Gossip Should Have No Friends

[May 30th, 2007]

RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT: Enough lugging garbage bags o' clothes to the downtown Red Light Clothing Exchange at Southwest 11th Avenue and Stark Street only to drive around aimlessly searching for parking. The hip, vintage buy-sell-trade chain is making a (teensy) move . Come July, you'll have the luxury of free parking, among other things, at their new digs in the old Car Toys space (333 SW 10th Ave.) directly across West Burnside Street from Powell's City of Books. And the alternative-clad peeps buying your slashed Levis also plan to do you even one better: Employees will offer curbside service . You can wait in your ride while they take your bags and make a quick buy, presenting you with a slim or fat check (depending on your goods). It's like a vintage-clothing drive-thru! Will the adjacent competition, Buffalo Exchange, start putting its buyers on roller skates?

EAT BY TRAM: It won't be the first restaurant in South Waterfront (local tarragon-chicken stalwarts the Daily Cafe opened in 2006), but Le Hana will be SoWa's debut upscale dining establishment and will open its doors in the upstart Portland 'hood sometime mid-summer, according to reps at the Discovery Center sales office. The 3,000-square-foot eatery will feature a fusion of Japanese and French cuisine for lunch and dinner and will anchor a sweet corner of the neighborhood's original high-rise, the Meriwether , which was completed in 2006. The Urbana Market , a specialty grocer, is also up and running in South Waterfront, as the former brownfield site is beginning to act like a real neighborhood—albeit the one with jawdropping views and über-spendy condos. Wanna get a sneak preview? The locally owned Le Hana (lehana.com) already has a location serving $37 Kobe beef tenderloin in Hillsboro's mega Tanasbourne development.

MONEYLESS MONTAGUES: CoToP Theater, the young production company that recently underwent a weekend of Ultimate Fighting training with Gresham's Team Quest, has canceled its planned ass-kicking production of Romeo & Juliet due to lack of funds. Never fear, though—Tybalt and Mercutio will be back for another round next spring. >> On a happier note, playwright Adam Bock just won an OBIE for The Thugs, a nightmarish office comedy that was workshopped at 2005's Just Add Water/West festival. >> As if that weren't enough, Imago Theatre is holding auditions June 13 and 20 for The Sound of Music. Yes, you read that correctly. We don't have any details just yet, but we're betting the creators of Frogz will throw in some playful, bumbling Nazi youth.

CLARIFICATION: Last week in WW's Drink Guide we printed a bar name as SoLo Bar Experience. Its actual name is just SoLo. But never fear, it's still a bar, and we're sure there are experiences of some sort to be had therein.