Dave Knows Portland

New York Times Explores Portland Happy Hours

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New York Times For some reason, the New York Times is writing about happy hour food specials in Portland: Bar + Food | Portland’s Happiest Hours.

Are food specials at happy hour a special phenomena? I wouldn’t think so, but according the T Magazine article other towns — notably Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Charleston, S.C. — also serve cheap eats in the late afternoon, Portland has been doing it since the last recession. Huh.

Accanto, Clark Lewis, Wildwood, Olympic Provisions, and Nostrana are the formidable Portland restaurants that garner accolades for their fine happy hour food specials in the article.

If they were to have asked me, I would also have suggested:

Lincoln – for their $4 crispy fritter of the day, $5 greens and shaved fennel with almonds, and of course the $7 poutine, featuring fries, lamb gravy and cheese curds!

Papa Haydn (east) – $5 pork rillette, country pate, and their delicious poutine with hand-cut kennebeck fries, pulled chicken, thyme gravy and cheese curds!

(Don’t worry, the New York Times will come round to appreciating poutine eventually . . .)

The Globe and Mail gives a shout out to Portland Poutine

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The Globe and MailIn the The Globe and Mail, Saturday, May 22nd 2010 edition, John Allemang writes about the world wide reach of Canada’s favorite late night snack in: Poutine: Quebec’s accidental delicacy becomes global haute cuisine

It’s official: Poutine is a global player.

The world poutine-eating championships being held Saturday in Toronto – as a high-cal appetizer to a Toronto FC soccer game – are as good a sign as any that Quebec’s down-home artery clogger has finally arrived on the international stage.

Chicago, San Francisco, and of course New York; you can find poutine in more and more places throughout the world. And Portlanders may have more poutine choices than any other city not in Canada. I spoke to Mr. Allemang about my, and Portland’s, poutine obsession for the article.

In Portland, Ore., there are at least a dozen locales that play to poutine cravings, including the Potato Champion, which boasts of being the city’s only late-night French-fries cart and tempts homebound drinkers with vegetarian and even vegan poutine, as well as the standard version made with free-range chicken stock and artisanal curds.

How does an Oregon city come to be a force in the dish’s globalization? “There’s a big foodie culture here,” says software engineer David Strom, author of the Portland Poutine website. “There’s also an irony addiction in Portland. In the end, poutine’s the perfect junk food. … You’ve got gravy, you’ve got French fries, you’ve got cheese – what’s not to like?”

Mr. Strom traces his passion for poutine to a visit he made to Montreal in 2005: The motto of his website is “We have much to learn from Canada.” Montreal’s reputation as a lively tourist destination is in large part responsible for poutine’s rise in the food world.

Read the rest of the article for more on poutine’s march around the world.

This story was cross-posted on PortlandPoutine.com.

Dave Goes: Seattle

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Seattle PoutineWe were on a couple missions. Heather needed to try on a dress for her sister’s wedding, and I needed to try on some Seattle poutine.

Missions accomplished.

I’ve only been up to Seattle three times in my entire life. On this trip I saw more of Seattle (and environs) than I had seen cumulatively in all previous trips. This was possible due to our gracious tour guides, Brent and Lesley. Brent is a Portlander, but is living in Seattle for the time being for work. Lesley is his fiance, and though she too lives in Portland, she visits Brent, and Seattle, often. Places they showed us on this trip include Fremont Brewing, Snoqualmie Falls, and Vashon Island.

Our poutine craving was sated at The Traveler Pub. (Read the account of our visit at Portland Poutine.

Read about our Weekend in Seattle at Mile73.

Savor Portland Debuts on PDX.FM

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Savor PortlandSavor Portland, a weekly show dedicated to a Portland-centric exploration of every facet of growing, manufacturing, creating, marketing, and exploring the things we consume day in and day out, debuts today (Tuesday, February 2nd) on PDX.FM at 4pm.

Every time you taste something new, we want you to Savor Portland.

So yeah, seems like there’s a new show on PDX.FM every few days lately, and I don’t blog about each one. But the host of Savor Portland, Devlyn Swenson, is a friend of the blog. And, most importantly, Heather and I are the guests on her debut show!

With Devlyn, we will be exploring every facet of growing, manufacturing, creating, marketing, and exploring the things we consume day in and day out, but mostly we will talk about poutine, and PortlandPoutine.com. Tune in at 4pm to hear us ramble on (or is it prattle?) about raisins, cheesecake, anchovies, and of course french fries, cheese curds, and gravy poutine sauce!