them, caneles, palmiers, tarts and macarons. We once made a pastry called Inspirations. I used to direct-import tea from Mariage Freres and buy 25 kilo bags of still wet Brittany sea salt for our bread mixes.

This was in 2001. Ken’s Artisan Bakery has since birthed Ken’s Artisan Pizza, two cookbooks, Trifecta Tavern [RIP 2020] and Checkerboard Pizza [sold 2020].

Many thanks to all the bakers who have worked through the night so we could offer freshly baked bread and pastry each morning. And to all the counter staff who have served hundreds of people daily. The rest of our team–lunch cooks, delivery drivers, and supporting cast of farmers and purveyors–all were necessary and greatly appreciated.

I’m very proud that my bakery has served a very wide demographic range from young to old, and it’s pretty great to serve adults who were once wide-eyed children staring at our pastry case in years gone by.
Many thanks too to all those who have become frequent guests. We’ll miss those who have moved or who have passed. I feel like my bakery has become a necessary part of the neighborhood and the city, and if we can do anything with our lives that has value it begins with trying to make the world around us a better place. I hope we’ve succeeded.
— Ken Forkish

What’s next for Ken? He has another bread cookbook coming out next September. Beyond that, he chose to be vague, although the rumor mill says he’s moving to Hawaii.

I’ll miss Ken Forkish and his restaurants and wish him the best of luck with his retirement dreams.

You can read a full interview we did with Ken in 2006 here.

The post Ken Forkish of Ken’s Artisan Bakery & Ken’s Artisan Pizza Leaving Portland appeared first on Portland Food and Drink.

In Russian, the word “love” is only reserved for people, not places or things, but at Paley’s Place, Kimberly and I endeavored to reimagine what that word means to us.

To us, love includes clinking glasses, shaking cocktails, and phones ringing nonstop. It’s Kimberly blurting out “Let them taste the love!” night after night in the kitchen as cooks cook and servers serve. Each night, love was carried out with every plate and glass. This love affair continued until our last ticket was cooked, and we did it all with love.

On our last night of service, a party of two was the final meal served. As their dessert was plated, we popped champagne, applauded each other, hugged with our masks on, and toasted to new beginnings. We wanted to go out healthy and on a high.

After two weeks of cleaning, we set the dining room one last time as though it were ready for action. Our staff, Kimberly and I stood in silence, admiring our work and feeling accomplished. We took a few deep breaths together and bid our goodbyes, not knowing if our paths would cross again. Kimberly and I looked at each other, held hands, and closed our eyes. As we embraced in the stillness, memories started rushing in.

In that room, we felt the presence of so many who once gathered here to eat, sip and celebrate. The smell of food wafted through. We began to hear familiar voices and the sounds of clanking pots. The occasional “Pick up, please!” rang out from behind the kitchen curtain. When we finally came out of our trance, alas, our place was empty and the dining room was peacefully quiet.

In the end, love was expressed to us by so many of you, our customers, over the years and in the form of hundreds of sweet cards and gifts. Some of you traveled for miles to have one last meal with us. We will deeply miss these connections and, like a very first kiss, we will remember you forever.

Finally, the love affair of Paley’s Place has come full circle. To our kitchen, our staff and our customers, we wish you much love, warmth, happiness and health.

Peace, Love, Foie Gras.

Kimberly and Vitaly Paley

Copyright © 2021 Paley’s Place, All rights reserved.

Such a classy last email, and one of my favorite poems. FD

The post Goodbye From the Paley’s – A Classic Way to End appeared first on Portland Food and Drink.

I got a response to this post from the grandson of the owners –

Thanks for posting this menu from L’Abbe at The Mallory. My grandparents operated this restaurant and several others in Portland from the 1920’s until the early 1970’s. My grandfather was a Chef from Switzerland who trained at the Escoffier Culinary Academy in Paris before emigrating to the US in 1910. His last name was Aebi which he converted to l’Abbe for his restaurants. In addition to The Mallory, they operated a L’Abbe at the Roosevelt Hotel at 9th & SW Salmon. In the 50’s, after their kids moved out of the family home in Milwaukie, they converted it into their most dramatic restaurant, Chalet l’Abbe which they sold in the mid-70’s. The new owners changed the name to The Fernwood Inn which continued restaurant operations until recently when it sold and has now been converted back into a residence.

That’s why I love writing about old places. No matter where they are I often get emails back from families that owned the originals restaurants.

Every so often I’ll come across an old menu in a junk bin, or someone will send me one. I love these little windows in time. These two menu pages from L’Abb’es French Wine Restaurant at The Mallory Hotel (now Hotel Deluxe,) were sent to me by a reader. They are from 1945, at or near the end of World War II. I’ll have a bottle of the 1929 Nuits St. Georges please.

