Gossip Should Have No Friends

[December 31st, 2008]

SERVED COLD: You thought you had snow problems? Ten 01 was closed for six days after a pipe connected to the Pearl District restaurant’s heating system froze and burst in the first week of icy weather, pouring thousands of gallons of water onto the kitchen just before the lunch rush Tuesday, Dec. 16. Chef Jack Yoss spent his downtime rehabbing the menu—“We got bored with a week off,” Yoss explained—adding 16 new dishes. >> One restaurant didn’t make it through Snowpocalypse 2008 intact: Kinta, a Belmont-area Malaysian eatery, closed its doors Saturday.

POTATO PARTY: Potato Champion, Portland’s only late-night fry cart, is hosting a free outdoor New Year’s Eve dance party to ring in the new year. You can pound cheese curds ’n’ gravy in the parking lot (at Southeast 12th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard) while shaking your ass to old-school rap, nu-school tropical beats and experimental dance music. Behind the turntables will be Jesse Munro Johnson of Evolutionary Jass Band, Sonic Lozenge curator Michael Bruce, and Dr. Peepers. The music starts at 11 pm and continues until there are no more fries. But if the dudes from the adjacent hot wings and taco carts aren’t engaged in shirtless ass-slapping by 1 am (see page 17), we’ll consider this thing a total failure.

PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN GLASS HOUSES SHOULD NOT THROW BONGS: With its dog- and cat-supply store (All For Paws), a sustainable-furniture store and new 1,000-square-foot condos selling for $314,983, the block of Northwest 23rd Avenue closest to WW’s office, between Quimby and Pettygrove streets, is a little piece of petite bourgeoisie heaven. So it’s with delight we welcome our newest neighbor, in the ground-level retail space below those expensive condos: the newest outpost of Mary Jane’s House of Glass. With neon signs in the windows and rows and rows of pipes, the Vancouver, Wash.-based head shop chain is to Trendy-Third what your crazy uncle is to the rest of your family : The guy whose mere presence at the table for Christmas dinner strips the rest of you of all your pretentions. Welcome, Mary Jane!

HOME, SUGAR-FREE HOME: When Portlander David Vanadia visited family in New Jersey for the holidays, he had a hell of a time avoiding sweets. And that’s a big deal, since the “inspirational blogger” is a former sugar addict and author of Stop Being Sweet, a just-released e-book that helps people avoid sugar. According to Vanadia’s blog, reasons for quitting the sweet stuff include putting an end to “sweaty butt” and “evil and irregular poops.” “ I grew up eating a lot of sugar. I poured spoonfuls of sugar onto Cheerios and then ate all of the milky sugar at the bottom of the bowl,” admits Vanadia, who also hosts PDX’s DIY Stories series. “After I started the blog, I realized I could have a life without sugar.” Stop Being Sweet is available for $8.88 at vanadia.com/stopbeingsweet.