Scoop: Pok Pok Empire and FU MFNW

1. POK POK, N.Y.: It looks like Andy Ricker’s vagabond shoes are longing to stray. New York magazine’s Food blog Grub Street reports this week that the Pok Pok chef is “aggressively” scouting spaces in New York City (his preference is Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, also home to Stumptown’s East Coast roastery) for the next outpost of his celebrated Thai eatery. The article—which also talks to Matt Piacentini, co-owner of Clyde Common and New York restaurant the Beagle, and recent PDX-to-NYC transplant Matt Lightner, formerly of Castagna—quotes Ricker as saying cooking in Portland “is not that challenging.”

1. FUTURE DRINKING: A pair of women from Sherwood are opening Vine Gogh, an “artists bar and studio” in (of course) Sellwood, which will offer painting lessons and studio space along with beer and wine. >> Kenny & Zuke’s co-founder (and occasional WW contributor) Nick Zukin may have finally found a location for his long-planned taqueria. He has applied for a full license for the space at Southeast 50th Avenue and Division Street recently vacated by Hawthorne-bound Blue Pig Cafe, under the name Mi Mero Mole. >> Asia Delight Import & Export’Inc, a Sri Lankan food importer in West Slope, has applied for a beer-and-wine license. Intriguing! >> Josun Korean Grill has applied for a license for a strip-mall space at Southeast 82nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard. >> Downtown’s tony Arlington Club, where Portland’s wealthy puppet masters have plotted the fates of us plebs since 1867, has applied for a brewpub license.

1. FU, MFNW: You can’t make a MusicfestNW-sized omelet without breaking a few eggs. So in addition to WW’s own music festival, this weekend Portland will play host to a loosely organized “Free Fest Northwest” (the Mount Tabor Theater, Kenton Club and Ash Street Saloon are each hosting shows Sept. 7-11); F*Musicfest on Sept. 11 at the Ella Street Lounge with the Ax and Holy Children (MFNW will technically be over before their show, so more power to them) and, of course, ChicharonifestNW, starring the Chicharones. Speaking of the Chicharones, the newly expanded local hip-hop big band recently inked a deal with Los Angeles’ Cashmere Management (ain’t no thing, just the marketing group that’s responsible for making Snoop Dogg and Lady Gaga look good). The Chicharones are hoping to release their next disc—probably titled Swine Flew or Por Que, from what we hear—in late October. Brace yourselves.

1. NO MO’ LOMO: Another iconic downtown food cart looks to be throwing in the dish towel: Choza’s Peruvian is for sale for $8,000 on Craigslist. Also for sale is the former mobile military kitchen that has previously housed Spud Locker, Joslyn’s Ciao Chow and a Thai cart for about two weeks, and is now called Healthy Corner. Man, that place just can’t catch a break.

WWeek 2015