According to their website, “Hotel deLuxe began as the Hotel Mallory, commissioned in 1912 by Rufus Mallory. Even then it was a luxurious retreat: the Crystal Room (now the Screening Room) was a ballroom featuring Grand Piano and orchestra pit. In its previous life, the Green Room was a billiard room furnished with a pool table, crystal decanters of spirits and fine cigars. Across the lobby, ladies could socialize privately in the Lady’s Parlor, which is now the Editing Room.”

Thanks to Scott for sending these to me! You can see other menus from the Mallory here and here.

You kids may find the phone numbers a bit confusing – ATwater 9011, but I remember well when phone numbers started with two letters and then 5 digits, the “2L-5N” system. Our phone number in the late 50’s was FR5-1722, or 375-1722. The two letters designated the nearest telephone exchange.

Of course, back then we had “2-way party lines,” where we shared lines with our neighbors. Before making a call, we’d have to pick up the phone and listen to make sure someone wasn’t already talking on the phone. You could hear their entire conversation as long as you stayed on the line. Of course, if you were talking, you’d never dared say anything you didn’t want all your neighbors to know!

This was before numbers were multiplexed, which means every home on a regular line had a pair of wires that went all the way from the nearest central office to each home. Party lines shared wires which saved phone companies (and subscribers) money. The ring patterns were different for every family, so when it rang you had to listen carefully to see if it was the ring for your house. In some neighborhoods, phones were shared by 10 households! Can you imagine trying to figure out which calls were for you? Some of the kids in our neighborhood would call their own number and hang up, which made every phone on the circuit ring. Not me of course. Nope. Is the statute of limitations up?

And now you know.

Yes, geeky, but at one point in my life when I worked for AT&T, I accumulated a collection of very old phones and equipment as I removed them from old buildings in Los Angeles. I loved them.

The post L’Abb’e at the Mallory Hotel Menu from 1945 appeared first on Portland Food and Drink.

Carlo Lamagna, the chef/owner behind the Filipino restaurant Magna, has been name as “One of the best new chefs of 2021” by Food and Wine Magazine.

From F&W, “There’s the scrappy chef in Portland, Oregon, who is making America fall in love with the robust and complex flavors of Filipino food and building a gathering space for his community.”

The story goes on to talk about his finesse, with everything from the broth used in his sinigang, funky bagoong alamang, and a dish which “arrives at the table in a small boat carved out of raw green mango and is covered with a shower of edible flower petals.”

There are heavy pours of Oregon wines, and Janet Jackson plays over the sound system. Lamagna feeds you with the joy and giddiness of an auntie who hasn’t seen you in decades, passing you generous portions of pancit miki-bihon, bulked up with a combination of rice noodles and housemade egg noodles, and meaty, crispy lumpia packed with pork and mushrooms and fried. You’ll eventually swear you have zero stomach real estate left for even one more bite, when out comes a mound of biko, coconut sticky rice, cuddled in a banana leaf blanket and topped with condensed coconut milk and an orb of ube ice cream gently melting like a purple snowman caught in the sun. Suddenly, miraculously, your stomach will manage to find an empty quadrant.

I’m glad to see Carlo getting so much attention. He seems like a good person who cares about the people around him, and I love how hard he has worked to open Portlander’s eyes to Filipino food. Not familiar with the cuisine? Get out and experiment with some of the great options now available in Portland.

The whole section on Lamagna is a great read. You’ll find it here.

The post Carlo Lamagna Named to Food & Wine Best New Chefs 2021 appeared first on Portland Food and Drink.

The Times article does not rank the restaurants, instead, saying “they reflect the rich mosaic of American dining… Some are classics, still great after decades. Others are in their prime, restaurants at their practiced peaks. And still others are newcomers…” I couldn’t agree more with their Portland choices.

Of Couquine, The Times said,

Today Ms. Millard, who has cooked at the Michelin-starred Chèvre d’Or in Provence and Coi in San Francisco, still makes food that feels perfectly of itself: vigilantly seasonal and informed by French techniques, with an eclectic array of culinary accents. Coquine is often called a neighborhood restaurant, but all neighborhoods should be so lucky.

And of Earl Ninsom’s Eem,

If it had never occurred to anyone to combine the heady flavors of Thai curry and the burned ends of Texas brisket (and their drippings), be very happy that it has now occurred to Earl Ninsom and Matt Vicedomini. The duo, who own Eem with the cocktail virtuoso Eric Nelson, were already renowned individually. Mr. Ninsom’s restaurants Langbaan, Padee and Hat Yai have been central to Portland’s robust Thai-food scene for years. And the prowess of the pit at Mr. Vicedomini’s Matt’s BBQ food truck has been lauded even in Texas. Their flavors together are a revelation.

Archipelago, Paju,  and Communion in Seattle also made the list. Congratulations to Eem and Coquine! You can read the entire list here.

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