Skip to main content- WE HAVE OUR INVALID: Portland Center Stage has announced that David Margulies, the very talented character actor who stole the show in last season’s The Chosen (and played the mayor in Ghostbusters), will play the hypochondriac Argan in its January production of Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid The show opens Jan. 14.
- THIS PORTLAND LIFE: Oregon Public Broadcasting is gettin’ cultural this holiday season with the debut of its hourlong radio show The Speakeasy which sounds a little like a This American Life devoted to Portland music, food, sports, art and “urban exploring.” “We [wanted] to create a show devoted to all the reasons why people live in this corner of the world in the first place,” says Speakeasy producer and journalist Aaron Scott, who created the show with OPB host David Miller. If the pilot, which includes footage of sound artist Ethan Rose animating City Hall, a cyclocross “sonic postcard,” a careening interview with actor Wade McCollum and even a “Secret Portland” love letter to Korean grocer H-Mart from WW’s Kelly Clarke, is well-received, the plan is to continue the show as a weekly OPB offering or “semi-regular special.” The pilot debuted last Saturday and will be rebroadcast at 8 pm this Wednesday night. Visit blogs.opb.org/thespeakeasy to stream or download the full episode.
- SAIGON BEICON: Not ones to pass up on the glories of synergy, 82nd Avenue banh-mi drive-thru Best Baguette now offers its own take on the Korean taco trend kicked off by Koi Fusion—a Vietnamese taco, filled with the same pickled vegetables, cilantro and marinated meat as the shop’s excellent sandwiches.
- FRESH BEANS: Soon downtowners can get a cup of Fresh Pot’s French-pressed or Chemex-brewed Stumptown when the barista-beloved Portland cafe, which already has outposts on North Mississippi and Southeast Hawthorne, takes over the lease for Mike Miller’s Coffee Plant (724 SW Washington St.) in early January. Miller’s other cafe, the Corbett Avenue Coffee Plant, will continue satisfying locals’ caffeine jones and gluten-free baked-good needs for the foreseeable future.
- R.I.P.: WW mourns the passing of Athanasios “Saki” Katsavopoulos, who died unexpectedly at 63 of a massive heart attack on Sunday, Dec. 19. The native of Patras, Greece, owned and ran the former Southwest Stark Street institution and male-stripper palace Three Sisters Tavern along with his wife, Sandra, and his sons Leftheri and Ianni. A former Greek merchant seaman, Saki moved to Portland in 1974. A funeral service is scheduled for 11 am Thursday, Dec. 23, at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Memorial gifts to the Wounded Warrior Project are suggested.
WWeek 2015